Archives: Press Releases

Press Release on health-related topics.

New Collaborative Will Hone Public Health Resources to Improve Well-Being of Older Adults

FOR RELEASE: November 13, 2018

Public Health Leaders from 37 Florida Counties Participate in Planning Forum

Washington, DC — Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) is pleased to announce the launch of the Florida Age-Friendly Public Health Collaborative and Action Network. Working directly with the Florida Department of Health and with generous funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation, the collaborative and action network will help Florida’s local health departments improve the health and well-being of older adults. During the launch with representatives of Florida’s 37 participating counties, TFAH President and CEO John Auerbach called this effort “a historic moment in public health and a crucial collaboration between the public health and aging sectors.”

There is growing momentum for public health to contribute to programs, policies, and innovative interventions to promote health as people age. Although public health efforts are partly responsible for the dramatic increases in longevity over the 20th Century, historically, there have been limited collaborations across the health and aging fields.

“Longevity and our growing older adult population is a remarkable success story, and it requires all sectors of society to prepare,” said Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, President of The John A. Hartford Foundation. “I’ve been extremely impressed with Florida’s commitment and creativity in pro-actively getting ahead of the curve, so that age-friendly public health solutions are in place for the state and as a model for the entire country.”

“Florida is excited about the opportunity to work with TFAH to advance age-friendly public health,” said Florida’s State Surgeon General Dr. Celeste Philip. “Addressing the needs of older populations is an important aspect of promoting health equity and the Department is committed to ensuring that every Floridian has the opportunity to be healthy in every stage of their life. The counties participating in this project represent two-thirds of our population, but we know that all our citizens will benefit from the policies and best practices this partnership will develop.”

Demographic changes now underway are spurring an urgency among all sectors and professions to focus on the comprehensive needs of our aging society. In 1900, about three million Americans—about four percent of the total population—were aged 65 and over. By 2014, that number had risen to 46 million—about 15 percent of the population. The oldest members of the baby-boomer generation turned 65 in 2011, launching a rapid increase in the number of older adults that will continue indefinitely—by 2030, about one in five Americans will be 65 or older.

In October 2017, TFAH brought together 30 experts in public health, aging, research, and policy to explore whether and how public health could contribute to the health of older adults. Convening participants all agreed that public health could play many unique and important roles in healthy aging and developed a Framework for Creating an Age-Friendly Public Health System to advance public health’s role at the local, state, and national levels.

Through the Florida Age-Friendly Public Health Network, TFAH is identifying and sharing case studies and best practices, developing tools and training resources, and offering expert technical assistance based on the variety of needs of Florida’s diverse communities. More than half of Florida’s local health departments have already identified issue areas that could be strengthened via the collaborative, including emergency preparedness, social isolation, chronic disease management, transportation, and housing. TFAH looks forward to sharing the results of this initiative with public health stakeholders and policymakers, and to work with state and national partners to advance the work nation-wide.

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Trust for America’s Health is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority.  WWW.tfah.org

The John A. Hartford Foundation, based in New York City, is a private, nonpartisan, national philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults. The leader in the field of aging and health, the Foundation has three priority areas: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregivers, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care. For more information, visit johnahartford.org and follow @johnahartford.

 

 

TFAH Webinar Series on Achieving Health Equity through Collaborations, Innovative Funding and Leadership.

TFAH’s Fall 2018 4-part webinar series, Taking Action to Promote Health Equity – Using the Lessons from Cutting-Edge Practices to Improve Health and Well Being, features national public health practitioners and community leaders sharing their experiences shaping and executing programs to increase health equity in their communities.  The webinar series is designed to inform a broad, national audience about compelling and replicable health equity initiatives and how to address the grass roots issues that will impact their success.  The programs you will learn about via this series are transferable to diverse communities – large or small, urban or rural, with substantial or minimal resources.

The series is made possible through funding from The California Endowment, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  TFAH Executive Vice President and COO, Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, is the series moderator.

Segment 1 – Lessons Learned from The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Project

Segment 2 – Show Me the Money – Innovative Funding

Segment 3 – Breaking Out of the Box – Innovative Collaborations

Segment 4 – Creating Change Through Leadership: Two Extraordinary Leaders, a Mother and Daughter, Share their Experiences Promoting Racial Equity

 

 

 

Trying To Protect Seniors, The Most Vulnerable, From Formidable Foe Florence

Sept. 12, 2018

“Unfortunately, the best wake-up call is when a tragedy occurs,” said Dara Lieberman, senior government relations manager at the Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit. “Hopefully, nursing facilities and emergency managers paid attention to the loss of life in the long-term care facility in Florida last year and realize the risks they face by not preparing. Every facility should have a plan.”

View the full story (some sites require registration)

TFAH Applauds Passage of FY19 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill

September 26, 2018 — Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) applauds Congress for today’s passage of the FY19 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, which includes a $126 million increase for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). By completing the bill before the end of the fiscal year, Congress is ensuring that state and local health departments and other grantees can continue their critical work protecting the public’s health without fear of gaps in their grant cycles.

The now passed FY19 funding will enable CDC to continue its important work helping communities prepare for natural disasters and other emergencies, as is happening now in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. The appropriations include a small increase to enable communities to continue working to address health disparities through the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program. It also continues funding focused on environmental health, and for the CDC’s critical work addressing the substance misuse crisis.

“By working together on a bipartisan basis Congress has provided a much-needed funding increase to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This increase is an important down payment on the investment required to ensure the public health system is fully prepared to tackle the health threats facing the nation,” said John Auerbach, TFAH’s President and CEO.

For years we have underfunded our nation’s public health system, which only leads to increased healthcare spending when illness and injury occur. According to TFAH’s report, A Funding Crisis for Public Health and Safety, core funding for disease prevention and health promotion programs has declined by approximately $580 million federally and has remained flat in states since 2010.

“The country needs a long-term commitment to rebuilding the nation’s public health capacity. Not just to filling some of the more dangerous gaps, but to ensuring that all communities are prepared and resilient when emergencies happen. TFAH hopes that Congress will work together again next year to raise the budget caps which kept critically important health spending at levels below those of fiscal year 2010,” Auerbach said.

Earlier this year, Auerbach testified before the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Committee about the importance of public health funding. His testimony can be found here.

Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust Launch National Resilience Strategy Blueprint to Raise Awareness of and Offer Solutions for Drug, Alcohol and Suicide Crises

(Washington, DC and Oakland, Calif., July 2) – A new web-based blueprint designed to help communities deal with the drug, alcohol and suicide crises launched today.

In November of 2017, Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Well Being Trust (WBT) released Pain in the Nation: The Drug, Alcohol and Suicide Crises and the Need for a National Resilience Strategy. The report detailed the growing number of “despair deaths” – deaths due to drug and alcohol misuse and suicide – and more than 60 evidence-based programs proven to help fight contributing factors and save lives.

This companion piece, the Pain in the Nation: National Resilience Strategy website, will help policy-makers and community leaders access critical data and prevention-oriented programs and policies – including promotion of responsible opioid prescribing practices, enforcement of underage drinking laws, and anti-bullying and social-emotional learning programs in schools, among others. The website also provides state level data on how the drug, alcohol and suicide crises are impacting lives across the country and includes case studies describing community and school-based prevention programs that work.

“The numbers of these deaths are staggering and tragic. They are also preventable,” says John Auerbach, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health.  “As a nation, we need to apply what we know about prevention to address the root causes of this epidemic of substance abuse and suicide. The time to act is now.”

According to the Trust for America’s Health and the Well Being Trust, a National Resilience Strategy must be comprehensive and focused at both the crisis intervention level and on early identification of and action on the causes of poor mental and physical health. The Pain in the Nation: National Resilience Strategy website provides a high-level roadmap for communities to tackle these difficult issues.

“To better support the conditions that can prevent these deaths of despair, we must intervene at the source and look at the issue through a more comprehensive systems lens,” says  Benjamin F. Miller, Psy.D., Chief Strategy Officer, Well Being Trust. “While closing the treatment gap is important, we’ll never get there if we don’t also focus on closing the prevention gap – by increasing attention on adverse childhood experiences, chronic stress, food deserts and all the additional health inequities across geographies and demographics.”

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Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority. Twitter: @HealthyAmerica1

Well Being Trust is a national foundation dedicated to advancing the mental, social and spiritual health of the nation. Created to include participation from organizations across sectors and perspectives, Well Being Trust is committed to innovating and addressing the most critical mental health challenges facing America, and to transforming individual and community wellness. http://wellbeingtrust.org/. Twitter: @WellBeingTrust

TFAH Applauds Passage of Senate Farm Bill

(Washington, D.C., June 29, 2018) – John Auerbach, president and CEO, of Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) today made the following statement regarding Senate passage of “Farm Bill” legislation (the Agriculture Improvement Act – Senate amendment to H.R. 2) to reauthorize key federal agricultural and nutrition programs.

“The Trust for America’s Health is pleased the U.S. Senate has completed work on Farm Bill legislation that will support and promote good nutrition and improved health outcomes. By rejecting the approach taken by the House, the Senate bill largely protects and strengthens the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which serves as a critical lifeline to millions of American children and families that otherwise lack the means to access adequate nourishment and make healthy food choices.

In addition to increases in funding to the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Pilot, the Senate bill includes a Harvesting Health pilot that would help to further promote linkages between health care providers and anti-hunger and nutrition improvement activities.

According to TFAH’s State of Obesity report, roughly two out of every three adults or one out of every three children is either obese or overweight. Obesity remains both a significant public health crisis and a national security issue-being overweight or obese is the leading cause of medical disqualifications for military service, with nearly one-quarter of applicants being rejected for exceeding the weight or body fat standards. Additionally, obesity translates to higher health care costs and poor quality of life.

Many efforts are underway that encourage SNAP recipients to make healthy food choices; for example, incentive programs to use SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets. Such efforts, combined with other prevention programs and policies, have been shown to be effective. We must now continue to invest in and scale such approaches to help Americans eat healthier. SNAP and other Farm Bill programs will be critical to turning the tide against this longstanding health problem.

TFAH looks forward to continuing to work with Congress through the conference process as it develops a final Farm Bill that will lead us in the right direction, towards improving the health and prosperity of all Americans.”

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Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.

Separating parents and children at US border is inhumane and sets the stage for a public health crisis

(Washington, D.C., June 15, 2018) — “The Trump administration’s policy of separating parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border will have a dire impact on their health, both now and into the future.

“As public health professionals we know that children living without their parents face immediate and long-term health consequences. Risks include the acute mental trauma of separation, the loss of critical health information that only parents would know about their children’s health status, and in the case of breastfeeding children, the significant loss of maternal child bonding essential for normal development. Parents’ health would also be affected by this unjust separation.

“More alarming is the interruption of these children’s chance at achieving a stable childhood. Decades of public health research have shown that family structure, stability and environment are key social determinants of a child’s and a community’s health.

“Furthermore, this practice places children at heightened risk of experiencing adverse childhood events and trauma, which research has definitively linked to poorer long-term health. Negative outcomes associated with adverse childhood events include some of society’s most intractable health issues: alcoholism, substance misuse, depression, suicide, poor physical health and obesity.

“There is no law requiring the separation of parents and children at the border. This policy violates fundamental human rights. We urge the administration to immediately stop the practice of separating immigrant children and parents and ensure those who have been separated are rapidly reunited, to ensure the health and well-being of these children.”

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APHA champions the health of all people and all communities. We strengthen the public health profession. We speak out for public health issues and policies backed by science. We are the only organization influence federal policy, has a nearly 150-year perspective and brings together members from all fields of public health. Visit us at www.apha.org.


Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority.  Twitter: @HealthyAmerica1