Every day at least 3 women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in the U.S. October is set aside to help bring awareness to the issue - across the country domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women aged 15-44. In Arizona last year, 108 individuals lost their lives to domestic violence; so [...]
I just got back from this year’s (30th annual) United States-Mexico Border Governor’s Conference in Albuquerque- called “Energize Our Borders”. It was an opportunity to further strengthen the ties of friendship, security, and economic prosperity among the 10 states that comprise our United States-Mexico border region. The Conference is made up of 7 worktables including Agriculture and [...]
I've written many times about how important it is that we work with our partners to protect the health and safety of the people of Arizona. It’s our responsibility to take advantage of opportunities to teach and practice what we preach. It’s nice when someone outside acknowledges when someone goes above and beyond which is [...]
Our own Dr. Laura Nelson was recognized for her outstanding leadership and skills as President of National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. Her service was rewarded at the annual conference for State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors where she received the presidents award for her work! While presenting the award, the president called Dr. Nelson, [...]
Our own Madan Gopal from I.T. has been invited by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to participate in a national Roundtable discussion about the role and use of health IT to fill the needs of behavioral health providers, to integrate behavioral health record data into primary care, and on how ”Meaningful Use” could [...]
About a year ago Ben Bobrow, MD (our EMS Medical Director) came into my office with a great idea to set up a program to train 911 dispatchers in better ways to coach callers through CPR instructions so callers can do a better job before the paramedics get there. The problem was money. So I sent him [...]
AZ had the biggest % decrease in teen smoking rates in the country according to the new CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey this week. Smoking rates among AZ teens dropped 12% in the last couple of years- while rates generally stayed flat across the country. That's 11,000 fewer teen tobacco users between 2009 and 2011. About half of the teenagers in AZ [...]
The CDC, along with HBO, The Institutes of Medicine and several private partners created a series of documentaries, called Weight of the Nation which aired last week, but you can still watch them all online. We wrote a feature about our own Matt Gainey- who made tremendous strides to change his health. Matt is just one [...]
Do you think you can help us in “Promoting Health and Wellness for all Arizonans”. That’s the motto here at ADHS and we are looking for a new leader to join our Behavioral Health team. We’re looking for an Assistant Director who is insightful and can see the forest and trees at the same time. [...]
We just received a new grant award from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to participate in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s National Quality Improvement Demonstration Initiative! Arizona was only one of only 5 states with a successful application. This is great for Arizona for a number of reasons. First, it’ll help prepare [...]
