NEWS YOU CAN USE
America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2008
The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released their annual report on the status of youth in the U.S. The report analyzes up-to-date Federal statistics and includes indicators on education, poverty, health, housing, safety, and at-risk behavior.
Tool Kit for Creating Your Own Truancy Reduction Program
This innovative resource from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention details some different tools that schools, parents, and students can use to reduce truancy.
Suicide Risks Studied in Drugs for Physical Ills
This article from Comcast.net News suggests that consumers should consider, in addition to physical effects, the sometimes extreme mental health side effects of the medications they take to treat physical illness.
Newsletter Highlights Substance Abuse Strategies for Youthful Offender Reentry
A recent edition of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s SAMHSA News spotlights various programs across the country that have made a significant impact in addressing youth substance abuse problems that often lead to returns to the juvenile justice system.
Community Health Assessment Toolkit
This toolkit from the Association for Community Health Improvement provides detailed illustrations of how different communities and organizations have approached the toolkit's six steps to better understand, and ultimately improve, the health of their communities. The toolkit can also serve as a template to aid system of care communities in assessing behavioral health needs.
Extra Calories and Childhood Obesity
In this article, Vincent Iannelli, M.D. describes things parents can do to lower their child’s calorie intake, such as avoiding high calorie snacks and giving seconds on healthy side dishes only, in order to help battle America’s childhood obesity problem.
National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII: Teens and Parents (PDF)
The annual survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University reveals that 'problem parents'—those who fail to monitor their children's school night activities, safeguard their prescription drugs, address the problem of drugs in their children's schools, and set good examples—increase the risk that their youth will smoke, drink, and use illegal and prescription drugs.
National Alliance on Mental Illness to Grade States’ Mental Health Services
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is preparing to grade each of the 50 States on their delivery of mental health services and invites the public to help by taking an online survey. The survey is also available in Spanish.