Last October a person that was awaiting a civil commitment hearing escaped from our Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center ACPTC, which provides for the civil commitment of people who have a mental disorder that predisposes them to commit sexual acts that pose a danger to the health and safety of others. Fortunately the person that [...]
Cindy from the Delta Society began making visits with her therapy dogs at the Arizona State Hospital a couple of weeks ago. The Delta Society is a volunteer organization that improves people's health and well-being using positive interactions with animals. Their mission is to help people by incorporating therapy, service and companion animals into their [...]
Congratulations to our team at the Arizona State Hospital- which was ranked in the top 20% of all US psychiatric hospitals. The report was put together by the US News and World Report and ranks psychiatric hospitals using objective criteria as well as the hospital’s reputation with clinicians. Overall, ASH ranked number 31 of [...]
One of the behavioral health challenges that we’ve been facing in the valley over the last several years has been the lack of places that are available for urgent psychiatric care. Oftentimes persons in an acute psychiatric crisis end up being treated in an emergency department where they might not have the expertise to provide [...]
The “Schultz” fire started last weekend to the north and east of Flagstaff. It’s grown rapidly and is now over 14,000 acres but is about 40% contained. The actual fire is in a sparsely populated area off of Highway 89. But- the public health threat from wildland fires are from the smoke- not so much [...]
Our preparedness team organized and executed a Functional Exercise on Tuesday last week to test Arizona’s hospital system for Interoperable Communications, Tracking of Bed Availability, Deploying Volunteer Health Professionals, Fatality Management, and Medical Evacuation/Shelter-In-Place capabilities. The exercise focused on hospital, local health, and state health Emergency Operations Center coordination. The exercise scenario was called Sink [...]
Our preparedness team organized and executed a Functional Exercise on Tuesday last week to test Arizona’s hospital system for Interoperable Communications, Tracking of Bed Availability, Deploying Volunteer Health Professionals, Fatality Management, and Medical Evacuation/Shelter-In-Place capabilities. The exercise focused on hospital, local health, and state health Emergency Operations Center coordination. The exercise scenario was called Sink [...]
This week I'm looking at what you are sure to hear a lot about in the coming three years. The CDC, led by Dr. Thomas Frieden, will be strategically addressing 5 "winnable battles" in public health. So far, I told you about Healthcare associated infections, childhood obesity and preventing smoking. We can make a difference [...]
Some of the best infection control experts are laying out the plan on how to fight Healthcare-Associated Infections in the next decade. The International Conference on HAIs just wrapped up in Atlanta – it marked the first time that four leading scientific organizations committed to infection prevention are working together to further a scientific and [...]
Thursday afternoon the Governor signed the budget bills that the Legislature passed that prescribed budgets for the remaining part of FY 2010 and FY 2011. The deal is complicated and contains lots of details. Most of the provisions for our agency pertain to reductions in services that will begin next fiscal year (which starts July 1)- including orders to [...]
