Public health reports
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Public health reports · Jan 2007
Trends in mental health and chronic condition visits by children presenting for care at U.S. emergency departments.
The purpose of this study was to compare the burden of mental health disorders to the burden of other chronic care conditions as measured by emergency department (ED) visits by children with respect to prevalence rates, time trends, and hospital admission rates. ⋯ The burden of mental health related visits to U.S. EDs is growing at a faster rate than visits related to chronic conditions. Visit intensity, hospital admission, and medication utilization is just as intense as that for chronic conditions. Promoting provider mental health training and restructuring the ED visit to allow for rapid mental health assessment and immediate onsite or contiguous mental health care may be one way to improve outcomes for families and to position the ED as part of a larger integrated system of effective mental illness care.
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Public health reports · Jan 2007
Vaccination in juvenile correctional facilities: state practices, hepatitis B, and the impact on anticipated sexually transmitted infection vaccines.
Juvenile correctional facilities are an ideal setting to provide preventive vaccines to adolescents who are at risk. In many instances of incarceration, facilities overcome the need for parental consent by making young people wards of the state and the state providing consent. The authors investigated current state practices for administering hepatitis B vaccine to incarcerated adolescents. These may impact the delivery of anticipated sexually transmitted infection (STI) vaccines to incarcerated adolescents. ⋯ Most states offer hepatitis B vaccination to sentenced adolescents in correctional facilities. Just over half of these states also vaccinate detained adolescents. Juvenile correctional facilities have experience administering vaccines, and this might allow for expansion of vaccination services when new STI vaccines become available. Still, there are major barriers to universal vaccination of incarcerated adolescents, including the issue of consent.
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Public health reports · Sep 2006
Reducing the gap between the economic costs of tobacco and funds for tobacco training in schools of public health.
Tobacco use costs approximately dollar 167 billion annually in the U. S., but few tobacco education opportunities are available in schools of public health. Reasons for the discrepancy between the costs of tobacco use and the creation of tobacco training opportunities have not been well explored. ⋯ Six recommendations focus on policy changes within the educational, legislative, and health care systems that influence funds for tobacco training, and four recommendations focus on strategies to mobilize key social groups that can advocate for change in tobacco control education and related policies. In addition, we present a model tobacco control curriculum to equip public health students with the skills needed to advocate for these recommended policy changes. Through concurrent changes in the ecological systems affecting tobacco control training, and through the collaborative action of legislators, the public, the media, and health professionals, tobacco control training can be moved to a higher priority in educational settings.