Bullying
Can be Reduced but Many Common Approaches Ineffective
According to an Indiana
University School of Medicine study, bullying can be curbed, but many common
methods of dealing with the problem, such as classroom discussions, role playing
or detention, are ineffective. Whole school interventions involving teachers,
administrators and social workers committed to culture change are the most
effective.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/bullying_can_be.php
Young
Drinkers Turn to Alcohol to Relieve Stress
One of the reasons that
people who start drinking at a young age tend to become problem drinkers when
they get older is that they are more likely to use alcohol for stress relief,
the Washington Post reported Jan. 11. Those who began drinking at age 14
or younger and reported six or more "stressors" in their lives drank
five times more than those who started drinking at age 18 or older, consuming
an average of six drinks per day.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/young_drinkers.php
**Community Development
Rural
America More Prepared for Disaster -- Also More Vulnerable
A new study at the University of Illinois attempts to understand the differences
in how rural and urban citizens across the US respond to disaster. A rural sociologist
U of Illinois interviewed coordinators of Community Emergency Response Teams
(CERT’s) across Illinois to find out what they are
doing, what disasters they are prepared for and what they do between disasters.
The research showed that in rural communities there is a tradition of being
more self-reliant,. But in urban communities they
are faced with a heavier concentration of people and a social vulnerability
-- neighbors don't talk to each other as much.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/rural_america_m.php
**Economic Security
Minimum
Benefits in Social Security
In light of Social Security
reform proposals that include provisions for minimum benefits, this paper
considers the redistributive purpose of Social Security and whether a minimum
benefit may reduce need among aged and disabled people more equitably or efficiently
than current law structures. The Urban Institute finds that minimum benefits
could help reduce poverty among the aged substantially, even in the context
of benefit reductions to improve the program's long-term fiscal deficit.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/minimum_benefit.php
**Education
Education
Department Announces Grants to Reward Effective Teaching and Leadership
U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings announced the award of $42 million for 16 grants that will
reward educators who take on tough jobs and show results in high-need schools.
The grants will be used to provide financial incentives to teachers and principals
who improve student achievement in high-poverty schools and to recruit effective
teachers to those schools, particularly for hard-to-staff subjects like math
and science.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/secretary_spell_22.php
**Health
Pediatric
Quality Advocates Pledge Support to Institute for Healthcare Improvement's
5 Million Lives Campaign
The 5 Million Lives Campaign
will ask hospitals to improve more rapidly than before the care they provide
in order to protect patients from five million incidents of medical harm over
a 24-month period, ending December
9, 2008. This represents
a continuation of the largest improvement effort undertaken in recent history
by the health care industry.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/12/pediatric_quali.php
Non-Minority
Medical Students More Satisfied than Minority Students
Minorities account for 30
percent of the US population, but only eight percent
of the physician workforce, and experience less personal satisfaction during
medical school than non-minority students, finds a Mayo Clinic study published
in the November issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. More than 1,000 students
from three Minnesota medical schools were surveyed and
minority students were found to have a lower sense of personal accomplishment
and quality of life than their non-minority peers. Further study is warranted
to assess how to aid minority students during their education to prevent attrition.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/nonminority_med.php
Physicians
Need to be Advocates for Prisoners' Health
Physicians are an essential
component of correctional institutions and have a responsibility to advocate
for effective and humane treatment for inmates. Citing the steady increase
of incarcerated individuals in the United States that has resulted in record high inmate
numbers; researchers from Brown Medical School point to the inadequate treatment
of mental illness and addiction in the community as a source of the increase
-- especially among women.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/physicians_need.php
Study
Finds Major Variation in Medicare Rx Drug Costs
Soon, Congress may vote
on whether to require the Medicare system to negotiate lower prices for medicines
taken by millions of seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D prescription drug
plans. That change and others might save some seniors a lot of money, suggests
a new study from the University of Michigan Medical
School. It finds tremendous variation in what Medicare enrollees in different
states pay for the same medications, even with the lowest-cost Part D plans.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/study_finds_maj.php
**Hunger and Nutrition
Children's
Packed Lunches: Are they even worse than Turkey Twizzlers?
Packed lunches taken to
school by 7-year olds are even less healthy than school meals used to be before
Jamie Oliver set out to reform them. The Children of the 90s study, based
at the University of Bristol, revealed today that in the year 2000, school
meals were every bit as bad a Jamie Oliver suggested - but that children given
packed lunches instead were even worse off nutritionally.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/childrens_packe.php
**Nonprofit Management
Building
a Common Outcome Framework To Measure Nonprofit Performance
The work described in this
report from the Urban Institute first provides suggested core indicators for
14 categories of nonprofit organizations and then expands the notion of common
core indicators to a much wider variety of programs by suggesting a common
framework of outcome indicators for all nonprofit programs. This can provide
guidance to nonprofits as they figure out what to measure and how to do it
and will work to ease the looming reporting nightmare that will occur unless
a common framework for outcome measurement emerges.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/building_a_comm.php
**Substance Abuse
Alcohol
Policies Really Matter
Disastrous social experiments
in Finland, England and New Zealand are sobering reminders that policies
about price and availability of alcohol really do matter. Join Together reports
on the deadly results of Finland's decision to slash alcohol taxes:
after two years, alcohol related illness and accidents have replaced heart
disease as the leading cause of death among men aged 18 to 65. New Zealand lowered its legal drinking age to
18 a few years ago and watched alcohol-related car crashes and deaths among
teenagers increase sharply, reversing years of steady decline.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/alcohol_policie.php
Researchers
Laud Cost-Effectiveness of Tobacco Quitlines
Tobacco quitlines have a median per-capita cost of just 14 cents (and
85 cents per adult smoker), yet are effective in helping addicted smokers
quit, a new study finds. Researcher Paula Keller of the University of Wisconsin
School of Medicine and Public Health said that, "when compared with the
total economic cost of smoking of $3,931 per year, per smoker, estimated by
the Centers for Disease Control, quitlines are really a bargain."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/researchers_lau.php
States
Still Spending a Fraction of Tobacco Settlement on Prevention
A new report from the Campaign
for Tobacco-Free Kids found that states are spending a combined $595 million
on anti-tobacco programs -- a fraction of the $22 billion they've received
from the settlement and just 37 percent of the spending recommended by the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2007/01/states_still_sp.php
