I had the opportunity to talk about the benefits of HB 2103 last week. It’s a real simple bill with the potential to have a big impact. It would basically allow folks to prepare (not potentially hazardous) food in their own home for commercial purposes as long as they package and label it with the [...]
A few weeks ago I wrote about the portion of the proposed FY 2012 budget that would suspend for 2 years AHCCCS (Medicaid) eligibility for adults without children (called childless adults). As I mentioned in the earlier post, that kind of change would need to be approved by then federal government. Last week, the Secretary [...]
The Arizona Nutrition Network just launched a new campaign targeting Whole Grains. The goal is to educate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants on the importance and benefits of eating plenty of whole grains. Whole grains are great because they give you fiber, B vitamins including folate and they are low in fat, reducing your risk [...]
More than 10% of Arizonans have diabetes. But what’s even more alarming are the recent estimate by the CDC that about 1.5 million Arizonans (25%) have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be considered diabetes. Pre-diabetes significantly raises a person’s risk of Type 2 [...]
The flu vaccine that you and your family got earlier will pay off over the next couple of weeks, it's going gangbusters right now. We monitor several different indicators to determine the level of flu activity in the state and all are on the rise right now including increased school nurse and health care clinic visits for [...]
I often write about the benefits and leverage we can achieve for our public health goals by partnering with external organizations and Stakeholders, but sometimes the collaborative initiatives are with ourself. Our Medical Facility Licensing and Emergency Preparedness teams have been working with our licensed facilities to figure out what they’d need in terms of [...]
Mental Health First Aid is a novel, evidence-based public education program designed to teach non-professional people a five-step process to assess a situation, select and implement appropriate interventions, and help a person in crisis or who may be developing the signs and symptoms of mental illness. The groundbreaking training equips people to provide initial help [...]
We had the second of four public hearings on the draft rules in Tempe on Tuesday afternoon. We got a lot of good input from folks and there were some good suggestions to improve the draft rule. The most valuable comments came from people that offered concrete ideas for ways we can improve the rule's [...]
Maricopa County Department of Public Health (and our Lab) confirmed a case of measles in an Arizona resident this week. Measles is one of the most communicable diseases there is (next to chicken pox). It’s a viral disease of the upper respiratory system that’s spread in the air via droplets. Measles starts with a fever [...]
Last week I wrote about our Behavioral Health Outcomes Dashboard <https://directorsblog.health.azdhs.gov/?p=1117> - which highlights our efforts to shift our performance measures toward actual outcomes. In other words, we want to measure whether the services we provide actually help folks achieve their goals rather than whether someone’s paperwork is right. The same is true for public [...]
