**Children, Youth & Families
Connect for Kids Announces 'Speak Out'
Youth Essay Winners
More than 70 young people from 22 states
participated in the first-ever Connect for Kids Youth Essay Contest. "Speak
Out! Let Your Voice Be Heard" allows teens to share their ideas on what
policy makers need to know about youth with Connect for Kids' national audience.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050802.135315&time=15%2015%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
'I'm a Kid Too' Project Completes First
Phase
I'm a Kid Too is a project that allows "medically
fragile" young people to use photography as a creative outlet to express
their stories. Developed by a professor in the University
of Kentucky, College of Social Work
and a nearby arts council, the project engages adoptive children with severe
medical diagnoses to use the photo-documentation as a healing and self expressive
tool.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/uok-ak080205.php
Children Born with Extremely Low-Birth-Weight
have Considerable Health and Educational Needs
Children born in the 1990s weighing less
than 2.2 lbs. are at significantly increased risk of experiencing chronic
health conditions and functional and educational limitations compared to normal-birth-weight
children, according to a study in the July 20 issue of JAMA.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/jaaj-cbw071405.php
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Childhood Immunization
Rates Surpass Healthy People 2010 Goal
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) announced that the nation’s childhood immunization coverage rates continue
at record high levels, with about 81 percent of the nation’s 19-to-35-month-old
children receiving all the vaccinations in the recommended series. This is
the first time coverage for the base line series of vaccines (4:3:1:3:3 series)
has exceeded 80 percent which also represents the Healthy People 2010 goal.
Healthy People establishes goals to improve the nation’s health - increasing
immunization coverage is one of its goals.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r050726.htm
Improving Maternal and Child Health Care
The illness and death rates of mothers and
their young children in Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania, can be reduced with
more coordinated care and increased family involvement, according to a RAND
Corporation study issued today.
http://www.rand.org/news/press.05/08.03.html
**Community Development
HUD's Neighborhood Networks
Week 2005 Highlight Technology Access, Economic Opportunity Initiatives
The Department of Health and Urban Development’s
Fifth Annual Neighborhood Networks Week highlight local and national efforts
to deliver technology access and promote economic and educational opportunity
for residents living in HUD insured and assisted housing. Many of HUD's more
than 1,100 Neighborhood Networks centers held special events throughout the
United States,
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands. The events showcase how Neighborhood Networks centers are delivering
technology access to America's communities.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr05-102.cfm
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Get more information on these issues at http://www.ecommunityissues.com.
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**Economic Security
What Does the Safety Net Accomplish
This series of reports from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
examines the research on the impacts and accomplishments of government programs
that assist low-income families and individuals. Each report includes state-by-state
data on the number of the people assisted by the program. Additional reports
in this series will be forthcoming.
http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/accomplishments.htm
Satisfaction and Engagement in Retirement
A brief from The Urban Institute analyzes patterns of engagement
among retirees and how engagement relates to their retirement satisfaction
using data from the 2002 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Engaged retirees
are significantly more likely to be satisfied with retirement than their non-engaged
counterparts, regardless of age, sex, race, marital status, education, mental
and physical health, or income. However, retirees who only provide caregiving
are significantly less likely to be satisfied. Finally, the authors examine
retirement satisfaction by the intensity of engagement, finding that the retirement
satisfaction is positively correlated with increasing engagement hours, but
only to a point.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9338
Turning Welfare into a Work Support
A report from MDRC finds that while positive effects on most
parents' earnings and income faded after six years, young children in some
of the most disadvantaged families were still performing better in school
than their counterparts in a control group. And, for the most disadvantaged
parents, MFIP seems to have created a lasting "leg up" in the labor
market.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/411/overview.html
Public Benefits: Easing Poverty and Ensuring
Medical Coverage
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
when individuals and families experience crises such as job loss, illness,
disability, or divorce, they may face the prospect of falling into poverty
(or becoming poorer) and losing health insurance coverage. Various government
assistance programs are designed to lessen these hardships. These programs
also provide support when families work but have low earnings and when people
reach retirement age. An examination of Census data shows that as a whole,
the U.S. public benefits system, sometimes referred to as the
“safety net,” has a number of effects on poverty and health insurance status.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-19-05acc.htm
Labor Department Offers New Spanish-Language
Compliance Assistance Resources
The U.S. Department of Labor announced the
availability of two Spanish-language compliance assistance resources designed
to help members of the Hispanic community understand and comply with federal
employment laws and regulations. The Department encourages Hispanic outreach
organizations to use these ready-to-publish Spanish-language articles in their
newsletters, member e-mails and other communication channels.
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/opa/OPA20050900.htm
Study Finds Occupational Class Influences
Adult Health, Above Early Life Conditions
A professor of society, human development
and health at the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues, compared
the health status, education levels and adult occupational class among women
who were identical twins and who lived together through adolescence, to demonstrate
that adult socioeconomic conditions affect adult health, above and beyond
genetics and early life conditions.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/hsop-sof072205.php
**Education
Do You Know the Latest Good News About
American Education?
According to the Center on Education Policy,
U.S. public schools have improved in many ways since the
movement to reform education by raising standards first took shape 20 years
ago. This report looks at positive trends in five main categories: school
participation and course-taking, student achievement, school climate and public
support, teachers, and higher education.
PDF: http://www.ctredpol.org/pubs/LatestGoodNews/LatestGoodNewsAug05.pdf
Preschoolers Who Take Responsibility do
Better Later On
A new study published in Journal of Personality
finds that parents who provide their preschoolers with choices and encourage
them to take on responsibilities were helping their children in the long run.
This pattern of parenting called "autonomy supportive" was shown
to lead to high academic and social adjustment in eight-year-olds.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/bpl-pwt080205.php
**Health
Why the Healthcare Crisis Won't Go Away
According to an article in the Christian
Science Monitor the United States
faces a medical emergency. Costs of the nation's healthcare system are growing
so fast they are out of control. Many employers are dumping escalating healthcare
expenses for both employees and their retired workers as fast as they can
manage, fearing a loss of competitiveness. So far, the White House and other
would-be physicians have decided that the answer is more of the same - the
magic of consumer choice in a free market. But some are skeptical that this
will provide a real cure.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0718/p17s01-wmgn.html
Health Care Disparities as a Civil Rights
Issue
According to a report from the Commonwealth
Fund, current efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health
care treatment fail to address the effect of segregation. According to the
author, policymakers should learn from the recent past and make the reduction
of health care segregation a measurable goal.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=289279
Tackling Health Care Disparities Through
'Systems Reform'
A new report from the Commonwealth Fund calls
for a "systems reform" approach to reducing health care disparities
that includes the collection and reporting of provider performance data by
race and ethnicity.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=289303
Commonwealth Fund Chartbooks and Chartpacks
Whether analyzing Medicare, minority health,
or the quality of children's health care, Commonwealth Fund chartbooks sift
through the most relevant and reliable research available to provide a comprehensive
picture of a given issue through charts and incisive analysis from leaders
in the field.
http://www.cmwf.org/General/General_show.htm?doc_id=273355
New Research Sheds Light On Risks from
Increasing Medicaid Cost-Sharing And Reducing Medicaid Benefits
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Congress and the newly appointed HHS Medicaid Commission are considering changes
to reduce federal Medicaid expenditures. Recent recommendations from
the National Governors Association would eliminate most federal standards
with regard to the amounts that low-income Medicaid beneficiaries may be charged
for health care coverage and services and significantly scale back federal
standards governing the health benefits that Medicaid provides. Two
research papers published in the July/August issue of the journal Health Affairs
shed important new light on the potential effects of such policy changes.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-18-05health.htm
Medicare and Its Future: Assessing Health
Care Experts' Views
Medicare, enacted 40 years ago in July, has
been a success in ensuring that elderly and disabled Americans have access
to medical care, say the overwhelming majority of respondents to the latest
Commonwealth Fund Health Care Opinion Leaders survey, an online survey of
widely recognized U.S. experts in health care practice and policy.
http://www.cmwf.org/surveys/surveys_show.htm?doc_id=286003
Medicaid: Improving Health, Saving Lives
A paper from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
provides a brief review of research on the effects of the Medicaid program,
which turns 40 in July and its smaller counterpart, the State Children’s Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP). Extensive evidence demonstrates that Medicaid
and SCHIP have greatly reduced the number of people without health insurance,
substantially facilitated access to medical care and long-term care, and improved
health for large numbers of low-income people. Medicaid also has helped
support health care providers, particularly those in low-income and medically
underserved areas, and reduced the amount of uncompensated care.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-19-05health.htm
Assessing the National Governors Association's
Proposals To Allow Increases In Cost-Sharing Charges To Medicaid Beneficiaries
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
on June 15, the National Governors Association released preliminary policy
recommendations on Medicaid reform. Among other things, the NGA recommended
a substantial restructuring of current federal cost-sharing rules for Medicaid.
NGA’s proposed cost-sharing policy would let states establish any form of
premium, deductible or co-pay in Medicaid for all populations and all services.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-7-05health.htm
Families USA
Urges National Governors Association to Keep Proposals Out of the Current
Congressional Budget Process
With the National Governors Association (NGA)
meeting to vote on a series of recommendations for changing the Medicaid program.
The following is the statement from the Executive Director of Families USA,
about the NGA proposal: "We urge the National Governors Association to
refrain from promoting their far-reaching, structural proposals about the
Medicaid program in the context of the congressional budget process. Earlier
this year, the NGA agreed with this position and it issued a letter stating
that good policy analysis should precede budget changes, not vice versa…”
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Media_statement_NGA_Medicaid
**Hunger and Nutrition
Food Stamp Participation in May 2005 More
than 1.5 Million Above May 2004 Level
The Food Research and Action Center reports
that food stamp participation rose by 43,988 people in May 2005 to 25,408,930,
for an over-the-year increase of nearly 1.5 million people. The slight monthly
caseload increase is the second in first five months of 2005. Food Stamp Program
growth over the year reflects continuing joblessness, state actions to improve
access, and the effects of the food stamp reauthorization implementation.
http://www.frac.org/html/news/fsp/05.05_FSP.html
