The Georgia Department of Community Affairs, in partnership with Southface and the Georgia Health Policy Center, is pleased to announce the support of The Kresge Foundation in a joint venture with local public housing authorities to improve the ability of PHAs to address residents’ health through better quality housing and improved access to services. The Georgia HFA Healthy Families project has been awarded $391,962 to help communities overcome the environmental and social disadvantages that contribute to poor health. The grant period for the project is from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2020. This effort builds on new and long-time relationships to strengthen the linkages between health and housing.
All too often local hospitals view each other as competition, rather than as partners in solving population health challenges. In Atlanta, five health systems are cooperating in an unprecedented way.
The collaboration was made possible through participation in the Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement (ARCHI) and through the Georgia Health Policy Center’s facilitation of the community health needs assessment process.
Mayor Kasim Reed, who spoke at the June ARCHI breakfast, acknowledged, “A healthy city requires a broad effort to tackle issues such as homelessness, affordable housing, transportation, and equity across the board.”
Finding the right long-term services and supports can be overwhelming for an individual or family member who recently experienced a stroke, fall, or, even for someone with an existing disability, who recently relocated to a new city.
The Georgia Health Policy Center assisted the Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Aging Services in conducting a statewide assessment to identify community needs, gaps in the system, challenges, and solutions to improve the existing Aging and Disability Resource Connection information system. Key findings included: a need for building and strengthening partner relationships, increasing community outreach, improving program staff training, and seamlessly connecting individuals between agencies.
School-based mental health programs have positive outcomes for students, their families, and their schools, according to evaluation results from the first year of the Georgia Apex Program.
Chris Parker, GHPC’s director of population and global health, was quoted on March 29 in the Georgia Health News article, “Affluent suburban counties remain Georgia’s healthiest, rankings show.” The article focuses on county health rankings based on eight components: overall health outcomes, length of life, quality of life, overall health factors, health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.
Over the past several years, Georgia has built a robust set of sickle cell disease (SCD) surveillance data for the purpose of developing and disseminating scientific evidence to inform policies and practices that will improve the health, quality of life, and life expectancy of individuals with SCD.
Expanding smoke-free laws in bars or restaurants may be more impactful in preventing asthma-related hospitalizations than smoke-free laws in nonhospitality workplaces, according to a study published online May 14 in the Canadian Respiratory Journal.
“Only 49% of the U.S. population lives in a location where smoke-free laws are in force in all bars, restaurants, and workplaces,” says lead author Glenn Landers, Sc.D., director of health systems at the Georgia Health Policy Center. “Clearly, there are still opportunities to reduce second hand smoke exposure and health outcomes through changes in county smoking laws.”
The Underline is a plan to transform the land below the southern half of Miami’s Metrorail into a 10-mile urban trail and linear park, studded with community spaces, event facilities, recreational amenities, and natural features. GHPC conducted the health impact assessment for this project.
GHPC continues to monitor health reform efforts and their impacts. Review the latest information on our comparison chart of health reform proposals. Further news and updates can be found on our health reform page.
The third session of the Legislative Health Policy Program will be hosted at GHPC, 9 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. Georgia legislators and staffers are welcome to attend. Registration is required.
