New Certification for Kids Emergency Care
A trip to the emergency room with a sick or injured child is one of a parent’s worst nightmares, but it’s not uncommon. Last year in Arizona there were just over 400,000 emergency department visits by children ages 0–14. Not all hospital emergency rooms are equally equipped to provide care specific to children. Arizona is now one step closer to [...]
Suicide Prevention Award
Last week the Teen Lifeline rolled out its new public service announcement (PSA) featuring Bridget Pettis from the Phoenix Mercury. Teens attending rallies at Desert Ridge and Tempe Marketplace, as well as 1,500 middle school aged youth attending a bullying prevention event with the Mercury at US Airways were able to view the PSA. This PSA was created in part through a [...]
Closin’ the Deal
Just a few hours ago we learned that we closed the deal on the highly competitive portion of a new home visiting grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services. We're one of 9 states that'll be awarded the competitive portion of the grant. We'll receive $9.4M a year for four years for a total of more than $36M to implement a maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting program [...]
Let’s Celebrate Wellness this Week!
Guest blog by: From the Division of Behavioral Health Services Let’s Celebrate Wellness this Week! You are invited to join Arizonans this FRIDAY, September 23 to participate in the Line Dance for Wellness and Recovery which will be held at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza (next to the Capitol Lawn in Phoenix) and at DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid [...]
Working Together for Health & Wellness
We’ve had to make lots of difficult decisions in response to the ongoing funding shortfalls in our behavioral health system (as well as everywhere in state government). Many decisions (while painful in the short term) have been necessary to maintain long term system stability as Arizona continues to emerge from this unprecedented fiscal crisis. While Arizona is gaining ground economically, [...]
Is Marijuana Medicine? Information for Doctors
Next month, the U of A College of Medicine Phoenix is going to host a lecture about marijuana and whether it is medicine. Dr. Sue Sisley, St. Joseph’s Hospital, will be giving the presentation at the Phoenix Theatre on October 11th at 5:30. In an earlier blog, Dr. Laura Nelson, ADHS’s Chief Medical Officer, and I shared what we had [...]







