Medical Marijuana’s on the Ballot
The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office determined that enough valid signatures were turned in to put “The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act” on the November 2 ballot as a voter initiative. Basically, if the Act were to pass and be certified, it would create a system so that “qualifying patients” could apply to dispense, use and assist with the use of [...]
Smoke Free Arizona Annual Report
Our Smoke Free Arizona team published our 3rd annual ADHS Smoke-Free Arizona Annual Report 2010 this week. The report found (just like last year) that compliance the law is excellent, thanks in large part to the common-sense approach that we took when implementing the act since 2007. Over the last year, the county health departments conducted more than 71,000 on-site visits [...]
Behavioral Health Service “Conversions”
As I’ve mentioned in previous updates, the service package for folks with serious mental illnesses that don’t qualify for our state Medicaid program (AHCCCS) is being reduced beginning July 1 because of budget reductions. As a result, it’s more important than ever to make sure that everybody that may qualify has the opportunity top get Medicaid benefits (the more robust [...]
2010 American Fitness Report
Which city do you think is overall more fit and healthy, Phoenix or Pittsburgh. I won’t give you the answer, you’ll have to go to this year’s The ACSM American Fitness Index Report at http://www.americanfitnessindex.org/ to get the answer. They put this report out every year to help city planners, policy makers, health educators, and other professionals understand how the [...]
Community Health Centers
The federal government has committed to significant new funding for community health centers in the coming years. Nationally, about $13B will become available over the next 5 years for community health center expansion ($9.5B); facility improvement ($1.5B) and workforce development ($1.5B). This translates into about 7,000 to 10,000 new community health center sites nationally over the next 5 years. We [...]
“Winnable Public Health Battles” Teen Pregnancy
For regular readers, you know this is the last topic of the CDCs 5 "winnable battles". CDC's new leader, Dr. Thomas Frieden, is focusing the agency's energies on these topics because he believes we can beat them in three years. 5. Teen Pregnancy Preventing teen childbearing could save the United States about $9 Billion per year. Teen mothers face higher [...]