New Tool to Shed Light
On, Improve Teen Mental Health Services
A new tool developed by
Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development
researchers will provide ongoing feedback to service providers, with a goal
of enabling mid-course treatment corrections. The tool is called the Peabody
Treatment Progress Battery, or PTPB. There are laboratory studies that show
treatments are very effective with youth who have mental health concerns,
but when we look in the real treatment world we are hard pressed to identify
services that are effective.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/new-tool-to-she.php
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Births to Cohabiting
Couples at All-Time High
This Research Brief from
Child
Trends examines the rise in non-marital childbearing and the number of
births to cohabiting couples, as well as the characteristics of women who
have births within cohabiting relationships, compared with women who have
births within marriage or births outside of any union. Of these non-marital
births, more than one-half were to cohabiting women (as opposed to women who
were outside any union), which translates into 19 percent of all births.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/births-to-cohab.php
Changes Needed in Federal
Child Welfare Law to Better Protect Children and Ensure Them Nurturing Families
Organizations representing
public human services directors, public child welfare directors, private child
and family service agencies, unions representing child welfare workers, and
advocates for children, have joined together in partnership to call on the
110th Congress to join them in a renewed commitment to protect the Nation's
children. Supporting the full range of services necessary to prevent child
abuse and neglect; Ensuring that all children who have been abused and neglected,
including those in foster care, have the services and supports they need to
heal; and Guaranteeing the more than half a million children in foster care
the help they need not just to survive, but to thrive and return to their
families, or to live permanently with adoptive families or legal guardians
(often grandparents or other relatives).
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/changes-needed.php
**Civic Engagement
Participation by Physicians
in the Voting Process is Unimpressive
With healthcare issues returning
to the forefront of public attention, physicians might be expected to participate
in elections at a relatively high rate. In the first study of physician voter
turnout, to be presented at the 2007 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
Annual Meeting, evidence suggests that physician participation in the political
process has declined over the past few decades.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/participation-b.php
**Community Development
Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis
Concerns LISC President
The Chief Executive Officer
of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, is worried
about rising defaults in the subprime mortgage market.
The viewpoint, however, is somewhat different: "The danger is that a
lot of communities that have recovered could see another wave of houses being
abandoned and boarded up. Little has been written about the mortgage-market
crisis's potential to unwind the hard-fought battle against urban decay, whose
successes have revitalized so many cities.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/subprime-mortga-1.php#trackbacks
**Economic Security
Help With Prescription
Drug Costs
Social Security and the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are working together to get Medicare
beneficiaries extra help with their prescription drug costs. You can help
someone you care about apply for this extra help. To determine if they could
be eligible, Social Security will need to know their income and the value
of their savings, investments and real estate (other than their home).
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/help-with-presc.php
Report on Capital Access
for Women Offers Policy Recommendations, Best Practices
Model programs that provide
women entrepreneurs access to capital were discussed by a panel of researchers
and practitioners at the annual conference of the Association for Enterprise
Opportunity. The discussion focused on an Urban Institute report identifying
key elements of successful programs, ranging from microenterprise incubators
to venture capital funds.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/report-on-capit.php#trackbacks
The Credit Boom and Bust
in Lower-Income Markets
A new Brookings Institution,
Metropolitan Policy Program study finds that the recent subprime implosion is only the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to Americans borrowing more than they can manage. The study relies
heavily on previously unavailable data, and finds that about one out of every
three lower income borrowers falls behind on bill payments in a typical year,
and over one out of every four now pays more than 40 percent of their income
every year on debt payments.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/the-credit-boom.php#trackbacks
**Education
States Need Assistance
to More Effectively Carry Out Requirements of the No Child Left Behind
Act
Since passage of the No
Child Left Behind Act in 2002, the responsibilities
of state education agencies have significantly increased but most states don't
have the capacity to meet those new demands, which undermines their ability
to successfully implement reform efforts, according to a new report from the
Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/states-need-ass.php
Making Higher Education
Tax Credits More Available To Low- And Moderate-Income Students: How and Why
This analysis from the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities discusses the reforms needed to make the
existing tax credits for higher education more available to low- and moderate-income
students and the importance of making these changes if the credits are to
fulfill their basic purpose of enabling more students to go to college. There
are two existing federal tax credits for higher education expenses: the Hope
Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/making-higher-e.php
**Health
SCHIP Reauthorization:
What's at Stake for the States?
Reauthorization of the State
Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is likely to be the most important
health care issue addressed on Capitol Hill this year. The highly successful
program, which started in 1997, provides health coverage to millions of low-income
children with family incomes that are too high to qualify for Medicaid but
not high enough to purchase other forms of health insurance. In these state
reports, Families USA has estimated how much new funding each state could
receive and the effect this new money could have on the state's economy, measured
in increased business activity, wages, and jobs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/schip-reauthori.php
Comparing Public and
Private Health Insurance for Children
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, the available evidence indicates that
public health coverage is less expensive than private insurance and provides
comparable, and in some cases better, access to health care for children.
Many private plans do not offer dental or vision care, services that are important
for children, and some low-cost private plans do
not even offer basic services like prescription drugs or preventive care.
The average medical expense for a privately-insured child was $1,314 per year.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/comparing-publi.php
Personal Health Records
- Features May Not Match Needs of Underserved Individuals
A new issue brief from Mathematica
Policy Research, Inc., describes the features of 21 software-based Personal
Health Records (PHRs). It also assesses whether
the features match the needs and preferences of underserved individuals, most
of them minorities who face economic, cultural, or linguistic barriers to
health care, and often have low health and computer literacy. In addition,
many said they would pay modest set-up and update fees, but they are reluctant
to pay maintenance fees.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/personal-health.php
New Update of International
Health System Comparisons
The U.S. health care system ranks last compared
with five other nations on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity,
and outcomes, in the third edition of a Commonwealth Fund report analyzing
international health policy surveys. Another new Commonwealth Fund report
comparing health spending data in industrialized nations published today reveals
that despite spending more than twice as much per capita on health care as
other nations the U.S. spends far less on health information
technology---just 43 cents per capita, compared with about $192 per capita
in the U.K.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/new-update-of-i.php
Older Patients with Major
Depression Live Longer with Appropriate Treatment
Older patients with major
depression whose primary care physicians team with depression care managers
are 45% less likely to die within a 5-year time period than older adults with
major depression who receive their care in primary care practices where there
are no depression care managers. This study, conducted by researchers at
the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
appears in the current issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/older-patients.php
Obesity Increases Risk
of Injury on the Job
Having a body mass index
(BMI) in the overweight or obese range increases the risk of traumatic workplace
injury, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health's Center for Injury Research and Policy. Employer-sponsored
weight loss and maintenance programs should be considered as part of a well-rounded
workplace safety plan. It is used to screen for weight categories that may
lead to health problems.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/obesity-increas.php
**Substance Abuse
Drugs Users are Increasingly
More Cautious with Needles
Even though HIV can be well
treated these days, drug users are still more cautious about using needles
than they used to be. That is the conclusion of a
25 years of HIV in the Netherlands. Earlier research had shown that
since the introduction of the effective HAART therapy, in 1996, homosexual
men have more unsafe sex. The study established that drug users did not exhibit
more risky behavior once the perspective of HIV-infected drug users improved.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/drugs-users-are.php
