Context: Hospitalization due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) is often used as an indicator for measuring access to primary care. Rural health clinics (RHCs) provide basic primary care services for rural residents in health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). The relationship between RHCs and ACSCs is unclear. Purpose: The purpose…

Parents and grandparents, just like everyone else, are ready to extol (maybe even exaggerate) the attributes and accomplishments of their offspring. The need to respond to accomplishments is essential for the sake of the special child and his/her parents. In their zeal to reassure and encourage one's own special child, it is easy to deny the…

Adolescents forego mental health care in spite of self-perceived needs for services; this presents a significant public health problem. Using data from the 2001 Adolescent Health Care Access Survey of 16-year-olds in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, we assessed barriers to mental health care among the 878 respondents who reported ever needing…

Research has identified that while people with learning disabilities often have greater health needs than the general population, they access primary care at the same rate or lower. Valuing people recommends that members of learning disability teams should take on a key role in supporting people with learning disabilities to access mainstream…

Background: People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) experience significant health inequalities compared with the general population. The barriers people with IDs experience in accessing services contribute to these health inequalities. Professionals' significant unmet training needs are an important barrier to people with IDs accessing…

Long-distance travel to provide mental health services for deaf people has implications for efficiency, safety, and equality of service. However, uptake of Telemental Health (TMH) has been slow in both deaf and general mental health services. A quantitative study was used to investigate access to TMH and whether staff confidence, experience, or…

Legislative evaluators can inform state policymakers who face policy and budget decisions related to large and complex federal programs such as Medicaid. Unlike lobbyists, advocates, and other stakeholders who support particular interests, legislative evaluators are uniquely positioned to provide independent and timely information to assist…

The world has a population of 6 billion. India alone has a population of 1 billion. This is despite the fact that India was the first country in the world to have a population policy. It is important to understand the factors that led to this population explosion and the complex links between population growth rates and levels of development.…

In recent years, conservatives have promoted health savings accounts (HSAs) as a way of addressing the growing cost of health insurance. HSAs were introduced under the Medical Modernization Act of 2003 as "an alternative to traditional health insurance." They are at the heart of an effort to replace the current system of insurance with…

This article examines the use of outpatient mental health services in a sample of low-income women (Mothers' Well-Being Study [MWS]) and compares the findings with a sample of similar-aged women in the general population (National Comorbidity Survey [NCS]). Overall, the prevalence of any 12-month mental health disorder was significantly greater…

The utilization of health services by older adults has received increased attention over the past decade, but little is known about how service utilization varies between rural and urban areas. In an era of restructuring and downsizing within the Canadian health care system, there are concerns that rural older adults may be increasingly…

This National Council on Disability (NCD) annual progress report to the President and Congress covers the period December 2005 through December 2006. The report is divided into 13 chapters, each dealing with a major area of public policy. These subject-specific chapters are preceded by an introductory Major Trends section that identifies…

It is estimated that 3.2% of Cuba's population of 11.4 million persons has a severe disability of some kind. Recent economic difficulties have, it may be assumed, had a negative impact on health service provision--which is free to all--and thus, on population health outcomes and nutritional levels. There is a traditional culture of family care for…

The state of Connecticut initiated a statewide program of systematic needs assessment for children's mental health services in 1986-1987. A stratified random sample of children ages 6 to 11 was drawn from registration lists of all public, private, and parochial schools. Of 79 schools, 56 were sampled, and 54 agreed to participate in the survey.…

Outlines the history of Federal involvement in the improvement of child and maternal health. Argues that despite tremendous advances, access to health care remains a problem for many and that to maintain required levels of preventive health services for children and mothers, constant vigilance is needed. (CMG)