For the past 18 months our tobacco cessation and behavioral health teams have been working together in a way that is positioning Arizona as a national leader in closing the gap in life expectancy for people with a mental illness! Consider these startling facts which confront Arizonans with a mental illness: Life expectancy is 30 [...]
On January 15, 2011, the Governor released her proposed budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2011. Our part of the budget in the link above is on pages 105 through 111. You kinda need to be a budgeteer to understand some of it, so I’ll try to distill it down a little [...]
Respiratory syncytial virus (or RSV) is another respiratory infection that mainly affects little kids and circulates every year. It occurs in the winter, like flu, but flu and RSV usually don’t peak at the same time. Since our flu season is early this year, it looks like our RSV season may be a little later [...]
Medical Marijuana Public Comments Posted We received more than 1,500 comments on our initial proposed rules to regulate medical marijuana. All the comments (over 1,000 pages) are posted on our http://www.azdhs.gov/prop203/ website for viewing. Our team is very busy reviewing the comments and suggestions looking for good ideas that will help build a more effective program. By [...]
Medical Marijuana will be implemented in April, 2011. The coordination of tasks to ensure smooth and efficient implementation is a huge goal for 2011 and cuts across Bureau lines, involving many distinct portions of not only Public Health Preparedness but the Agency as a whole. Emergency Medical Services Within the Bureau of Emergency Services and [...]
The US Department of Health and Human Services is in line to receive $11 Billion in funding over the next 5 years for the operation, expansion and construction of health centers nationwide. These funds will be made available through a nationwide competitive grant application process. Our Bureau of Health Systems Development is the Arizona designated [...]
The name of the game for Public Health Prevention in 2011 is integration and leverage. Our Public Health Prevention Team will be focusing on the social determinants of health and working to implement policies, systems and environmental changes that make the healthy choices easy. Here are some examples of our public health prevention priorities for the [...]
Public health threats are always present. They include natural disasters; biological, chemical, and radiological incidents; and explosions. The impact of these threats can range from local outbreaks to incidents with national or global ramifications. Last year’s influenza pandemic underscored the importance of communities being prepared for potential threats. Being prepared to prevent, respond to, and [...]
Last week, I outlined goals and priorities for the Licensing Division in the coming year. This week I’ll hit on the Division of Behavioral Health… One of our primary objectives will be to better integrate behavioral health, physical health, and wellness at the "retail" level (i.e. at the point of care). By strengthening integration and [...]
I thought I’d do a piece each week between now and the end of the year that outlines our goals for the coming year. I’ll start with Licensing this week… We’ll continue on our quest to make the most of our time and effort during our surveys. We’re already doing a good job now, but as [...]
