When rural hospitals close, it increases the distance people must travel for essential healthcare services. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and magnified the factors leading to rural hospital closures across the country. Many ...
People who use electricity-dependent durable medical equipment (DME) at home—such as ventilators and oxygen concentrators—can face life-threatening consequences during a power outage. HHS reports that 2.7 million Medicare beneficiaries ...
Continuing ASTHO’s Legislative Prospectus series—which highlights the top 10 public health policy issues for 2022—we are focusing this week on mental and behavioral health as well as supporting the public health workforce.
The 2020 holiday season is coinciding with a nationwide surge of COVID-19 cases. With great concern that holiday travel to see loved ones may exacerbate community spread of the virus, many states are increasing public health measures ...
Each year, ASTHO notes the top public health policy issues to watch in the upcoming year. ASTHO has published a prospectus on several issues, with more coming later this month. ASTHO kicked off its top 10 public health state policy issues ...
A training to help clinicians report and recognize the signs and symptoms of a cyanobacterial bloom-associated illnesses.
This report highlights how a six-state "payers cohort," through the ASTHO/CDC Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Learning Collaborative, convened cross-sector teams which included payer partners, local health agency staff, ...
Economic security and well-being, job stability, access to safe and affordable housing, access to healthy and nutritious foods, and access to resources to manage mental and physical health—all of these things impact individual, family, and ...
Evidence suggests that access to healthy, safe, and affordable housing is connected to preventing suicide and overdose, with state and federal programs supporting access to housing for people with low incomes, substance use disorders, ...
Public health agencies are working to reduce dementia risk and to optimize the health and well-being of people living with dementia and their caregivers.
In an effort to help meet demand, some states and territories have joined interjurisdictional licensing compacts that allow a mental healthcare provider licensed in one state to provide care in another state—without needing to gain ...
In this infographic, ASTHO highlights some of the biggest takeaways, successes, and data collected from the Breastfeeding Learning Community.
Families who wish to breastfeed in the United States often face barriers in workplace and school settings. To address these disparities, federal, state, and territorial governments are adopting policies to improve lactation accommodations ...
As leaders of their state agency, state and territorial health officials can be named parties in lawsuits alleging that an action taken by a public health agency was unlawful. These officials are typically sued in their “official ...
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted workforce challenges and longstanding health inequities within the healthcare and public health systems, because of this there has been an increased interest in developing the community health worker ...
The ASTHO State Health Policy team provides brief updates on 5 of the ten state health policy issues to watch in 2022: public health authority, immunization, data privacy and modernization, public health workforce, and health equity.
In 1965, while signing the Voting Rights Act into law, President Lyndon B. Johnson stated that “a man without a vote is a man without protection.” However, voting is a bit more complicated this year as it can increase the chance of ...
This report analyzes way that public health officials can mitigate the impact of disasters on pregnant people, neonates, and infants through a variety of policies, including policies related to preparing for, responding to, and recovering ...
Breastfeeding is considered the gold standard in postnatal care for both birthing persons and infants. Yet racial disparities in breastfeeding initiation and duration rates continue to persist. Effective intervention strategies require a ...
PrEP is a powerful tool to reduce new HIV infections; expanding access to PrEP is a priority within the federal Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative. One way to increase access to PrEP is by allowing pharmacists to prescribe and ...