Reducing Teen Substance Misuse: What Really Works 2015

A significant number of students try alcohol, tobacco or other drugs as teenagers. More than 65 percent of students have used alcohol, more than 40 percent used illegal drugs and around one-quarter used cigarettes at some point before entering or while in high school. While the number of teens who regularly misuse or develop substance use disorders has been decreasing over time, overall levels are still too high. In this report, the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) examines how to help move towards a strong prevention-oriented, continuum-of-care approach to substance misuse -- looking at policies and programs that have a high impact for improving the well-being of America's youth

Pain in the Nation: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths 2023

The rate of U.S. deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide climbed 11 percent in 2021, according to a new report released today by Trust for America's Health (TFAH). While an all-time record, 209,225 Americans lost their lives due to alcohol, drugs or suicide last year these deaths are part of a two-decade trend of sharply increasing fatalities due to substance misuse and suicide in the U.S. The 2021 data showed such deaths were up across the U.S. population, with the largest increases occurring among certain populations of color as well as people living in the South, West, and rural regions of the country

The Facts Hurt: A State-By-State Injury Prevention Policy Report 2015

The vast majority of injuries are "predictable, preventable and avoidable," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Successful public health policies, programs and public education campaigns can help give Americans the tools they need to stay safe and protect their families. In this report, the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) worked with a committee of top injury prevention experts from the Safe States Alliance and the Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Prevention (SAVIR) to help identify evidence-based approaches -- which, if adopted and implemented, could help lower the number of injuries around the country. This report highlights a set of indicators that provide the public and policymakers with information about the status of some key injury prevention policies in states, and provides recommendations for key strategies to reduce injuries in the United States

Health in Mind: Improving Education Through Wellness

Educators know that healthy students are better prepared to learn and succeed in school. It's also known that people who are better educated and obtain a college education have lower rates of health conditions and longer life expectancy. Yet current health and education policy misses several simple but vital opportunities to boost academic success through health promotion and school wellness. The nation's current generation of students could become the first to live shorter and less healthy lives than their parents. At the same time, our nation faces a growing achievement gap: Students who attend school in communities with lower socioeconomic status have lower academic outcomes than students in higher socioeconomic status communities. Overwhelmingly, the underserved communities predominantly comprise ethnic minority residents, which propagates a racial chasm. Research is increasingly confirming a link between the achievement gap and health disparities. For this reason, Healthy Schools Campaign and Trust for America's Health developed "Health in Mind: Improving Education Through Wellness". This effort focuses on policy recommendations for immediate, practical changes at the federal level to help close the achievement gap and create a healthy future for all children

America\u27s Anti-Violence Campaign: The Use of Mediation to Reduce the Incidence of Workplace Violence

The author recommends that companies incorporate a mediation program into their anti-violence plans

Beyond language: public health and 'cultural competency'

My path to public health has been non-traditional, and in many ways I have medical anthropology to thank for that. After completing a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from The College of Wooster (U.S.A.), where I undertook an independent thesis on the perceptions of HIV/AIDS in Japan and the USA, I landed a job in the divisive and emotional realm of American health policy. Here I quickly made the observation that many public policy decisions regarding ‘health' are more often focused on saving money than on promoting or protecting health. I then went on to complete the MPhil in Medical Anthropology between 2007 and 2009. While at Oxford, my research focus was on tuberculosis (TB) policy among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples and the influence that place and space, ethnomedicine, and a political-ecologic setting had on these policies (Graff 2009). Through this work my interests moved away from national health policy and towards an application of medical anthropological theories to international public health. Formerly the Policy Development Associate at the Trust for America's Health in Washington, DC, I am currently the Senior Policy Researcher at the UK Health Forum and studying for a Doctorate in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Today my interests within public health include the influence of place and space on health and disease prevention, and the social determinants of health, health inequalities and cultural competency

Bad Trip: Drug Prohibition and the Weakness of Public Policy

The case against prohibition is overwhelming precisely because so many different types of considerations all point to a single solution: the legalization of illicit drugs. The complexity of the case against prohibition means, however, that it cannot be presented adequately by a few anecdotes or even a lengthy essay. Nothing less than a book-length treatment will suffice and, fortunately, that book has been published. America\u27s Longest War is an ambitious effort to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy of prohibition. It accomplishes this by marshalling the empirical research that has been done on both drugs and drug prohibition and then offering persuasive analysis of this data. In this review, the author is able to touch upon only a few evocative highlights. In part I, the author relates some of the least known and most provocative facts that Duke and Gross report about licit and illicit drugs. In part II, he discusses the origins of drug prohibition. If the merits of drug prohibition are to be questioned seriously, then the many myths about drug use must be challenged-and Duke and Gross have done so effectively. In part ill, the author relates the grave social costs of drug prohibition that Duke and Gross document and adds a few they missed. The harmful consequences discussed in part Ill each reflect the morals of the stories with which he began this review. In part IV, the author examines the prevailing public policy approach to lawmaking that is responsible for the origination and continuation of the drug war and advocate a more principled approach. He makes clear, this is not a critique of public policy analysis, the source of much very useful information. Rather, the author criticizes adherents of a public policy model of decisionmaking that rejects what they refer to as a simplistic or doctrinaire reliance on general principles or individual rights to decide questions of legal coercion. Instead, they posit that legal coercion is best guided by public policy experts who are competent to formulate rational solutions to what they abstractly define as social problems. The author argues that the evidence presented in America\u27s Longest War is an indictment, not only of the War on Drugs, but also of this method of legal decisionmaking, though Duke and Gross seem not to appreciate fully this important lesson. Although adherence to sound principles does not substitute for the knowledge provided by good public policy analysis, the author explains why the use of legal coercion to pursue worthwhile public policy objectives should be constrained by principles or rights. Finally, in part V, the author briefly considers alternatives to the current regime of prohibition, including the form of legalization favored by Duke and Gross. Although far preferable to the status quo, he discusses how the principles identified in part IV reveal deficiencies in their proposal

The Crisis in America's Housing: Confronting Myths and Promoting a Balanced Housing Policy

This report debunks three common myths about housing policies. Myth 1: Subsidized housing is unnecessary. Myth 2: Federal government housing subsidies go disproportionately to low-income renters in urban areas. Myth 3: Homeownership is the best housing option for everyone.

Profiles of Missouri: Obesity Rate in Missouri

According to a recent report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH), obesity rates in all but one of our fifty U.S. states rose last year at an alarming rate (the exception is Oregon, where the rate remained the same as the previous year, and data are not available for Hawaii). In this report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America, 2005, TFAH outlines the nation's growing problem. Approximately 119 million Americans, or 64.5 percent, are either overweight or obese, and the number of obese American adults rose, according to TFAH, from 23.7 percent in 2003 to 24.5 percent in 2004. Although the national goal is 15 percent or less of the population being obese, in 10 states more than 25 percent of adults are obese, and the national average of obese adults is 16 percent. This includes about 16 percent of active duty U.S. military personnel.Includes bibliographical reference

Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads

Recommends investing in research, innovation, and a dynamic science and engineering workforce with the participation of underrepresented minorities. Suggests ways to improve access, motivation, affordability, and supports to raise degree completion rates