The Arizona Child Fatality Review Program
The death of any child is a tragedy – for the family and for the community. Almost 20 years ago, an idea was created to systematically review all child deaths in order to find ways to prevent similar deaths going forward. In past years this focus has raised the awareness about child drowning or the importance of putting babies to [...]
Multiple Chronic Conditions- an Expensive Public Health Threat
I’ve written several pieces over the last few weeks highlighting our efforts to better integrate primary healthcare into the treatment plans for folks with mental illnesses- but the issue of providing better coordinated care for folks with multiple chronic medical conditions is really far bigger than this integration issue. More than 25% of Americans have multiple chronic conditions like arthritis, asthma, [...]
Forensic Unit Open House
We had a very nice Open House event for the new Arizona State Forensic Units yesterday. The new facility will be a huge help and will be much more conducive to helping our patients on their recovery path. It’ll also really improve the working conditions for our dedicated staff- and will make their mission to help our patients easier. Environment really does influence how [...]
Arizona Vigilant Guard Exercise Update
In less than a month (Nov. 4) thousands of people from a variety of response agencies will be testing their plans and coordinating response efforts for the Vigilant Guard exercise- which will allow us to practice what we would do during a disaster. One of our main tasks will be medical surge management. Medical surge is the influx or surge [...]
Child Care Readiness
Ever since 911, there’s been an increased understanding that a strong disaster emergency and evacuation plan is required for any line of business. Child care is no exception. Over the last few months, our Child Care Licensing shop took the lead to develop and provide information and training to Arizona child care providers in effective short- and long-term emergency and disaster preparation related [...]
Arizona’s Food Safety Network
The Listeria monocytogenes outbreak has captured the public’s attention these days- so I thought I’d do a piece on Arizona’s food safety network. Let’s start at the farm & ranch. The Arizona Department of Agriculture is responsible for ensuring that the base of the food safety pyramid is solid in Arizona. They have several divisions that are responsible for everything from Arizona [...]