by Kim Krisberg Joy Jay has the sweetest Southern accent you’ll ever hear. It’s the kind of accent that makes her news about the state of mental health services in South Carolina harder to hear than usual. “Mental health has taken some of the biggest (funding) cuts of any agency in the state,” said Jay, […]
by Kim Krisberg It only takes a few minutes of talking with Scott Becker to realize just how passionate he is about public health. In fact, his enthusiasm is contagious. Maybe that’s why he isn’t mincing his words. “What keeps me up at night is how we are going to maintain the core and critical […]
by Kim Krisberg It’s too early to tell just how many families Elizabeth Frerking and her colleagues at the Saline County Health Department in Marshall, Mo., will have to turn away, but it’s likely to be too many. As of Oct. 1 and due to cuts in federal immunization funding, Frerking can only administer vaccines […]
By Kim Krisberg Public health director Kerran Vigroux sounds almost matter-of-fact when she talks about having to shut down her department’s screening services for sexually transmitted diseases. As she talks about the prevention and education opportunities that packed up and left along with the testing services, there’s that familiar, barely audible public health tone to […]
Sharon Astyk at Casaubon’s Book has a great post up about the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, or WIC, which is now on the budgetary chopping block. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that an appropriations bill approved by the House would result in WIC turning away 300,000 – 450,000 low-income women […]
New York Times columnist Mark Bittman (famous for his writing on food) reported on Tuesday that he was joining more than 4,000 others who’ve been fasting to call attention to House legislation’s proposed cuts to programs for the poor and hungry. He explains: [The poor] are — once again — under attack, this time in […]
Earlier this week, the Geiger Gibson/ RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative released a policy research brief that estimates the impact of the House of Representatives’ proposed reduction in funding to community health centers. (Full disclosure: the Geiger Gibson program is part of the George Washington University’s School of Public Health & Health Services, where […]