Community Health

Playful, Active and Healthy Cities: A New Partnership Between Let’s Move and Playful City USA

Marijka Lischak — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:12:51 +0000

Danielle Marshall

Director of Community Engagement, KaBOOM!

“Creating more and better playspaces is something that is very important to us. Research shows that recreation improves a person’s physical and emotional well-being. Quality playspaces make recreation more fun.

Effective Leadership Improves Care of Older Adults

Marijka Lischak — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:00:25 +0000

Amy Berman

Senior Program Officer, The John A. Hartford Foundation

Altarum Institute has released a report that highlights the Practice Change Fellows Program’s successful efforts to develop change leaders who spread innovations that improve the health of older adults.

Patient Safety: We Expect Safety in Food, Toys and Travel. Why Not Medicine?

Marijka Lischak — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Wendy Lynch, Ph.D.

Director, Altarum Center for Consumer Choice in Health Care

Given our public interest in safety, one has to wonder how we have become so complacent about preventable illness and injury in medicine. Amazingly, 32 deaths trigger a nationwide recall on melon, but nearly 100,000 annual deaths from hospital infections (more than AIDS, car accidents and breast cancer combined) do not make news.

Local, State and the Federal Government Must Do More to Prevent Injuries

Marijka Lischak — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:44:08 +0000

Laura Segal

Director of Public Affairs, Trust for America's Health

According to a new report, many states and the federal government do not have policies or laws that we know can protect citizens from injury, the leading cause of death for Americans under 44.

New Federal Transportation Spending Bill Could Jeopardize the Vitality of Our Communities

Marijka Lischak — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:50:13 +0000

Sarah Lifsey

Policy Associate, Altarum Institute

Warm summer days and evenings draw many people outside to enjoy the weather and the extended daylight.

Prescription Drug Abuse and Recovery—It Takes a Village

Jonathan Orr — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:34:55 +0000

Amarie Campbell

Health Policy Associate, Altarum Institute

In reading Dr. Hua Carroll’s January post here in the Health Policy Forum on the "Cultural Differences in the Treatment of Pain," two statements stood out to me:

Where I’d Put the Money: Quality of Life Investments for Frail and Disabled Elders

Jonathan Orr — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:09:24 +0000

Joanne Lynn, M.D., M.A.

Director, Altarum Center for Elder Care and Advanced Illness

Readers of this blog are familiar with—and mostly supportive of—these two claims: (1) that social and environmental factors are stronger than health care services in shaping the population’s health, but (2) those factors are weaker than health care services in securing funding

Where You Live Shouldn’t Determine How Healthy You Are (But it Can)

Jonathan Orr — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:31:11 +0000

Laura Segal

Director of Public Affairs, Trust for America's Health

Your health shouldn’t be determined by where you live, but two new reports show that where you live, learn, work and play have a major impact on how healthy you are and how long you live.

Playing Smart: Getting Started on Joint Use Agreements

Jonathan Orr — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:15:41 +0000

Danielle Marshall

Director of Community Engagement, KaBOOM!

The City of Niagara Falls was “spending a lot of money to maintain marginal courts where people didn’t want them anyway, and we were getting complaints from neighbors who lived nearby.” “We wanted to use all of that money to create one large-scale park with actual pro

Paving the Way for Successful CLASS Implementation

Connie Harich — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Lisa Shugarman, Ph.D.

Director of Policy, The SCAN Foundation

A major challenge of the current system of care for adults with functional limitations is the inability of middle-income individuals to protect themselves against the financial risk of needing and accessing available supports and services to help them remain in their homes and communities. Over 10 million Americans need supports and services today due to disabling conditions, and this figure will likely grow due to population aging. In 2008, the cost of this care totaled $264 billion, comprising public, private, and in-kind expenditures.