Report watch - reports and news on human services

Apprenticeships in the downturn

rwatch — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:19:30 +0000

NCVER – Apprenticeships in the downturn.

Apprenticeships have a very long history in Australia, building on the traditions of the medieval guilds. The essence of the apprenticeship is the contract of training–a legal contract between an individual, an employer and a training provider. The defining characteristic is the combination of employment and training. The purpose of this paper is to describe what we know about apprenticeships and traineeships,

The GFC is bad for more than just your pocket

rwatch — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:56:49 +0000

Australian Financial Crisis: Implications for Health & Research Report . one of the strong findings from this review is that we need more and better research about the impact of recession on health – this recession might perhaps stimulate the kind of research that will help governments plan better to protect health, when future recessions occur. (Research Australia Nov 2009)

Assessing service pressures in a pandemic

rwatch — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:14:27 +0000

SocCon reporting guidance for social care: assessing service pressures in a pandemic : Department of Health – Publications.

During a pandemic, both adult and children’s social care services are likely to experience some capacity pressures. This may be due to the need for additional short-term emergency care for those people not usually in need of social care services and/or absent social care workersand staff etc.

This reporting process is also intended to provide a legacy system for monitoring and reporting service capacity issues from social care services in any emergency – not just a pandemic.

UK Health (Nov 2009)

Scrutiny of dignity and respect for individuals in health and social care services

rwatch — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:24:15 +0000

Walk a mile in my shoes – Scrutiny of dignity and respect for individuals in health and social care services: a guide – CfPS. Dignity is an important issue for all users of all public services and, as such, should be part of local authority overview and scrutiny in many different areas, including housing services, transport and travel, leisure and cultural services, as well as scrutiny of health and social care services or issues relating to older people. UK Centre for Public Scrutiny (Nov 2009)

29 May 2009

rwatch — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:07:53 +0000

In this update

policy capacity
health workforce
workforce diversity
Medicare safety net
ageing
regenerative medicine
patient feedback
health and planning
indigenous social justice
recession and indigenous issues
financial help
residential aged care
aged care inspections

housing and health
homelessness
housing insecurity
housing performance
regeneration
extra care housing
family support
domestic violence
young people’s plan
children’s play
school trauma
homebirths
flu and farms

poisons surveillance
rice drinks
well water
generator hazards
obesity and retailing
diet and ethnicity
diabetes
prescription drug deaths
alcohol plan
solaria
chronic kidney disease
disability parking
disability and recession

There’s More to Policy Than Alignment In Canada after years of cuts, departments have begun rebuilding capacity or contracting for policy analysis and research… The urgency and depth of the current economic downturn has added pressures to policy-making capacity… Innovation requires insight, sufficient capacity, and organizational “slack,” which suggests that public service institutions and broader networks might be too lean for grappling with the policy challenges at hand in a results-oriented environment.
Can CPRN (May 2009)Health Workforce Australia Bill 2009 to establish Health Workforce Australia (the HWA) as a statutory authority and to specify its functions, governance and structure.
Parliamentary Library (May 2009)

Managing diversity: making it core business outlines the value that creative diversity management can bring to organisations and its role in helping to deliver the NHS vision of implementing personalised care and quality based on “safe care, effective care and patient
experience.”
UK NHS (Apr 2009)

Extended Medicare Safety Net Review The EMSN appears to have made services more affordable for some (people using assisted reproductive services, some patients with complex health conditions such as cancer), but has had little impact for those in more remote areas or in lower socioeconomic groups…A concern is that most EMSN benefits have flowed to services that are more often used by wealthier sections of the community.
Health (May 2009)

How can health systems respond to population ageing? As many older people remain in hospital inappropriately, a number of measures can be applied to allow for more treatments out of hospital…measures that reduce the risk of disease and promote the maintenance of function, confidence and engagement can support healthy ageing and ease the pressure on health care systems. Most notable are health promotion and disease prevention programmes that target the main causes of morbidity and premature mortality, in particular obesity and hypertension, as well as mental healthmore on sustainable funding for long term care
WHO HEN (May 2009)

Regenerative medicine aims to restore the function of diseased or damaged tissues or organs by a variety of approaches, from cell-based therapies through tissue engineering to developing new medical devices. This offers potential medical benefits, but also poses regulatory challenges.
UK Parliament (May 2009)

Understanding what matters: A guide to using patient feedback to transform services provides best practice in terms of collecting, analysing and using patient feedback to transform services.
UK NHS (May 2009)

Planning for Health: A study on the integration of health and planning in South Australia reviews the impact of urban planning on population health outcomes.
SA Health (Feb 2009)

Social Justice Report 2008 The focus of this year’s report is on human rights protections for Indigenous peoples, remote Indigenous education, Indigenous healing and the progress on achieving Indigenous health equality by 2030.
Human Rights Commission (May 2009)

Prospects for closing the gap in a recession: Revisiting the role of macroeconomic factors in Indigenous employment
CAEPR (May 2009)

Helping Each Other in Times of Need: Financial Help as a Means of Coping with the Economic Crisis The economic downturn has left few Americans untouched: Nearly 80 percent of households say they have been affected; almost 30 percent report having been affected “a lot”
US Rand (May 2009)

Review of the residential aged care accreditation process Call for submissions and discussion paper
Health (May 2009)

Balanced decision-making for people who use care services outlines the priorities that UK health and safety inspectors and social care providers have with regard to supporting adults and older people who need care and support to live with dignity and independence within the community, whilst ensuring risks are identified and managed.
UK HSE (May 2009)

Connecting with Health and Care stresses the need for housing services to reconnect with health and social care. It identifies a number of key policy areas that are at the intersection of these different fields: Prevention, Personalisation and choice, Co-ordination and integration of services, Care delivered ‘close to home’.
UK HIA (May 2009)Demand for SAAP accommodation by homeless people 2007-08 on any given day, less than half (41%) of all new requests for immediate accommodation were successful, with about 385 people (or 59%) turned away.
AIHW (May 2009)

Housing insecurity and its link to the social inclusion agenda Many of those experiencing housing insecurity also experience physical and mental health problems which pose additional difficulties in participating economically and connecting socially.
AHURI (May 2009)

Driving up performance: Producing effective local information • the role that performance information can play in empowering tenants • what tenants want to know about landlord performance • how a regulatory data set could meet tenants’ information needs • what data might be collected at a local level
UK Housemark (May 2009)

Regeneration manifesto there is a need for new policies both to sustain the regeneration sector in the current crisis and pave the way for recovery. New, flexible models for regeneration are required. In developing such models, the industry must draw on the lessons of past successes and failures to produce a sustainable structure for regeneration.
UK British Property Fed (May 2009)

Marketing Extra Care Housing A lack of basic public relations and marketing skills amongst extra care housing providers is contributing to poor awareness of the sector Poor marketing hampers elderly care housing provision
UK DH (Apr 2009)

Developing a Family Support Program services for relationship, parenting and/or separation issues and more
FAHSCIA (May 2009)

Conceptual framework for family and domestic violence lllustrates relationships between the key elements of family and domestic violence, such as: context, risk, incident, responses, impacts/outcomes, and programs, research and evaluation.
ABS (May 2009)

ACT Young People’s Plan 2009-2014 discussion paper
ACT DHCS (May 2009)

Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation guide shows how play providers can replace current risk assessment practice with an approach to risk management that takes into account the benefits to children and young people of challenging play experiences, as well as the risks. also Cotton wool culture stifling the nation’s children
Play England (2009)

Making It Easier for School Staff to Help Traumatized Students a cognitive-behavioral program intended to be delivered in schools by teachers or school counselors rather than clinical personnel.
US Rand (May 2009)

Review of homebirths in Western Australia The aim of the review was to review homebirths in WA, especially to assess essential health outcomes including morbidity and mortality.
WA health (may 2009)

Potential Farm Sector Effects of 2009 H1N1 “Swine Flu”: Questions and Answers there is no evidence that the 2009 H1N1 virus is transmitted by food and that humans cannot get the illness from eating properly handled pork or pork products.
US CRS (May 2009)

The Investigation and Surveillance of Poisonings and Hazardous Substances Injuries:Guidelines for Public Health Units
NZ Health (May 2009)DH advice for toddlers and young children (1 – 5 years) to avoid rice drinks due to risk of exposure to inorganic arsenicmore
UK Health (May 2009)

Drinking Water From Private Wells and Risks to Children Private well water should be tested yearly, and in some cases more often Guidance
US NIH (May 2009)

Dying to Play Video Games: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning From Electrical Generators Used After Hurricane Ike Generator-related CO poisoning is common during power outages after hurricanes. However, generators are commonly being used to provide electricity to power entertainment devices for children, such as video games. Additional public education about CO risk is needed, perhaps directed at older children and teenagers through the schools in regions susceptible to hurricanes.
US Pediatrics (May 2009)

The Skinny on Big Box Retailing: Wal-Mart, Warehouse Clubs, and Obesity examines the impacts of these retailers on food and alcohol consumption, exercise, smoking, and eating out at restaurants in order to explain the results for weight. Most notably, all three types of stores are associated with increased consumption of fruits and vegetables and reduced consumption of dietary fat. These results are surprising given the conventional wisdom that cheap food leads to more eating, and suggest that income effects and relative price changes are more important that absolute price changes in this case.
US SSRN (May 2009)

Review of dietary interventions in black and minority ethnic groups any specific cultural issues that need to be taken into account when planning an engagement activity…including South Asian and Chinese
UK FSA (May 2009)

Better Diabetes Care: Consultation Document
Scotland (May 2009)

National Prescription Drug Threat Assessment 2009 Prescription Opioid-related Deaths Increased 114 Percent from 2001 to 2005
US ONDCP (May 2009)

Tasmanian Alcohol Action Plan 2009-2014 Public Consultation
Tas DHHS (May 2009)

Guidelines for the Operation and use of Solaria in Tasmania - Consultation on draft
Tas DHHS (May 2009)

An overview of chronic kidney disease in Australia, 2009 chronic kidney disease (CKD) was a factor in nearly 10% of all deaths in Australia in 2006, and more than a million hospitalisations in 2006-07
AIHW (May 2009)

Harmonisation of Disability Parking Permit Schemes in Australia The scheme aims to provide a new permit that is recognised across Australia and improved rules around its use.
FAHSCIA (May 2009)

Forum on Sickness, Disability and Work: Addressing Policy Challenges in OECD Countries Disability policy has to be part of a comprehensive labour market strategy for managing the impacts of the downturn on vulnerable workers. So far, there is little debate about adequate disability policy responses to the crisis. This is risky because employers have previously used disability schemes to downsize their workforce.
OECD (May 2009)

08 August 2008

rwatch — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:24:04 +0000

child protection
foster and permanent care
regulatory reform
regulatory budgets
public service advice
emissions trading
sustainable procurement
medical indemnity
dental labour force
nurse recruitment
information prescriptions
universal housing
homelessness UK
homelessness US

prison mental health
osteoporosis
organisational communication
European health data
nursing and e Health
controlled drugs
access to health
medical tourism
retail medical clinics
chronic disease care
supported accommodation
respite services
dental health care
foster parenting

social inclusion compact
early years assessments
safe playgrounds
family planning
fertility
Aboriginal maternity care
diabetes and pregnancy
online maternity guide
HIV and the law
child obesity
food marketing
eating habits
juvenile justice
end of life care

–

In this update:

Views of children and young people in foster care, residential care and detention centres in Queensland The participation of children and young people in matters that affect them is not only a requirement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, but is also integral to building a system that can genuinely respond to the needs of children and young people.
Qld CCYPCG (Aug 2008)

Minding the Gap: Appraising the promise and performance of regulatory reform in Australia examines successive attempts by the Commonwealth government to improve the quality of the processes by which business regulation is made
ANU Press (Jul 2008)

Consultation on Regulatory Budgets Proposals to limit the cost of new regulation were unveiled today as the UK Government invited views on a system of regulatory budgets for government departments – which would be a world first…also seeks views on managing the costs of new climate change regulation
UK BERR (Aug 2008)

Whatever Happened to Frank and Fearless? The impact of new public management on the Australian Public Service structural and cultural change compromising the integrity of the public service reached its apogee towards the end of the eleven years of the Howard government.
ANU Press (Jul 2008)

The impact of an emissions trading scheme on state government budgets highlights the need for an additional class of compensation payments that do not appear to have been considered in the debate so far, namely, payments to compensate the state and territory governments for the likely increase in the costs they will face in delivering services to their residents.
Aust Institute (Aug 2008)

Sustainable Procurement & Operations on the Government Estate UK Government plans for the next two years on sustainable procurement and news release .
UK GCO (Aug 2008)

Public and private sector medical indemnity claims in Australia 2005-06 Claims in excess of $500,000 constituted less than 3% of all finalised medical indemnity claims in the public and private sectors in 2005-06
AIHW (Aug 2008)

Dental labour force in Australia 2005 finds public dental patients, as a group, suffer from poorer oral health related to their lower socioeconomic status and barriers to accessing dental services.
AIHW (Aug 2008)

Recruitment of Nurses and Midwives – Framework action for dealing with frontline nursing and midwifery position vacancies.
NSW Health (Aug 2008)

Evaluation of information prescriptions everyone with a long-term condition and/or long-term need for support – and their carers – should routinely receive information about their condition and, where they can, to receive peer and other self care support through networks.
UK Health (Aug 2008)

Universal housing, universal benefits Most of our current housing stock is inappropriate for much of our population and ill equipped for the demographic challenges Victoria is facing. People with disabilities and many older people are those most affected by badly designed homes…regulation is the only way to increase Victoria’s stock of universal housing to the extent required to meet the needs of our population
VCOSS (Aug 2008)

Keeping Homes: What happens to Broadway’s clients after resettlement? longer term outcomes for clients after resettlement from Broadway homelessness services (after they had moved into their own homes).
UK BW (Aug 2008)

US Annual Homeless Assessment Report For the first time ever, HUD is now able to estimate how many persons use emergency shelters and transitional housing programs during a full year.
US HUD (Aug 2008)

A national approach for child protection: project report From a legislative and policy perspective, Australia jurisdictions have adopted broadly similar positions on critical issues facing the child protection sector, namely the delivery of early intervention services, the desirability of stability of care, and the utmost importance of child-centred practice. and fact sheet
Aus AIFS (Aug 2008)

Out of sight, out of mind: the state of mental health care in prison of the £20.4 million currently spent on mental health services in prisons, £8.6 million is not being spent efficiently due to shortfalls in staff recruitment and confusion over the role of mental health in-reach teams.
UK Policy Exchange (Jul 2008) A picture of osteoporosis in Australia At least 600,000 Australians are affected by osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to become fragile and weak and increasing the risk of fracture
AIHW (Aug 2008)Communication (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization Which groups are most likely to communicate with others in a large organization….women, mid- to high-level executives, and members of the executive management, sales, and marketing functions are those most likely to build bridges
US HBS (Jul 2008)

European health for all database online database of independent, comparable and up-to-date basic health statistics…600 indicators for the 53 European WHO Member States
WHO Europe

Royal College of Nursing e health policies “Consent to access, share and create eHealth records” and “Nursing content of electronic patient / client records”.
UK RCN (Jul 2008)

The safer management of controlled drugs – Annual report 2007 outlines the steps that have been taken to improve monitoring of controlled drugs since the Controlled Drugs (Supervision of Management and Use) Regulations came into force in England on 1 January 2007.
UK Healthcare Commission (Aug 2008)

Quality in and equality of access to healthcare services in England identify and analyze barriers to access to health care services which are faced by vulnerable groups in society, and especially those most exposed to social exclusion. also European reports
UK CHE (Aug 2008)

Medical Tourism: Emerging Phenomenon in Health Care Industry In 2007, an estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care; this number is anticipated to increase to 6 million by 2010. Concurrently, inbound medical tourism and medical tourism across state lines continue to present opportunities for specialty hubs offering treatments unavailable elsewhere in the world or in a community setting.
US Deloitte (Aug 2008)

Retail Medical Clinics: Disrupting Models of Primary Care Retail medical clinics are disrupting existing models of primary care by shifting delivery of health care services from traditional clinical settings to consumer-friendly locations such as “big-box” discount stores, grocery stores and retail pharmacies.
US Deloitte (Aug 2008)

A National Study of Chronic Disease Prevalence and Access to Care in Uninsured U.S. Adults working-age adults with one or more chronic illnesses who reported they were uninsured were nearly four times more likely than their insured counterparts to have not seen a health professional within the past year. They were also six times more likely to identify a hospital emergency room as their standard site for care when sick
US PNHP (Aug 2008)

Draft Allocation of Places in Supported Accommodation policy and procedures details the processes for being placed on the state wide accommodation register, declaring a vacancy, allocation committees, appeals, refusal of offers and transition to a placement.
NSW DADHC (Jul 2008)

Draft Maintaining Respite Capacity Policy At times clients exceed their allocated stay in respite services…This policy provides DADHC with a consistent approach to relocating clients to permanent accommodation services that are in the best interests of the client, with the consent of an appropriate decision maker.
NSW DADHC (Jul 2008)

Access to Affordable Dental Care: Gaps for Low-Income Adults finds that both dental coverage and access to care are limited for low-income adults and that even low-income adults with dental coverage are not getting sufficient levels of needed dental care.
US Kaiser (Aug 2008)

Parenting a Child Who Has Been Sexually Abused: A Guide for Foster and Adoptive Parents updated factsheet for families
US CWIG (Apr 2008)

An Australian Compact: comments sought on a new partnership between the Australian Government and the not-for-profit Sector as part of the Social inclusion agenda
Aus FACSHIA (Jul 2008)

Early childhood assessment: what, why and how concludes that well-planned assessments can inform teaching and efforts to improve programs and can contribute to better outcomes for children, but poor assessments or misuse of the results can harm both children and programs. The report offers principles to guide the design, implementation, and use of assessments in early childhood settings. read news release and full report online
US National Academies (Aug 2008)Kids N’ Safe Play: Regulation, Litigation and Playground Safety explores the history of Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regulation, as well as studies by pediatricians and other health and consumer organizations, all of which support safer playgrounds . press release
US CJ&D (Aug 2008)The Impact of Publicly Funded Family Planning Clinic Services on Unintended Pregnancies and Government Cost Savings for every $1 spent, $4.02 is saved. full report
US Guttmacher Inst (Aug 2008)

Recent trends in Australian fertility Taking account of all of the existing evidence, there is no current or looming impending fertility crisis in Australia — Australia’s present fertility level is likely to be roughly at levels that avoid the problems of excess or insufficient fertility.
Aus Productivity Comm (Aug 2008)

Evaluation of the Southern Aboriginal Maternity Care Project: Final Report a pilot project to develop a service model that established linkages and partnerships, and to provide a framework for an integrated maternity care service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their babies
SA Health (2008)

For Women with Diabetes: Your Guide to Pregnancy Pregnancy in women who have diabetes is automatically considered high-risk.
US NID (Aug 2008)

NHS launches online one-stop shop for mums-to-be The first NHS online maternity guide…Pregnancy Care Planner
UK Health (Aug 2008)

The Criminalization of HIV: Time for an Unambiguous Rejection of the Use of Criminal Law to Regulate the Sexual Behavior of Those with and at Risk of HIV argues that the use of criminal law to address HIV is inappropriate except in rare cases where a person acts with conscious intent to transmit HIV and does so. see also Do Criminal Laws Influence HIV Risk Behavior? An Empirical Trial and New Technology Reveals Higher Number of New HIV Infections in the United States than Previously Known
US Temple Uni (Aug 2008)

The National Child Measurement Programme Every year children in Reception and Year 6 are weighed and measured during the school year to inform local planning and delivery of services for children; and gather population-level surveillance data to allow analysis of trends in growth patterns and obesity. also Parents will be told if their children are overweight
UK Health (Aug 2008)

Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation recommends that all companies that market food or beverage products to children under 12 adopt meaningful, nutrition-based standards for marketing their products – ..that more media and entertainment companies restrict the licensing of their characters to healthier foods and beverages that are marketed to children,
US FTC (Jul 2008)

Attitude to health affects eating habits The aim was to find out how people eat, what they buy and why they make certain food choices, to help the Agency shape its work on healthier eating.
UK Food Standards (Jul 2008)

Sexual Violence Reported by Juvenile Correctional Authorities, 2005-06 16.8 allegations per 1,000 youth held in state, local or private facilities in 2006 and 16.7 allegations per 1,000 youth in 2005.
US Justice (Aug 2008)

Renal supportive and end of life care report of a UK workshop
UK Health (Aug 2008)

Australia’s Future Fat Bomb A report …

rwatch — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:40:24 +0000

Australia’s Future Fat Bomb A report on the long-term consequences of Australia’s expanding waistline on cardiovascular disease also articles on obesity prevention from ANZ health policy.
Aus Baker Inst (Jun 2008)

Linking SAAP, child protection and juvenile justice data collections: a feasibility study concludes that linkage is technically feasible and that both the SAAP and juvenile justice data collections have data currently suitable for linkage. Linkage with the child protection data collection would be dependent on the successful implementation of the planned national minimum data set.
Aus AIHW (Jun 2008)

Linking Schools and Early Years Services Final Report an exploration of directions from the evidence • a review of policy directions in early childhood services and schools across Australia • a review of international and Australian community school models.
Vic RCH (JUn 2008)

Inequalities in young people’s health patterns of health among young people aged 11, 13 and 15 years in 41 countries and regions across the WHO European Region and North America in 2005/2006.
WHO Europe (Jun 2008)

Common Mental Health Problems: Supporting school staff by taking positive action focuses on common mental health problems in schools
UK CSF (Jun 2008)

European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being focuses on four priority themes: Prevention of Suicide and Depression, Mental Health in Youth and Education, Mental Health in Workplace Settings and Mental Health in Older People. Combating Stigma and Social Exclusion is a priority which runs through across all thematic areas.
WHO Europe (Jun 2008)

A good house is hard to find: Housing affordability in Australia recommends that, given the very high levels of housing stress, overcrowding and homelessness experienced by Indigenous Australians, all levels of government should give priority to addressing their high level of unmet need for public and community housing under all exiting programmes
Aus Senate (Jun 2008)

Housing Affordability Fund Consultation Paper a Consultation Paper seeking submissions and comments to assist in finalising the design of the Housing Affordability Fund program, including processes for selecting suitable projects.
Aus FaHSCIA (Jun 2008)

The future of the private rented sector focuses on addressing the major challenges facing both small and large landlords, and on what can be done to bring new, affordable private rented properties onto the market.
UK Smith Inst (Jun 2008)

A Guide to Engaging Muslim Communities The emphasis is on engaging with poorer communities that are likely to be socially excluded and may be directly affected by housing or regeneration programmes.
UK Chartered Institute of Housing (Jun 2008)

New directions for child protection in Tasmania and action plan for children in care and action plan for family services
Tas DHHS (Jun 2008)

National Domestic Abuse Delivery Plan for Children and Young People aims to enable more effective protection, provision, prevention and participation for all children, young people and their families affected, or at risk of being affected, by domestic abuse in Scotland more
Scotland (Jun 2008)

Youth Transitioning From Foster Care: Background, Federal Programs, and Issues for Congress at a minimum, young people need better support to build stronger connections with caring adults before leaving foster care and should have the option to remain in care upon reaching their 18th or 19th birthdays.
US Congress (May 2008)

Scotland. The Adoption Support Services and Allowances Regulations 2008 Consultation on Draft Regulations
Scotland (Jun 2008)

DHHS Review of Tasmanian Disability Services – June 2008 the strategic direction and best practice service models needed in order to use available resources in an equitable, cost effective and sustainable way.
Tas DHHS (Jun 2008)

Transforming the quality of dementia care: consultation on a National Dementia Strategy aims to ensure significant improvements across three key areas in relation to dementia services: improved awareness, earlier diagnosis and intervention, and a higher quality of care. also new US data : Alzheimer’s disease now sixth-leading cause of death in US
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Australian Dementia Research: current status, future directions? The report recommends that funding for dementia research be set at 1.5% of the direct cost of dementia or $36 million per annum.
Aus Alzheimers Assn (Jun 2008)

The nature and impact of caring for family members with a disability in Australia It is estimated that in 2003 there were 474,600 primary carers providing care to a person because of disability or old age.
AIFS (Jun 2008)

Growing Up In Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children Most parents said that their child was in good to excellent health. However, one in four children (24 per cent) aged 6-7 years had been diagnosed with asthma, and 66 per cent of these children had taken medication for this condition in the previous 12 months.
AIFS (Jun 2008)

Caring for vulnerable babies: the reorganisation of neonatal services in England looks at the ability of the system to meet increased demand for neonatal services, the benefits of networking neonatal units, recruitment and training of staff and the impact on health inequalities. press release BBC news report: Neonatal nurse shortage warning
UK Public Accounts Committee (Jun 2008)

Evaluation of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy 2000-2004 designed to help build family and community capacity to deal with challenges and take advantage of opportunities, with a special focus on those at-risk of social, economic and geographic isolation…In 2007 the evaluation was awarded the Best Evaluation Study Award of the Australasian Evaluation Society
Vic RMIT (May 2008)

NHS Resilience and Business Continuity Management Guidance aims to ensure through the adoption of resilience principles the continuous operational delivery of healthcare services when faced with a range of disruptive challenges e.g. staff shortages, denial of access, failures in technology, loss of utility services and failure of key suppliers.
UK Health (Jun 2008)

What Matters to Staff in the NHS identifies the major emotional and behaviour drivers contributing to staff engagement and motivation to provide high quality patient care.
UK Health (Jun 2008)

The National Education and Competence Framework for assistant critical care practitioners Good practice framework describing the education, skills and competences of critical care practitioners practising at the assistant level.
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Evidence and Healthy Public Policy: Insights from Health and Political Sciences what constitutes evidence in policy-making, and what models of policy-making are available in political science that can inform our understanding of how evidence is used or not used to develop healthy public policy?
Can CPRN (Jun 2008)

Evidence-Informed Case Rates: Paying for Safer, More Reliable Care a portion of payment is withheld and redistributed based on providers’ performance on measures of clinical processes, care outcomes, and patient experiences.
US Commonwealth Fund (Jun 2008)

Evidence based evaluation of the scale of disproportionate decisions on risk assessment and management provides some limited support to the suggestion that there are significant concerns about health and safety considerations restricting activities that offer social,
educational and other benefits,…and support for taking steps to clarify what is a sensible approach to H&S as well as addressing perceptions about the risk of litigation/prosecution and how best to respond to these perceptions.
UK HSE (Jun 2008)

Guiding principles on medical tourism The nine principles are the first-of-its-kind, and outline steps for care abroad for consideration by patients, employers, insurers and third-parties responsible for coordinating travel outside of the U.S.
US AMA (Jun 2008)

Shamed and Able: How firms respond to being rated examines how firms respond to third-party ratings of their corporate environmental activities…policymakers can promote change by lowering costs of investments that elicit environmental performance improvements. Examples include providing technical assistance or subsidies to facilitate knowledge transfer to or between firms. also Economist Under the spotlight: The transition of environmental risk management
US Harvard Business (May 2008)

UK-wide ‘scores on the doors’ scheme on hygiene standards in food businesses (England) proposals for establishing a UK-wide ‘scores on the doors’ (SOTD) scheme to provide consumers with information about hygiene standards in food businesses.
UK Food (May 2008)

A Road Map for Juvenile Justice Reform change requires a strengthened focus on achieving results and on collecting and analyzing the data required to hold systems accountable for them. In too many jurisdictions, juvenile justice systems are not judged by the progress of their youth or the safety of communities.more from Kids Count databook 2008 Four areas have worsened: low-birthweight babies, children living in families where no parent has full time year round employment, children in poverty, and children in single parent families.
US Annie E Casey (Jun 2008)

Young Runaways Action Plan it is essential that Government, local delivery agencies and the voluntary sector work together to put in place those services that will prevent young runaways coming to harm
UK DCF (Jun 2008)

Lifelong Family Connections: Supporting Permanence for Children in Foster Care We need to both require and enable these systems to decrease the numbers of kids who are unnecessarily removed from their families; reduce the time that kids who are removed
must spend in temporary out-of-home care; and increase the numbers of kids who have a permanent, lifelong family.
US Annie E Casey (Jun 2008)

Early Detection of Chronic Diseases: Disparities, Uncertainties and Behavioral Implications utilizing testing service as a commodity choice in different racial/ethnic groups, simulation-based interpretation of lung cancer screening trials, and the possible behavioral effects of the screening experience.
US Rand (Jun 2008)

Hospital Stays Related to Asthma for Adults, 2005 Nearly three-fourths of stays principally for asthma were admitted from the emergency department.
US AHRQ (Jun 2008)

New Report Finds Highest-Ever Levels Of THC in U.S. Marijuana Increased Potency of Smoked Marijuana May Be Responsible for Serious Mental Health Consequences for Teens
US ONDCP (Jun 2008)

Adolescents and Alcohol: Changing perspectives and new challenges South Australian conference and literature review
SA Education (May 2008)

South Australia’s Strategic Plan: How well is it addressing inequality in South Australia? an explanation of inequality and why it is useful to monitor it over time; some of the challenges in measuring inequality;
SA PHIDU (Jun 2008)

Housing consumption patterns and earnings behaviour of income support recipients over time the study has been principally concerned with issues about patterns of housing consumption among people on IS. This includes the housing arrangements and circumstances of income support recipients (ISRs) over time, the possible relationships between changes in tenure, changes in income and other changes in the characteristics or circumstances of ISRs
AHURI (Jun 2008)

Draft Charter for Bereaved People brings together many of the services bereaved people will receive from coroners in a reformed system.
UK Justice (Jun 2008)

Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning: Legal and Policy Issues provides an overview of the evolving legal landscape of end-of-life decision making generally, and advance directives specifically, and identifies current challenges and opportunities for promoting the goals of advance care planning.
US DHHS (Oct 2007)

13 June 2008

Services to Young Offenders examines the extent to which diversionary and rehabilitation services provided by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria (MCV) maximise diversion of young offenders from the criminal justice system, reduce the risk of reoffending and improve rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.
Vic Audit (Jun 2008)

Diversion of Indigenous juvenile offenders For all states, Indigenous young offenders were more likely than non-Indigenous offenders to be referred to court, non-Indigenous offenders were more likely to receive a police caution, and males and older offenders were more likely to be diverted.
AIC (Jun 2008)

Inquiry into children and young people 9-14 years in NSW Submission focusing on 10 to 14 year olds in the juvenile justice system more submissions
NSW PIAC (May 2008)

Performance Reporting in Local Government reviews the effectiveness of performance reporting by councils focusing on the performance statements produced annually.
Vic Audit (Jun 2008)

Implementation of the Criminal Justice Enhancement Program (CJEP) The Criminal Justice Enhancement Program (CJEP) is a highly complex major information technology project of the Department of Justice (the department). CJEP’s aim was to improve the information systems environment that supports the administration of criminal justice within Victoria
Vic Audit (Jun 2008)

National palliative care performance indicators: results of the 2007 performance indicator data collection Overall, services reported a similar level of performance against indicators as in 2006, with the exception of assessment of agencies against Palliative Care Australia (PCA) standards (performance indicator 2), which continued the decline observed between 2005 and 2006.
AIHW (Jun 2008)

Elective surgery in Australia: new measures of access people living in remote areas and those in the more disadvantaged socioeconomic groups made use of publicly-funded elective surgery at higher rates than other people.
AIHW (Jun 2008)

Residential aged care in Australia 2006-07: a statistical overview More aged care residents need higher levels of care than ever before, with 70% of permanent residents requiring high level care compared to 58% a decade ago
AIHW (Jun 2008)

Guidelines for the establishment and management of clinical registries Draft version 2 focuses on ensuring that such registries add value over and above the routine collection of data and have clearly specified and timely mechanisms to provide feedback into clinical practice, including reporting and benchmarking and more
ACSQH (May 2008)

National Patient Charter of Rights Consultation Report and more
ACSQH (May 2008)

Private Hospitals, Australia, 2006-07 Acute hospitals, Psychiatric hospitals and Free-standing day hospital facilities.
ABS (May 2008)

South Australia’s Country Health Care Plan The South Australian Government’s plan for country health care over the next ten years.
SA Health (Jun 2008)

Is the Treatment Working? Progress with the NHS System Reform Programme looks at the ambitious programme of market-style reforms that aim to improve efficiency and effectiveness and were first set out in the NHS Plan of 2000. It evaluates the key elements: giving patients more choice; greater NHS use of the independent sector; the creation of foundation trusts; practice based commissioning; and Payment by Results. It also reviewed the impact of major changes to employment contracts with NHS staff.
UK Audit (Jun 2008)

Extending Professional Regulation Working Group Interim Report: Protecting the public by ensuring that workforce standards are met creating a common approach across the UK for determining which healthcare professional and occupational groups should be subject to regulation now and in the future, and the most appropriate type of regulation for these professional and occupational groups.
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Draft Ethical Guidelines for Intervention Studies public consultations on proposed ethical guidelines for clinical trials and related types of health research.
NZ Health (Jun 2008)

Identifying risk, taking action: Monitor’s approach to service performance in NHS foundation trusts how the independent regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts assesses service performance
UK NHS (Jun 2008)

Employment Screening Policy sets out the changes that apply to the mandatory requirements and procedures for the undertaking of Employment Screening of preferred applicants seeking employment for paid and unpaid positions in NSW Health
NSW Health (Jun 2008)

Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Is Voluntary Disclosure a Signal of Effective Self-Policing? As regulators increasingly embrace cooperative approaches to governance, voluntary public-private partnerships and self-regulation programs have proliferated. However, because few have been subjected to robust evaluation, little is known about whether these innovative approaches are achieving their objectives and enhancing regulatory effectiveness.
US Harvard (Jun 2008)

UK Mental Capacity Act 2005 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Code of Practice and regulations: report on consultation a definition of ‘deprivation of liberty’ could not be included because it is defined by case law
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Carers at the heart of 21st century families and communities: a caring system on your side, a life of your own UK Carers strategy
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Self care: a national view in 2007 compared to 2004-05 Only some specific changes have occurred between 2004-05 and 2007 in the self care behaviours and views of the public, indicating that it would take longer for the full impact to be realised of recent policies and programmes supporting self care.
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Under One Roof: Will polyclinics deliver integrated care? Government policy is driving a fundamental shift of care from hospitals to more community-based settings. There is a growing expectation that this shift will be supported by the development of a network of new facilities in which primary, community and secondary care services are co-located, often referred to as polyclinicsand news release
UK Kings Fund (Jun 2008)

Why Children Die: A pilot study Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health has published the final report of its child death review study
UK CEMACH (May 2008)

Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities: Statistics and Interventions provides information regarding US child deaths resulting from abuse or neglect by a parent or primary caregiver.see also Best Practices in Prevention-Oriented Child Death Review
US CWIG (Mar 2008)

Child Maltreatment Surveillance: Uniform Definitions for Public Health and Recommended Data Elements presents a definition of child maltreatment, its associated terms, and recommended data elements for voluntary use by individuals and organizations in the public health community.
US CDC (2008)

Differential Response to Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect CPS agencies offer both traditional investigations and assessment alternatives to families reported for child abuse and neglect, depending on the severity of the allegation and other considerations.
US Child Welfare (Feb 2008)

Adoption: Access to Information and Intermediary Services aimed at UK practitioners working with adopted adults and birth relatives who wish to find out about an adoption, and may wish to trace and establish contact with their birth relatives through the provision of intermediary services
UK Children (Jun 2008)

Children’s sense of safety: children’s experiences of childhood in contemporary Australia The findings suggested that even though on the surface the vast majority of children surveyed believe that Australia is a good place to grow up in, many of them reflect an undercurrent of worry and concern for their own safety and the protection of other children…The internet, in particular, is perceived as a new source of anxiety and threat for a large number of children and young people
Aus ACF (May 2008)

A Profile of Healthy Start: Findings From Phase I of the Evaluation 2006 Retention of clients after giving birth is a goal of Healthy Start, because it means that the low-income, predominantly minority mothers and their children who enrolled in the program remain linked to ongoing sources of primary care…about 75 percent of their pregnant clients are still enrolled in the program two years after giving birth
US HRSA (May 2008)

Australian community sector survey 2008 found a 6.3% increase in the number of people assisted by community service agencies between 2005-06 and 2006-07, accompanied by a 24% increase in the number of eligible people who were turned away from the services they needed.
ACOSS (Jun 2008)

Part Time Employment: the Australian Experience an overview of the changing role of part-time work in Australia
Aus Productivity Comm (Jun 2008)

Work-Life Policies for the Twenty-First Century Economy reviews the evidence regarding work-life conflicts, the economic case for policy initiatives, and effectiveness of the policy options.
US CEPR (Jun 2008)

Green IT in Enterprise Practices: The Essential Role of the State CIO By looking at enterprise hardware through its lifecycle of acquisition, utilization and disposal, addressing energy efficiency in state offices and data centers, and by enabling green practices through the utilization of IT, state CIOs can play a key role in reducing their state’s carbon footprint.
US NASCIO (Jun 2008)

Increasing Transparency in the Pricing of Health Care Services and Pharmaceuticals Some observers believe that if individuals know the prices of health care services, they are more likely to seek out less expensive providers or treatments and to question how effective the care they are purchasing is likely to be.
US Congressional Budget Office (Jun 2008)

Managing Radioactive Waste Safely: A framework for implementing geological disposal The UK has accumulated a substantial legacy of radioactive waste from a variety of different nuclear programmes, both civil and defence-related.
UK DEFRA (Jun 2008)

Solaria in Tasmania – Options for Regulating Voluntary compliance with the current Australian/New Zealand Standard on Solaria for Cosmetic Purposes (AS/NZS 2635:2002) has been shown to be insufficient and further action, which involves enforceable regulation, needs to be considered.
Tas Health (May 2008)

More Action Needed to Protect Public from Indoor Radon Risks Radon is an odorless, tasteless, and invisible gas produced by the decay of naturally occurring uranium present in soil, rock, and water throughout the United States…indoor radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America, after smoking.
US EPA (May 2008)

Eating as an Automatic Behavior A revised view of eating as an automatic behavior, as opposed to one that humans can self-regulate, has profound implications for our response to the obesity epidemic, suggesting that the focus should be less on nutrition education and more on shaping the food environment.
US Rand (Jun 2008)

Ensuring Organizational Resilience and Employee Well-Being Through Crisis Communications practical strategies for educating and protecting employees before, during and after a crisis event.
US Varoli (May 2008)

Evaluation of Social HomeBuy Pilot Scheme for Affordable Housing: Final Report focuses on the motivations behind the involvement of participating landlords and their experience of barriers to the implementation of the scheme both from an organisational and a tenant perspective.
UK Communities (Jun 2008)

Rural Housing in Wales: Final report An independent analysis of the levels of housing need in rural Wales, its causes, and recommendations for positive policy and practice change.
UK Joseph Rowntree (Jun 2008)

Housing and disabled children Families with a disabled child are more likely to be renting their homes than families with non-disabled children.
UK Joseph Rowntree (Jun 2008)

Fire safety risk assessment – Sleeping accommodation premises include: houses in multiple occupation; the common areas of flats and maisonettes; common areas of sheltered accommodation where care is not provided; Areas in work places where staff ‘sleeping in’ is a condition of the employment or a business requirement as in licensed premises or hotels.
Wales Housing (Jun 2008)

Service Provision for Detainees with Problematic Drug and Alcohol Use in Police Detention: A Comparative Study of Selected Countries in the European Union explores legislation, policy and practice for problematic drug and alcohol users during police detention in eight countries in the EU.
Euro Inst for Crime Prevention (Mar 2008)

Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning for People with Intellectual and Physical Disabilities The concerns, perspectives, and values of people with disabilities have often been overlooked in the extensive research, programs, and policies regarding advance directives, advance care planning and end-of-life care more generally.
US AHRQ (2007)

Buy and Make a Difference: How to address social issues in public procurement a practical guide to show public procurers how they can help address social concerns in what they buy and in their expectations of suppliers.
UK OGC (Jun 2008)

5 June 2008

Australia 2020 Summit – Final Report includes A long term national health strategy and Strengthening communities, supporting
families and social inclusion
(May 2008)

Snapshot of Australian primary health care research recent Australian research projects demonstrating the potential for primary health care research to improve the health of Australians.
Aus PHCRIS (Jun 2008)

Managing e-Business Applications–Follow-up Audit a performance audit in the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations…progress on recommendations concerning improvements to the department’s IT governance, recordkeeping, performance monitoring and to its reviews of IT including Internet services.
Aus Audit (Jun 2008)

Evaluation of the impact of accreditation on the delivery of quality of care and quality of life to residents in Australian Government subsidised residential aged care homes Minister releases accreditation report by previous government
Aus Health (Jun 2008)

Developing the NHS Performance Regime is designed to afford greater transparency and consistency across the NHS in relation to: identifying underperformance; interventions to address turnaround; and managing failure
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Public Housing in Australia: Stigma, Home and Opportunity argues that declining investment, political neglect, social stigma, and concentration of poverty in the sector have detracted from a broader understanding of the significant role and need for public housing in Australia…Fundamentally the labelling of the sector with a welfare role has contributed to the rationale that public housing serves as a depository for individuals with acute needs, rather than the basis for integration into economic and social opportunity.
Tas HACRU (May 2008)

Housing Corporation: Life in affordable housing examines the kinds of affordable housing people want, the aspects of their homes they like and don’t like and the issues that need to be addressed to improve housing for tenants.
UK Housing Corp (Jun 2008)

Towards an ageing society final evaluation report of the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust’s housing programme for older people.
UK Housing Corp (Jun 2008)

Innovation and Good Practice in Regenerating Communities: Learning from the Housing Market Pathfinders examples of the activities that are likely to be useful in all housing market contexts, as well as to all those operating at a local level to tackle unpopular housing and in regenerating areas suffering from multiple deprivation.
UK Audit (Jun 2008)

Just Care? A fresh approach to adult services starts from a central point: the state cannot support adults with care needs to maximise their independence without better supporting care within families and across communities.
UK IPPR (Jun 2008)

An analysis of the 2008-09 health budget Total Commonwealth Government spending in health is $46.03 billion in 2008-09 or $241 billion / 5 years, averaging around 15.7 percent of total budget spending…Total expenses for health is estimated to increase by 5.2% in real terms over the forward estimates, or on average by around 1.7% pa.
Aus AHPI (May 2008)

Centre for Policy Development submission to the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) CPD agrees that any major reform of our health care system needs to identify consistent principles which must underpin all health policy decisions and provide a context and framework for funding allocation and other decision-making.
Aus CPD

Is Hospital Treatment in Australia Inequitable? Evidence from the HILDA Survey higher income patients are financially more attractive
to health care providers because they generate higher fees. The policy implications of this suggests it is not just about health care services being in the right place, but also about the preferences of health care providers and the incentives they face.
Aus CHERE (Mar 2008)

Becoming a High Reliability Organization: Operational Advice for Hospital Leaders High reliability concepts are tools that a growing number of hospitals are using to help achieve their safety, quality, and efficiency goals.
US AHRQ (Feb 2008)

The Price of Excess: Identifying waste in healthcare spending Defensive medicine, such as redundant, inappropriate or unnecessary tests and procedures, was identified as the biggest area of excess, followed by inefficient healthcare administration and the cost of care necessitated by conditions such as obesity, which can be considered preventable by lifestyle changes.
US PWC (Mar 2008)

Paying for Performance: Incentives and the English Health System This trend represents a fundamental shift away from other healthcare payment systems in which reimbursement tends to be based on the quantity of services instead of health system quality.
US PWC (Mar 2008)

Implementing the White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety: enhancing confidence in healthcare professional regulators – final report and DH response to recommendations
UK Health (Jun 2008)

American Health Insurance Plans Proposal to Reduce Health Care Costs Disease management, care coordination, prevention, moving from paper to electronic transactions, transitioning to a value-based payment system, and addressing how new technology can be most effectively introduced into the system will allow the country to achieve more value for its health care investment.
AHIP (May 2008)

Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations: A Policy to Increase Value from Health Care Expenditures An interdisciplinary examination of rates of avoidable hospitalizations in France and England to evaluate access to primary care and identify the extent to which these countries may be able to reduce hospital costs by investing in disease management and primary care
US International Longevity Center (Mar 2008)

The economic cost of wait times in Canada examines the cost of waiting longer than medically recommended for treatment. The costs of these “excess waits” are relevant to policy-makers because they measure costs that could be avoided if wait times were reduced or eliminated.
Can Centre for Spatial Economics (2008)

Tracking the Care of Patients with Severe Chronic Illness: The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2008 proposes new ways of thinking about how to achieve better care coordination and reduce the overuse of acute care hospital services.
US DAP (May 2008)

Implementing the National Stroke Strategy – an imaging guide sets out best practice and provides guidance on how imaging services may develop to provide gold standard TIA and stroke care.
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Injury among young Australians Transport accidents and suicide are the two leading causes of injury death among young people
AIHW (Jun 2008)

Preventing Future Child Deaths – A Study of ‘Early Starter’ Child Death Overview Panels in England focussed on the evaluation of establishing systems; data collection; and data analysis and outputs from child death review processes.
UK Children (May 2008)

Towards a strategy to support volunteering in health and social care: consultation will provide a framework through which to pursue long-term organisational and culture change across the whole system to support volunteering more effectively
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Enhancing family and relationship service accessibility and delivery to culturally and linguistically diverse families in Australia
Aus AFRC (May 2008)

The Rural Mental Health Emergency and Critical Care Access Plan assists rural areas to develop an implementation plan based on networking of services from regional bases
NSW Health (Jun 2008)

Mental Illness Needs Indices In different types of area, people are more or less likely to suffer with mental illnesses. To some extent this can be predicted from characteristics of the population measured by the census or other types of survey. Mental health needs indices estimate by how much. A needs index of 0.8 suggests that there will be 20% less illness in an area than in the country as a whole, an index of 1.2 suggests 20% more…UK example based on (MINI) 1991 for predicted hospital admissions, MINI2000 for Predicted admissions, National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2000 .
UK APHO (May 2008)

Paying the Price : the cost of mental health care in England to 2026 suggests that significant investment in evidence-based services could help thousands back to productive work. The report reveals that mental illness in England cost £50 billion in 2007 news release
UK Kings Fund (May 2008)

Responding to substance abuse and offending in Indigenous communities : review of diversion programs outlines the diversion programs currently operating, including those for Indigenous offenders.
Aus AIC (May 2008)

Cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 2004-05 As many as one in eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have some form of cardiovascular disease
Aus AIHW (Jun 2008)

Low-income Groups and Behaviour Change Interventions: A review of intervention content and effectiveness asks which interventions are effective in getting people to quit smoking, eat healthily and exercise
UK Kings Fund (May 2008)

Working towards wellness: The business rationale presents data describing the accelerating prevalence of chronic disease and offers a compelling business case for the role workplace wellness programs can play in combating this problem of epidemic proportions.
US PWC (Mar 2008)

Youth Alcohol Action Plan sets out the UK Government’s five priorities
UK Children (Jun 2008)

Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context There is no burgeoning national crisis of increasing serious violence among adolescent girls.
US OJJDP (May 2008)

Youth Courts: An Empirical Update and Analysis of Future Organizational and Research Needs results will provide guidance on how to build and sustain an organizational structure that allows youth courts to successfully fulfill their mission of preventing young offenders from repeating antisocial behaviors, while relying on volunteers and even ex-offenders to be a part of the process.
US OJJDP (Apr 2008)

Towards the New Children in Need Census The Children in Need (CIN) census provided data on all children receiving support from Children’s Social Care Services. The census ceased in 2005 and is being reintroduced in 2008-09.
UK Children (Jun 2008)

Residential Traffic and Children’s Respiratory Health Our findings provide evidence that even in an area with good regional air quality, proximity to traffic is associated with adverse respiratory health effects in children.
US EHP (May 2008)

Commonly used public health statistics and their confidence intervals common types of statistics used within public health intelligence, specifically: rates, proportions, means and age-standardised rates and ratios.
UK APHO (Mar 2008)

Introducing a “Different Lives” Approach to the Valuation of Health and Well-Being whilst virtually everyone accepts that improving the quality of individual lives should be the goal of policy, there are different conceptions of the quality of an individual life… An exploratory survey indicates that health and happiness might be more important than income and life expectancyalso Happiness Research and Cost-Benefit Analysis
US AEI-Brookings (Apr 2008)

HIV in Correctional Settings: Implications for Prevention and Treatment Policy HIV/AIDS has a disproportionate impact on incarcerated populations in the U.S., with prevalence among prisoners more than three times higher than the general U.S. population
US AMFAR (Mar 2008)

Report of the Association of American Medical Colleges Task Force on Industry Funding of Medical Education examining the benefits and pitfalls associated with industry funding of medical education
US AAMC (Jun 2008)

The Power of Information /New Directions in Health System Reform The Summit defined three key healthcare goals that can and should be advanced today through the better use of current health-related information: put people first, enable systematic quality care, and pay for value.
US Avalere Health (2008)

BreastScreen Australia monitoring report 2004-2005 Around 1.2 million women aged 50-69 years of age (56.2% of all women in this age group) took advantage of free mammograms in 2004-2005
Aus AIHW (Jun 2008)

Designed for Disease The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes demonstrates that people who live
near an abundance of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores compared to grocery stores and fresh produce vendors, have
a significantly higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes.
US UCLA (Mar 2008)

Consultation on the future of tobacco control measures to reduce the significant harm to health
UK Health (Jun 2008)

Tobacco tax benefits for Massachusetts : reducing smoking, saving lives, and saving money A $1.00 increase to the state cigarette tax rate would generate more than $150 million in additional new state revenue. But the rate increase would also produce enormous public health and economic benefits to the state and its residents
US Campaign for Tobaccoo Free Kids (Apr 2008)

Quality Matters: Developmental Screening low screening rates mean there are many missed opportunities to intervene early and promote children’s health, learning, and school readiness
US Commonwealth Fund (May 2008)

A model for best practice Health Technology Assessment aims to review and describe different approaches to HTA used in Australia and in other countries and to identify the features of best practice in HTA, particularly those likely to be most relevant to HTA at a local (ie state/regional) level.
Aus CHERE (Mar 2008)

Hospital emergency surge capacity : not ready for the “predictable surprise” Surge capacity depends on more than sufficient space in the emergency room. A hospital must also be able to provide sufficient critical care resources, such as space in intensive care units, and inpatient beds. also Price Waterhouse Coopers : Looking at Health System Disaster Preparedness
US House of Representatives (May 2008)

See me, not just the dementia: Understanding people’s experiences of living in a care home Inspectors used a new method called SOFI (A Short Observational Framework for Inspection), to watch the interaction between people with dementia and care home staff.
UK CSCI (Jun 2008)

Improving Environments for Care at End of Life adapting the Enhancing the Healing Environment (EHE) to these sensitive health care environments and Improving Choice at End of Life
UK KIngs Fund (Apr 2008)

11 April 2008

rwatch — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:17:33 +0000

11 April 2008

In this update:

hospitals and the economy

homeless youth

housing and aged

child health

rural health

drug diversion

diabetes

drowning

mental health costs

mental health beds

complaints

fraud

early years workforce

children’s services

special needs

chronic disease

immunisation

adopted children

hospitals and child abuse

child abuse and development

child abuse and early years

foster care and employment

climate change

patient information

advanced care practitioners

osteoarthritis

burial and cremation

autism

drug services

postcode concordance

capacity building

Beyond Health Care: The Economic Contribution of Hospitals Hospitals Are Among the Largest Employers in Many Communities
US AHA (Apr 2008)

Australia’s Homeless Youth: a report of the National Youth Commission Inquiry into Youth Homelessness The Roadmap for Youth Homelessness highlights the 10 ‘must do’ strategic areas for action.
Aus National Youth Commission (Apr 2008)

Costs and benefits of housing as the ‘home base’ for older people housing is one of the key factors affecting older people’s chances of early entry to more costly residential care services.
AHURI (Apr 2008)

Key national indicators of children’s health, development and wellbeing: indicator framework of ‘A picture of Australia’s children 2009′ previews the reporting framework and key national indicators that will be the basis of the report scheduled for release in 2009
AIHW (Mar 2008)

Rural, regional and remote health: indicators of health status and determinants of health includes information relating to health status (such as rates of chronic disease, injury and mental health) and determinants of health (such as tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, nutrition and physical activity)
AIHW (Mar 2008)

The effectiveness of the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative in rural and remote Australia Consistent with previous Australian studies of drug diversion, the qualitative evidence gathered during this project suggests that Indigenous people are particularly disadvantaged
in terms of accessing and completing diversion programs.
AIHW (Mar 2008)

Diabetes: Australian facts 2008 nearly 4% of the population, had clinically diagnosed diabetes in 2004-05
AIHW (Mar 2008)

Deaths and hospitalisations due to drowning, Australia 1999-00 to 2003-04 During the five-year period 1999–00 to 2003–04 an annual average of 370 people died in Australia as the result of drowning, and an annual average of 618 were hospitalised as a result of drowning.
AIHW (Apr 2008)

Project Initiation Document – Mental Health Payment by Results Development Project PID) sets out the approach (including timescales, products and risks) for developing a currency and then tariff for mental health services.
UK Health (Apr 2008)

Spotlight on Complaints 2008 Survey of NHS shows that complaints about a lack of basic nursing care, poor communications, overly brisk GP consultations and a lack of help for mental health service users are among the key issues patients raise…research suggests that 52% of complainants simply want either an apology, a better explanation or recognition of the event. full report
UK Healthcare Comm (Apr 2008)

A code of practice for the use of powers to counter NHS fraud and security incidents requirements that NHS counter fraud or security management specialists should follow when obtaining, handling, using and disclosing information
UK Health (Apr 2008)

For Love or Money: Pay, progression and professionalisation in the ‘early years’ workforce There is evidence that the current process of professionalising the early years workforce is alienating practitioners and skewing efforts to drive up the quality of services.
UK IPPR (Apr 2008)

Registration and Regulation of Schools and Children’s Services Reducing red tape and focusing on how services can better assist
families, children and communities is at the heart of this reform. more
SA Education (Mar 2008)

Review of services for Children and Young People (0–19) with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (Bercow review) Communication is crucial; Early identification and intervention are essential in order to avoid poor outcomes; A continuum of services, designed around the family, is needed; Joint working is critical
UK DCSF (Mar 2008)

Coordinated Care – Evaluation Report of 2nd Round Trials In Australia, chronic disease is estimated to underpin about 80% of the total burden of disease…The 2nd Round of Coordinated Care Trials gave the Commonwealth, States and Territories, healthcare providers, community and Indigenous organisations, and patients an opportunity to adopt innovative and experimental approaches to health services.
Aus Health/PWC (Jan 2008)

Australian Immunisation Handbook. The ninth edition includes new chapters on rotavirus and the human papillomavirus (HPV).
Aus Health (Apr 2008)

The Shortage of Public Hospital Beds for Mentally Ill Persons New US report finds deficit of nearly 100,000 public psychiatric beds result is increased homelessness, emergency room overcrowding, and use of jails and prisons as de-facto psychiatric hospitals
US Treatment advocacy Center (Mar 2008)

Meeting the Mental Health and Developmental Needs Of Adopted Children outlines best practices for preparing adoptive parents
US Adoption Institute (Feb 2008)

Children’s Hospitals at the Frontlines: The Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect focuses on the efforts being implemented by children’s hospitals to reduce child abuse and neglect.
US Nat Assn Children’s Hospitals (Jan 2008)

Developmental Status and Early Intervention Service Needs of Maltreated Children Children ages birth to 36 months who have been maltreated are at substantial risk of experiencing subsequent developmental problems.
US DHHS (Apr 2008)

Protecting the Youngest: The Role of Early Care and Education in Preventing and Responding to Child Maltreatment Children from birth to age 3 are uniquely vulnerable to maltreatment and enter foster care in disproportionately high numbers.
US NCSL (Sep 2007)

Coming of Age: Employment Outcomes for Youth who Age out of Foster Care Through Their Middle Twenties Youth who age out of foster care continue to experience poor employment outcomes at age 24
US DHHS (Mar 2008)

The health impact of climate change: promoting sustainable communities – guidance document asks health professionals to consider the health impacts of climate change and provide information on how societies can adapt to the most severe impacts – such as heatwaves and flooding, with adequate planning. also BMA website Health professionals taking action on climate change also Protecting health in Europe from climate change
UK Health (Apr 2008)

Choice Matters – working with libraries The potential role of public libraries in providing online information to non-IT literate patients
UK Health (Apr 2008)

The national education and competence framework for advanced critical care practitioners The Advanced Critical Care Practitioner will perform certain clinical activities, some of which were previously in the domain of doctors.
UK Health (Apr 2008)

Osteoarthritis: National clinical guideline for care and management in adults Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and one of the leading causes of pain and disability in the UK.
UK Royal College of Physicians (Feb 2008)

Burial and Cremation Review Group: Report and Recommendations A review of the Burial and Cremation legislation in Scotland.
Scotland (Apr 2008)

Commissioning Services for People on the Autism Spectrum: Policy and Practice Guidance and advance notice of the Autism Schoolbox for schools
Scotland (Apr 2008)

Essential Care: A Report on the Approach Required to Maximise Opportunity for Recovery from Problem Substance Use in Scotland is concerned with support that is needed to address problems in areas of drug service users’ lives other than addiction, such as general health, mental health, dental health, housing, and social skills and relationships.
Scotland (Mar 2008)

Postcodes in electoral divisions (2006 electoral boundaries) a concordance of postcodes to Commonwealth electoral divisions
Aus Parliamentary Library (Apr 2008)

Community Capacity Building – A review of the literature written primarily for people working with communities, from the health and community sectors and non government organisations.
SA Health (2007)

Child protection and foster care

rwatch — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 06:32:32 +0000

Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care the results suggest that children on the margin of placement tend to have better outcomes when they remain at home, especially
for older children.
US Am Eco Review (Jul 2007)

Policy and practice

rwatch — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 06:30:10 +0000

We know what to do but we don’t always do it – aligning policy and practice. Understanding the value of demonstration projects and using them better, Increasing understanding of the issues through profiling different priority groups and listening to consumers, Build policy through learning from the practice evidence, Connecting senior levels and the ‘coal face’, Communicating realistic expectations and timeframes, Being clear about outcomes, monitoring and evaluation that feeds into policy.
Aus SPRC (Jul 2007)