CDC Releases First Ever Disparities Report (posted 1/14)

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently released their first ever report analyzing health disparities on a broad array of health issues.  The publication is the first in a series of periodic reports aimed at increasing awareness about disparities and developing strategies to eliminate disparities.  The report complements the work of the National Plan for Action out of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Minority Health as well as Healthy People 2020.  It also complements the annual National Healthcare Disparities Report and the periodic reports related to Healthy People 2010. 

CDC Health Disparities & Inequalities Report - United States, 2011 provides analysis and reporting of the recent trends and ongoing variations in health disparities and inequalities in selected social and health indicators, both of which are important steps in encouraging actions and facilitating accountability to reduce modifiable disparities by using interventions that are effective and scalable.  The report includes sections on Social Determinants of Health, suicide, and substance abuse.

The New York Times reports:

The agency did not delve into why suffering is so disproportionate, other than to note the obvious: that the poor, the uninsured and the less educated tend to live shorter, sicker lives. (Some illnesses were also broken down by income level, region, age or sex, but the main focus was on racial differences.)  “Some of the figures, like the suicide rate for young American Indians, are just heartbreaking,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the C.D.C. director, who ordered the report compiled.

He acted, he said, after promising at his agency’s African American History Month celebration last February that he would do so.  “We wanted to shine a spotlight on the problem and some potential solutions,” he said.

To read the full article visit the New York Times website.

 

Suicide Prevention Targets At-Risk Groups (posted 1/13)

In late December the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, a public-private partnership launched in September by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tasked with decreasing the number of attempted and completed suicides, added three new task forces to address suicide prevention efforts within American Indians/Alaska Natives, youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and military service members and veterans.  The United Press International reports:

"I am heartened that we are focusing attention on communities hardest hit by suicide," alliance co-chair Gordon Smith said in a statement. "By shining a light on their struggles I am optimistic we can help them identify solutions and bring hope for a better tomorrow."

In the coming months, the Action Alliance will determine how to address suicide risk in other populations in which data indicate high or increasing rates of suicide or suicide attempts -- including Latina youths, older adults, people with disabilities, survivors of suicide attempts and of suicide loss, and working-age men and women.

Read the full UPI article on their website.

New SAMHSA Publications Focus On Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (posted 1/3)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration's National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare has announced the release of two new publications for professionals in child welfare services, substance abuse treatment services, and family court services.

Substance Abuse Specialists in Child Welfare Agencies and Dependency Courts

The purpose of co-locating substance abuse specialists is to ensure that parents are assessed as quickly as possible, to improve parent engagement and retention in treatment, to streamline entry into treatment, and to provide consultation to child welfare and dependency court workers.

Download online.

 

 

 

Drug Testing in Child Welfare: Practice and Policy Considerations

Helps guide child welfare agency policymakers in developing practice and policy protocols regarding the use of drug testing in child welfare and addresses the practice and policy issues that policymakers must consider to effectively use drug testing in the comprehensive assessment and monitoring that child welfare agencies provide.

Download online.

Authors Explore Priorities for Addressing Socio-Economic Determinants of Health (posted 1/3)

"The interventions that were most important to the low-income residents of Washington, D.C. who participated in this study were health insurance, dental care, housing, job training, counseling, healthy behavior incentives, job placement, and neighborhood improvement," write the authors of an article published in the November 2010 issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU). The need to address socioeconomic determinants of health (SEDH) in the United States is well understood. Persistent and at times exacerbated shortages in resources to meet the needs of individuals with low incomes point to the importance of priority setting. With this in mind, the authors conducted a research project to facilitate the prioritization of interventions that address SEDH for an urban low-income population in Washington, DC. The project focused on estimating the costs of various socioeconomic interventions and engaging individuals with low incomes in an exploratory exercise aimed at prioritizing these interventions.

The study took place between January and May 2008. The authors identified nine categories of interventions for study participants to prioritize for inclusion in a package of benefits: education, employment, health care, housing, mobility and transportation, nutrition, community development, health behavior promotion, and direct income subsidization. Residents of Washington, D.C., between the ages of 18 and 65 and with a personal income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold or a household income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold for 2006 were eligible to participate in the study.

The authors found that

• Among traditional health sector benefits, health insurance was an unwavering priority for nearly all study participants (more than 92 percent), and oral health care was nearly as important (82 percent).
• Among socioeconomic interventions, the housing intervention was most important; it was chosen by over 80 percent of participants, followed by employment benefits, with job training and job placement chosen by over 70 percent and 67 percent, respectively.
• Among education benefits, adult education was chosen by over 60 percent of participants and child education by over 55 percent.
• While the benefits mentioned above were selected without much variation across individuals with differing sociodemographic characteristics, other benefits were prioritized more variably, as follows: Latinos were more interested than African Americans in childhood education (72 percent vs. 57 percent) and English-language training (81 percent vs. 17 percent). Participants with financial dependents were more likely than those without dependents to choose job placement (72 percent vs. 57 percent). Food stamps were more commonly a priority for individuals without dependents than for those with dependents (49 percent vs. 33 percent) and for those with annual incomes under $10,000 compared with those with annual incomes over $20,000 (50 percent vs. 31 percent).
• While a large proportion of participants prioritized certain interventions, fewer had received them. For example, 82 percent of participants prioritized housing, while only 35 percent reported receiving public support for housing; 72 percent prioritized job training, while 26 percent had received such support; and 67 percent prioritized job placement, while 25 percent had received such support. There was a better match between the percentage prioritizing and receiving food stamps (54 percent vs. 52 percent).

The authors conclude that "we believe this exploratory study contributes valuable empirical data for developing strategies to prioritize interventions aimed at addressing the social determinants of health, an area that has been widely neglected."  To read the abstrat visit the JHCPU website.

New Online Forum Focuses on Improving Health Care Quality (posted 1/3)

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), working collaboratively with HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), launched a new online forum in early December focused on local efforts to transform health care quality.

Because of the complementary efforts of RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality initiative, ONC’s Beacon Communities and multiple efforts of AHRQ—among others—the transformation toward better, safer, more efficient care has begun. The forum, Transformation Has Begun, provides opportunities to hear from community leaders, especially those not participating in RWJF, ONC and AHRQ programs, about how collaboration might enhance the implementation of health care improvement strategies for everyone.

RWJF seeks comments on how existing programs can best be coordinated, how they can be leveraged to support local efforts and how “lessons learned” can best be shared.

• Contribute your ideas on how to transform health care quality.
• Do you tweet? Follow the conversation and engage in forum-related conversation on Twitter. Use the hashtag #transformHC.

 

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