Opening Day: Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care
This was a milestone week for our behavioral health program. Tuesday marked the start of our contract with Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care as the regional behavioral health authority in Maricopa County. The transition has gone well this week. Literally 100s of things had to go right in order to have a smooth transition- including Information Technology, eligibility, pharmacy, medical records, [...]
Prom Tools for Parents
In the next few weeks many AZ teens will be attending proms. While proms can have positive memories, the experiences can turn tragic when alcohol is part of the mix. Alcohol impairs judgment… potentially leading to sexual assault, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and deadly car crashes. Car crashes are the leading cause of death among teens… and 1/3 of traffic deaths [...]
Farm Bill Provides Public Health Intervention Options
The passage of the Farm Bill (the Agricultural Act of 2014) includes some changes and reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. In Arizona, SNAP benefits help put healthy food on the table for more than one million people each month, with more than half of the benefits going to children and teens. The new [...]
Ebola
If you’re like me, your introduction to Ebola virus came in the 1990s with the bestseller nonfiction thriller The Hot Zone and loosely-based film Outbreak. The descriptions of a deadly hemorrhagic fever that quickly spread through the population were terrifying, as were the life-threatening dangers posed to the intervening infectious disease personnel. The Guinea Ministry of Health has a total of [...]
Case Dismissed: Jason K v. Humble
Most of you know that we’ve reached a final agreement with the Plaintiffs in the 32 year-old Arnold vs. Sarn lawsuit. We expect to have a dismissal hearing later this year- which will officially end the Arnold lawsuit. We got some other good news on a different behavioral health case last week. Last Friday marked the end to the 22+ year [...]
Severe Dog Bites Up Sharply in AZ
When I heard about what happened to the 4 year old boy that was attacked by a Pit Bull a couple of weeks ago, I asked our public health statistics team to look at our surveillance data and see whether severe dog maulings are really up- or whether it just seems that way. It turns out that they really are [...]