This toolkit highlights state initiatives to help older rural adults age in place by increasing services that help people remain in their homes, expanding and professionalizing the caregiver workforce, improving transportation access and services, and making delivery reforms within Medicaid programs.

See report here: https://nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/State-Strategies-to-Support-Older-Adults-Aging-in-Place-in-Rural-Areas_9_13_2019.pdf

 

The National Center for Health in Public Housing (NCHPH) released a new publication, Increasing Access to Healthy Food and Exercise in Public Housing Communities, that addresses the existing challenges of living in communities with poor access to healthy foods and safe places to exercise. It includes examples of Public Health Housing Primary Care Grantee strategies and programs that have increased access to healthy food, exercise and weight control.

During the week of September 23, 2019, the Wolf Administration released a report, “Governor’s Ready to Start Task Force: A Four-Year Framework to Support Pennsylvania’s Infants and Toddlers,” for how best to care for the state’s youngest residents.

Research shows that a child’s brain develops faster in the first three years than at any later period in life, building the foundation for all future learning, behavior and health. The Wolf Administration is an invaluable partner in helping set Pennsylvania’s youngest children on a path for future success in school and life, and we look forward to continuing to advance our shared goal of expanding access to high-quality programs for infants, toddlers, and their families.

Growing up in a community of concentrated poverty — that is, a neighborhood where 30 percent or more of the population is living in poverty — is one of the greatest risks to child development.

Alarmingly, 1 in 8 children in Pennsylvania live in concentrated poverty according to “Children Living in High Poverty, Low-Opportunity Neighborhoods,” a new KIDS COUNT® data snapshot released from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Other findings from the snapshot show that:

• In Pennsylvania, 42 percent of Black or African American children live in concentrated poverty, which is worse than the national average of 28 percent. The number of Hispanic children living in concentrated poverty in Pennsylvania is 35 percent, also worse than the national average (19 percent).
• Additionally, 36 percent of children under 18 in Pennsylvania live in low-income families. Approximately 44 percent of children under 18 in rural counties and 34 percent of children under 18 in urban counties are low income, according to our State of the Child

Federal, state and local governments must act to revitalize impoverished communities and transform them into areas of opportunity.

The national Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program (Flex) Monitoring Team has released a new policy brief on Critical Access Hospital (CAH) participation in Flex financial and operational improvement activities. The brief aims to identify the patterns of CAH participation in Flex-funded activities from 2015 to 2018 and to investigate whether CAHs at greater risk of financial distress were more likely to participate in financial and operational improvement activities.  The brief may accessed via the link below or on the Flex Monitoring Team website.

The National Association of State Workforce Agencies has published the 2019 State of the Workforce Report  which highlights innovations  to serve the workforce with the latest key labor market information, workforce agency profile and “State Innovations” to further support their local labor force.

Do you know how your county compares to others in Pennsylvania when it comes to child welfare, health insurance coverage, educational opportunities and other important measures of child well-being?

To help you get answers, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children has created county-based “State of the Child” profiles that provide a snapshot of each county’s data, alongside statewide data and information on counties with similar geographic profiles. For each county, you can find:

• Child population and poverty statistics
• Information on how many children are uninsured, and how many benefit from coverage through Medicaid or Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
• Data on how many children benefit from subsidized child care and publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs
• The number of children in foster care or receiving other child welfare services
• Academic performance data for school districts, charter schools and cyber charter schools

Read here for more: https://www.papartnerships.org/report/state-of-the-child-2019/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=69195afe-ea78-44d8-a0c9-49880cec2615

HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) this week released the first report on national Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program AIDS Drug Assistance Program client-level data. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) Annual Client-Level Data Report 2017 (PDF – 659 KB) is the inaugural publication of data submitted through the ADAP Data Report system. The data describe the demographic characteristics of clients accessing ADAP services and the ADAP-funded services used. Data are included for 2014 through 2017, nationally and by state/territory.

This report provides a deeper look at service utilization, demographic, and socioeconomic factors among clients served by RWHAP ADAP. The report also includes client-level data based on age, race/ethnicity, federal poverty level, and health care coverage.

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), in partnership with the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO), released a case study on the rural Kentucky Help End Addiction for Life (HEAL) initiative. This case study provides an in-depth examination of HEAL’s unique features and highlights the voices of local providers and stakeholders. The lessons learned by the HEAL coalition offer strategies for other communities to consider in their own collaborations to reduce opioid use.  The full report can be accessed here.