**Children,
Youth & Families
Less
Than Half of Children Receive Recommended Preventive Care
The
importance of childhood preventive care has long been emphasized at the federal
level, through such programs as the Maternal and Child Health Services Block
Grant, Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment
Program, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. In their study,
"Preventive Care for Children in the United States: Quality and Barriers," researchers focused on 58
large observational studies and interventions that addressed child care on four
counts: frequency of visits, developmental and psychosocial surveillance,
screening for diseases, and anticipatory guidance.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/less_than_half.html
Providing
Health Insurance to Low-Income Children Improves Their Quality of Life
Providing
low-income children with government-sponsored health insurance improves their
quality of life as it expands their access to doctors and other health
services, according to a RAND Corporation study. Studying families in California, researchers found that children
newly enrolled in a public health insurance program reported improvements such
as doing better in school, feeling better physically and getting along better
with their peers.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/providing_healt.html
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Uninsured
Latino Children More Likely not to Get Medical Care
Writing in
the September issue of Pediatrics, one of the country's foremost experts on
multicultural health care issues, sought to identify the risk factors for and
consequences of being uninsured in Latino children. Latinos are the most
uninsured racial/ethnic group of children in the United States, with 22 percent
(approximately 3 million) of Latino children less than 18 years old having no
health insurance coverage in 2005.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/uninsured_latin.html
Improvements
in Teen Sexual Risk Behavior Flatline
Advocates for Youth
reports that the CDC released in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
(MMWR) an analysis of the latest survey on sexual behaviors of high school
students (grades 9 through 12) from 1991 to 2005. The report, "Trends in
HIV-Related Risk Behaviors Among High School Students -- United States,
1991-2005" found that much-touted improvements in adolescent sexual
risk-taking behavior actually took place from 1991 to 1999, and that fewer
additional improvements occurred after 2000.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/improvements_in.html
Depression,
risky sex behavior linked in African-American youth
A new study
from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and Brown Medical School reveals that African American teens with symptoms of
depression are more than four times likely to engage in risky sexual behavior
(i.e. not wear condoms). It concludes that depressive symptoms (feeling
lonely, feeling blue, feelings of worthlessness etc.) can indicate future
sexual risk.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/depression_risk.html
**Civic
Engagement
Hispanics
will Top all U.S. Minority Groups for Purchasing Power by 2007
Hispanic
buying power in the United
States will draw even
with African-American buying power in 2006 -- at just under $800 billion -- and
is projected to exceed it in 2007, according to a report on minority buying
power released Friday by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. Hispanics actually surpassed
blacks as the nation's largest minority group five years ago, based on
population counts.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/hispanics_will_1.html
**Community
Development
A
Year after Hurricane Katrina, Volunteers Still Desperately Needed in Gulf Coast
A year
after Hurricane Katrina, Catholic Charities agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi are in desperate need of volunteers to clean-up or repair
homes destroyed by the hurricane. An estimated 92,000 houses in New Orleans and 200,000 houses in the metro
area were severely damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The rebuilding
effort by Catholic Charities in New Orleans is coordinated through its volunteer program called
Operation Helping Hands, which was established to mobilize volunteers from
across the country to help seniors, the disabled, and those with little or no
flood insurance gut homes devastated from the hurricane so the rebuilding
process can begin.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/a_year_after_hu.html
**Economic
Security - Census Bureau Report
The
Imperative of Developing a New Anti-poverty Agenda
All
Americans want the next generation to succeed. But, according to the National Center for Children in
Poverty, what most Americans do not know is that some 40 percent of
American children are growing up in low-income families with the odds stacked
against them. Analyses of family budgets repeatedly show that it takes at
least twice the federal poverty level for a family to meet its basic needs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/the_imperative.html
Census
Bureau Data for 2005 Show Working Families Fell Behind
According
to the Economic Policy Institute, after falling each year since the economic
recovery began in 2001, the income of the median household grew 1.1% (or $509)
in inflation-adjusted terms in 2005. But the median income of working-age
households--those headed by someone less than 65--actually fell 0.5% last year.
Also troubling is the fact that poverty rates, which have risen consistently
over the recovery, were unchanged, and income inequality also rose in 2005, as
households at the top of the income scale saw greater income growth than
everyone else.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/census_bureau_d.html
New
Census Data Shows 1.3 Million Children Have Fallen into Poverty Since 2000
Since
reaching an historic low in 2000, over the last seven years, the number of
children living in poverty in the United States has grown by 11.3 percent to approach 13 million, even
after a 145,000 child improvement in 2005, according to an analysis by the
Children's Defense Fund (CDF) of U.S. Census Bureau data just released. A
child's likelihood of being poor has increased by almost 9 percent. The Census
Bureau report also showed that, contrary to recent trends, the number and
percent of uninsured children increased in 2005.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/new_census_data.html
2005
Poverty Data Underscore Need for Action
Thirty-seven
million people lived in poverty in the U.S.
in 2005, according to U.S. Census Bureau data just released. According to the
Food Research and Action Center, while the national economy continues to grow,
stagnant wages, rising health and energy costs and an inadequate government
response mean that the economic growth isn't reaching the bottom half of Americans.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/2005_poverty_da.html
New
Data Show Economic Recovery Has Not Benefited Children
The U.S.
Census Bureau released new data showing that in 2005, the child poverty rate in
the U.S. remained at 18%. The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is deeply troubled that
despite economic growth, the overall trend since 2000 has been a dramatic
increase in the number of children living in poverty---there were 1.3 million
more poor children in 2005 compared to 2000. Despite growth in the economy in
recent years, the new Census data reveal that many Americans have not benefited
from the recovery.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/new_data_show_e.html
Resources
on Health Coverage and the Uninsured
The U.S.
Census Bureau released its annual update on health insurance coverage and the
number of uninsured Americans on August 29, 2006. The Kaiser Family
Foundation has released a set of resources on health coverage and the
uninsured. Including, a fact sheet describing the characteristics of the
uninsured population, the difference health insurance makes, and why there is a
large uninsured population. A primer reviewing the basic profile of the
uninsured population, how they receive care, and what the options are for
increasing coverage.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/resources_on_he.html
**Education
Racial
Achievement Gap Narrowed by Sterotype Stress Reducers
An in-class
writing assignment designed to boost students' sense of identity and personal
integrity reduced the achievement gap between African-American and non-minority
students by 40 percent, according to a new study by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher. The results suggest
that targeted psychological interventions on a wider scale could potentially
help narrow the racial achievement gap among U.S. students.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/racial_achievem.html
National
School Testing Urged
Many
states, including Maryland and Virginia, are reporting student proficiency rates so much higher
than what the most respected national measure has found that several
influential education experts are calling for a move toward a national testing
system. The growing talk of national testing and standards comes in the fifth
year of the No Child Left Behind era. That federal law sought to hold public
schools accountable for academic performance but left it up to states to design
their own assessments.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/_national_schoo.html
Programs
help increase number of minority and disadvantaged students admitted to medical
schools
Programs
created to increase the enrollment of minority and disadvantaged students to
medical schools appear to be effective, according to a study in the September 6
issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education. A racially and ethnically
diverse physician workforce is important for increasing access to care for
underserved populations and improving the cultural competence of the workforce,
according to background information in the article.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/programs_help_i.html
**Health
Identifying
Risk for Obesity in Early Childhood
A new
research study of children's growth, published in the September issue of
Pediatrics, can help parents and pediatricians determine the risk that a child
will be overweight at age 12 by examining the child's earlier growth. For
example, the researchers discovered that preschool-age children who were
medically determined to be overweight at one of three points of measurement
before age 5 were more than five times as likely to be overweight at age 12
than those who were below the 85th percentile for body mass index (BMI) during
the same period.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/identifying_ris.html
Autism
Risk Rises With Age Of Father
Children
born to fathers of advancing age are at significantly higher risk of developing
autism compared with children born to younger fathers, according a
comprehensive study from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine that offers
surprising new insight into one of the most feared disorders of the brain.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/_autism_risk_ri.html
New
Orleans' Health Care System
On the
first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, a paper authored by Kaiser
Family Foundation staff examines the impact of the storm on New Orleans, the current state of health care
in the city, and lessons learned about the city's health care delivery
system. Before Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, New Orleans had a largely poor and African
American population with one of the nation's highest uninsurance rates, and
many relied on the Charity Hospital system for care.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/_article_examin.html
State
health department Web sites inaccessible to many, study finds
Considering
the significant amount of data, medical information, and services now offered
online by state-run health departments, many websites are written well above
the comprehension level of the average American and are inaccessible to people
with dis-abilities and non-English speakers, concludes a new report by Brown
University researchers published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and
Underserved.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/state_health_de.html
Mental
Illness Over-Represented in Jails and Prisons
A report
released today by the United States Department of Justice shows that the number
of Americans with mental illnesses incarcerated in the nation's prisons and
jails is disproportionately high. The Campaign for Mental Health Reform,
created to promote access to quality mental health services, sees the
staggering figures in this report as evidence of the need for increased
investment in community-based treatment and services.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/mental_illness_1.html
**Hunger
and Nutrition
Second
graders dig into Healthy Choices, Healthy Me!
Dairy
Council of California announces that a scientifically rigorous evaluation
conducted by WestEd demonstrates that Healthy Choices, Healthy Me! a
second-grade nutrition education program effectively conveys basic nutrition
concepts and improves students' food choices. "Because nutrition
behaviors are learned, it is important to help children start making healthy
choices early and the classroom is an appropriate venue to supplement parents'
efforts," said the CEO of Dairy Council of California.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/second_graders.html
Nonprofit
Law Center Releases Guides to Regulating Junk Food Marketing to Kids
A nonprofit
public health law center released two new guides to help reduce the impact of
unhealthy food and beverage marketing on children across the country. The
Public Health Law Program (PHLP), a project of the nonprofit Public Health
Institute, compiled and evaluated dozens of possible government and school
regulatory measures, a number of which have never been implemented in the United States.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/nonprofit_law_c.html
**Substance
Abuse
Prevention
Programs for Young Rural Teens Can Reduce Methamphetamine Abuse Years Later
New
research supported in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA),
National Institutes of Health, shows that prevention programs conducted in
middle school can reduce methamphetamine abuse among rural adolescents years
later. Because methamphetamine addiction leads to problems with social
interactions and a wide range of medical conditions, research into early
interventions such as this is critical to protecting the Nation's youth.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/09/prevention_prog.html
