Beyond the Rankings: What Four Decades of KIDS COUNT Have Taught Me About Why Data Matter

For more than three decades, through the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® project, decisionmakers and communities have had access to reliable national, state, and local data to improve outcomes for all children, young people, and families in this country. KIDS COUNT comprises the foundation’s national KIDS COUNT publications—the annual KIDS COUNT Data Book and periodic reports such as Race for Results; the KIDS COUNT Data Center, a resource for year-round national, state, and local data; and the KIDS COUNT Network of state-based partner organizations that help policymakers, advocates, journalists, and community leaders understand and use data to make informed decisions.

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Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy: Countering Bias and Promoting Care

Most pregnancy-related deaths in North Carolina are preventable. Yet mental health conditions, including overdose and suicide, remain the leading cause of pregnancy-related death. For health care leaders, that reality demands a closer look at how we identify, treat, and support pregnant and postpartum patients with opioid use disorder.

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Preventing Domestic Violence by Reaching People Who Cause Harm

The research involved a landscape scan of Cook County, Illinois’ policies, funding, and services for people who cause harm with a goal of engaging the stakeholders and providers doing this work as well as survivors and those who receive services to identify barriers, challenges, and strengths of domestic violence prevention programs. The research examined Partner Abuse Intervention Programs (PAIP) in particular, a standard intervention for people who cause harm that is overseen by the Illinois Department of Human Services.

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Post-Overdose Response Teams: A Community-Based Approach to Public Safety

Recent changes in the federal policy landscape have created new questions for communities working to address substance use disorder (SUD), mental health needs, and housing instability. In this evolving environment, philanthropy, in collaboration with community-based organizations and local governments, has an important role to play in supporting evidence-based responses to overdose and mental health emergencies that improve access to care, strengthen community wellbeing, and uplift public health while avoiding unnecessary criminal legal outcomes.

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GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter

An Exclusive Resource for Funding Partners

The Health Policy Update is a newsletter produced in collaboration with Leavitt Partners and Trust for America’s Health. Drawing on GIH’s policy priorities outlined in our policy agenda and our strategic objective of increasing our policy and advocacy presence, the Health Policy Update provides GIH Funding Partners with a range of federal health policy news.

Changing Expectations for Care at the End of Life

The culture and system of care at the end of life present unnecessary emotional, physical, and financial burdens for patients and their loved ones. Although this is what we have come to expect, other realities are possible.

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Disparities in Food Access and in Opportunities for Physical Activity

This article discusses the causes for the rising tide of preventable chronic disease, not only in Massachusetts but across the country. It also highlights some of the key factors that have produced this change and the parts of the population that are often more affected.

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Race to the Top: Is Children’s Health in the Running?

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTTELC), jointly administered by the U.S. Departments of Education, and Health and Human Services, is the latest federal opportunity for states to receive grants to transform education systems and improve achievement outcomes for children.

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An Unprecedented Health Challenge Working with Border Communities

The Paso del Norte region is experiencing an unprecedented public health challenge – over the past three years, more than 8,000 individuals were murdered in Ciudad Juárez.

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Effective Behavioral Health Funding in an Era of Health Care Reform

Health funders today operate in an environment of change and uncertainty as policy changes driven by federal health care reform affect health care at state and local levels – often in ways that are hard to predict. Meanwhile, health funders increasingly recognize that addressing behavioral health challenges is central to promoting healthy individuals, families, and communities.

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Health Care Reform: Promises and Pitfalls for Maternal and Child Health

In 2009 health care spending in the United States reached an all-time high of nearly $2.5 trillion, representing an almost two-fold increase in spending on a per capita basis since 1997 (NIHCM Foundation 2011).

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