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Adolescence is a critical period of change. It is a time when teens develop life skills needed to successfully transition from childhood to adulthood that includes physical, intellectual and emotional changes. Adolescents who receive preventive health care are more likely to graduate from high school, and are more prepared to make that successful transition to [...]
Good oral health is important to a child’s social, physical and mental development. Even though tooth decay can be prevented, most children in Arizona still get cavities. To assess the current oral health status of Arizona’s elementary school children, our Bureau of Women’s and Children’s Health, with support from First Things First, coordinated a statewide oral health [...]
Have you ever wondered how Arizona ranks among other states in overall health or specific health issues? For over 25 years, United Health Foundations has been publishing a report looking at four different categories of health determinants: behavioral, community, policy and environment, and clinical care. These reports provide a snap shot of state health. Today, the United Health Foundation released its America's [...]
For the past two years, CyraCom, one of the leading providers of language interpreting services to healthcare, hosted a language services summit here in Phoenix. The three day summit acted as a platform for healthcare systems to share information related to their language access programs, challenges, and needs seen in various communities in the U.S. [...]
Every year our Environmental Toxicology program responds to environmental health concerns and provides communities with epidemiologic and toxicological health assessments. Recently a community member from the town of Superior brought up concerns that contamination from past mining activities could be affecting the health of residents. Superior is a small mining town with a population of [...]
To better understand the health status of Arizona's population, we partnered with the county health departments to conduct Community Health Assessments in 2014. We used the Community Health Assessments to develop a comprehensive State Health Assessment, which became basis for putting together an Arizona Health Improvement Plan (AzHIP). We began developing the AzHIP in late [...]
People with a serious mental illness die more than 25 years earlier than the general population…an unacceptable health disparity in anybody’s book. The increased mortality is largely from treatable medical conditions caused by modifiable risk factors like smoking, obesity, substance abuse, and not accessing primary and acute medical care. We recognized the need to address [...]
The mind and body aren’t separated - and neither should the healthcare delivery system - especially for folks with a serious mental illness. People with a serious mental illness die more than 25 years earlier than the general population…an unacceptable health disparity in anybody’s book. The increased mortality is largely from treatable medical conditions caused [...]
Last week we published our Agency’s most popular annual report. It’s called the 2013 Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Report. Last year’s version got 2,000,000 hits! It gives our most granular public health information of the year including refined health statistics on pregnancies, births, reportable diseases, deaths, inpatient hospitalizations, emergency room visits, marriages, divorces [...]
I was at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Annual Meeting and Policy Summit most of last week. This year’s meeting was entitled Achieving Population Health in Evolving Systems. We shared best practices with each other about different ways states are approaching population health. We heard from the Acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Boris D. [...]
