Arnold v. Sarn Stipulation Agreement
I haven't written much about the Arnold v. Sarn lawsuit because its so complicated and difficult to explain. Basically, it's a lawsuit filed against ADHS in 1981 (adding the Governor as a defendant in 2000) that has held the Department accountable to certain court orders about community-based behavioral health services for adults with serious mental illness in Maricopa County. This week there was [...]
SNAP Reform
I met with the staff of most of the members of Arizona’s congressional delegation Wednesday in Washington DC at an event called Hill Day sponsored by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. I used the opportunity to talk to them about nutritional policy issues like boosting the nutritional strength of the foods that are served under the free and reduced lunch programs- and to urge them [...]
Mental Health & Tobacco
Folks that face challenges with mental & behavioral health tend to smoke at a higher rate than others. That makes this group a high priority for interventions to reduce their smoking rates. Throughout 2010, we’ll be focusing on various intervention strategies for important health topics along these lines- and March is the final month of this year’s first Quarterly Health [...]
Mental Health & Tobacco
Folks that face challenges with mental & behavioral health tend to smoke at a higher rate than others. That makes this group a high priority for interventions to reduce their smoking rates. Throughout 2010, we’ll be focusing on various intervention strategies for important health topics along these lines- and March is the final month of this year’s first Quarterly Health [...]
Healthier US Schools Challenge Program
The federal Healthier US Schools Challenge Program establishes rigorous standards for schools’ food quality, participation in meal programs, physical activity, and nutrition education – key components that make for healthy and active kids – and provides recognition for schools that meet these standards. In the next school year, the USDA’s goal is to double the number of schools that [...]
Child Obesity Research
The latest issue of Health Affairs http://www.healthaffairs.org/ has some important resources and research related to the increasing problem of childhood obesity. Kids are eating more snacks -- salty chips, sweetened sodas, candy bars -- than ever before. Trend data show that children are averaging nearly three snacks per day, with 27% of their daily calories coming from snacks. This greater [...]