Suicide & Depression: A Critical Arizona Winnable Battle
Depression strikes more people than you might think. Some 300,000 people in Arizona live with major depression. It may take years from when symptoms first emerge and to when people finally get help. Less than one-third of adults with a diagnosed mental illness receive treatment. Often, it’s the friends and family of a person living with depression who first recognize [...]
Employment First Initiative
Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council is sponsoring a series of six Employment First Community Forums to develop a comprehensive strategic plan designed to promote employment for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. A broad coalition of self-advocates, family members, service providers, educators, state agencies, advocates and employers are sharing ideas and strategies to raise public awareness, promote an attitudinal shift, [...]
Partnering to Improve a System
Thursday we celebrated our recent statewide success at reducing the time it takes newborn screening blood spot samples to get to our State Laboratory for testing. Over the last 8 months, Arizona has improved our blood spot turn-around time to among the best in the country. Folks from dozens of hospitals came to a celebrate our collective success. We had [...]
Ebola Outbreak in West Africa
As you’ve probably seen in the news, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is still on the march. The outbreak started back in March and is currently the largest Ebola outbreak in history, with the WHO reporting 1,603 cases and 877 deaths as of August 1st. Most of the cases have occurred in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, with a small [...]
Get a Healthy Jump on the School Year
Believe it or not, it’s already back to school time. Whether kids are heading off to school for the first time, or going back for their senior year of high school, it’s important for parents, grandparents and students to do everything they can to insure the school year is safe and healthy. One of the best ways to keep kids [...]
The 5th “Vital Sign” & the Painkiller Epidemic (Part II of V)
Last week (in Part I of this 5-part series) I introduced the idea that contemporary pain management strategies have resulted in an epidemic of painkiller misuse and abuse that’s killing large numbers of people. In fact, misuse and abuse of opiate prescription painkillers takes out more people every year than car crashes. The run-up to the current epidemic appears to have [...]