COVID-19 and Its Impact on Intimate Partner Violence

Posted on by lad3

From the Penn State Center for Health Care and Policy Research

Each year in the United States, nearly 12 million people are the victims of some form of intimate partner violence (IPV) or domestic abuse. Under normal circumstances, IPV is an incredibly difficult public health and socio-judicial issue to address – by nature IPV is “behind closed doors,” and thus, stigma, shame and embarrassment, as well as concerns over safety and privacy, often prohibits individuals experiencing abuse from seeking help . The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to exacerbate this issue by not only increasing the incidence of IPV, but also by adding new challenges and complexities to how services for both victims and their abusers are delivered. In this post, we explore the immediate impact of COVID-19 on IPV rates, the way the pandemic has altered, and in some cases decreased access to, services for victims and perpetrators, and the potential long term implications COVID-19 has on future IPV trends.

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Pennsylvania Family Support Statewide Needs Assessment Released

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In partnership with the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia released the 2020 Pennsylvania Family Support Needs Assessment (FSNA).

This assessment is a requirement for Pennsylvania to continue receipt of federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) funds.  For the last two years, the research conducted a robust assessment that examines a wide range of maternal and child social, environmental and health factors impacting the well-being of children, families and communities across state.

The report can be accessed at:  https://policylab.chop.edu/reports-and-tools/2020-pennsylvania-family-support-needs-assessment.  A partner toolkit also has been developed that includes information on social media distribution and other dissemination tools.  See:  https://policylab.chop.edu/reports-and-tools/partner-toolkit-2020-pennsylvania-family-support-needs-assessment.

New Report Estimates How Many Households May Be At Risk of Eviction Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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COVID-19 and associated economic shutdowns have led to unprecedented job losses and concerns about how households will pay rent while unemployed and make up for missed payments once reemployed. While the CDC has temporarily halted evictions until December 31, 2020, accrued rental debt will put many households at risk of eviction once the moratorium expires. Household Rental Debt During COVID-19 provides new estimates of the number of households with rental debt, and the amount of debt owed, resulting from pandemic-related job losses.

Key findings:

  1. As a result of pandemic-related job losses, we estimate that by December 2020, 1.3 million renter households will owe $7.2 billion in rent, which is around $5,400 each. These 1.3 million households contain 3.9 million individuals: 2.8 million adults and 1.1 million children. This is in addition to any household debt that existed before the pandemic.
  2. Policies designed to replace lost income for unemployed workers — such as standard state UI, the supplementary $600 per week CARES Act UI benefit available from April through the end of July, and the Economic Impact Payments sent to households in April — have been very effective at preventing rental debt for those households that receive them.
  3. Hispanic households, Black households, and family households headed by single women are disproportionately likely to experience rental debt by December 2020.
  4. There is substantial variation in rental debt outcomes by state, as detailed in the report.

Read the report.

New Report Examines Gender Differences in Financial Outcomes

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New report released from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Gender Disparities in Financial Well-Being from the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking provides in-depth analysis of gender differences in banking, credit access, and retirement outcomes. This new report also explores whether financial literacy helps explain these gender differences.

Overall, the research finds significant gender differences in the majority of financial outcomes analyzed from the descriptive analysis. Men are more likely to experience better banking and retirement accounts outcomes than women. Women are more likely to own at least one credit card than men, but they are also more likely to report a recent credit denial and have lower credit confidence than men. Accounting for financial literacy, however, mitigates most of these gender differences.

The results from Gender Disparities in Financial Well-Being from the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking illustrate that familiarity and frequent use of one type of financial product does not automatically guarantee the same for other financial products and outcomes.

Read the full report: Gender Disparities in Financial Well-Being from the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking

The Evolving Landscape of National Telehealth Policies during a Public Health Emergency: Responsiveness to Rural Needs

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Principal Authors: Keith Mueller, PhD; Hannah Rochford, MA

Prepared by the RUPRI Health Panel: Andrew F. Coburn, PhD; Alana Knudson, PhD; Jennifer P. Lundblad, PhD, MBA; A. Clinton MacKinney, MD, MS; Timothy D. McBride, PhD

Throughout the unprecedented challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has been a pillar of federal response policies aiming to position healthcare and public health entities to continue providing necessary services. While the core aims of rural health systems remain unchanged amidst COVID-19 circumstances, unfortunately, so too do many of the challenges they face in reaching these aims. This paper’s discussion summarizes the elements recognized as necessary for effective use of telehealth, identifies the challenges the federal policy response has addressed well, points to where opportunities for continued progress remain and speculates as to what barriers to progress may exist for actors in rural healthcare and public health. Recommendations for the expansion of telehealth made prior to the pandemic by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) offer structure to this discussion.

Click here for the full document.

Study Results: Coverage is Critical for Reducing Dental-Related ER Use

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A recent study from Community Catalyst highlights the relationship between Medicaid coverage and ER visits for oral health issues. The study found that states that offer Medicaid adult dental benefits and that have expanded their Medicaid programs under the ACA have the lowest rates of dental-related ER use. States that have taken up both of these policy options have also shown a decrease in dental-related ER use over time.

Click here for more information.

New Report: Ventilator-Assisted Pneumonia and the Mouth

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A new report from the DentaQuest Partnership looks at the connection between oral health and overall health and further examines ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The report asserts that addressing social conditions, structural racism, access to care, oral health education and other factors may not only improve oral health outcomes but also reduce the risk for COVID-19, VAP and even death in Black communities.

Click here to read the full report.

New Rural Health Brief: Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2019

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Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2019

Abdinasir K. Ali, MPH; Fred Ullrich, BA; and Keith Mueller, PhD

 The 2019 edition of the RUPRI Center’s annual report on Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment shows that as of March 2019, 35.0 percent of eligible Medicare beneficiaries were in an MA plan. The proportion of metropolitan enrollment (37.0 percent) is higher than that in nonmetropolitan counties (25.6 percent) but the rate of growth in enrollment has been higher in nonmetropolitan counties for the past two years.

Although well over half of metropolitan MA enrollment has been in HMO plans over the past 10 years (65.0 percent in 2019), since 2012 the plurality of nonmetropolitan MA enrollment has been in local PPO plans. However, nonmetropolitan enrollment in both HMO plans and local PPOs has grown consistently since 2009 (2019 enrollment: 32.7 percent and 45.2 percent, respectively). Growth in these two plan types has come largely at the expense of nonmetropolitan PFFS plans which accounted for 54.5 percent of nonmetropolitan MA enrollment in 2009, but only 2.0 percent by 2019.

Please click here to read the brief.

HRSA Plans October 5 Release of 2019 National Survey of Children’s Health Data

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HRSA will release 2019 data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) on October 5, which is also National Child Health Day. The NSCH provides the latest national and state-level data on the health and health care needs of children as well as information about their families and communities.

Survey topics include:

  • Children’s physical and mental health;
  • Health insurance status;
  • Access to and use of health care services, including:
    • Receipt of preventive and specialty care;
    • Patient-centered medical home; and
    • Services to support transition to adult health care for adolescents;
  • Lifetime exposure to adverse childhood experiences, and more.

The NSCH is funded and directed by HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, which oversees sampling, survey administration and the production of a final data set for public use.

Look for the release on our social media channels (@HRSAgov), and like and share to show your support of Child Health Day.

Learn more about the National Survey of Children’s Health.