Communicating for Policy Change
Health foundations have traditionally overlooked communications as an essential tool for achieving strategic goals and, instead, have preferred to engage in “FYI” communications such as issuing annual reports, newsletters, and press releases on foundation grants. As this GIH Issue Brief Communicating for Policy Change reports, this attitude has evolved into one where more and more grantmakers recognize the importance of communications in their own work, specifically efforts to influence health policy.
Back to School: Improving Health Literacy to Improve Health
The start of a new school year represents an opportune time to consider how literacy skills can influence both the quality of the health care services people receive and the health outcomes they experience. Health literacy is defined as the ability to “obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (Institute of Medicine 2004).
Adolescence to Adulthood: Crossing the Threshold
The period between adolescence and adulthood is a time of great transition. As youth accepts the responsibilities of adulthood, they must take important choices about leaving home, continuing their education, finding a job, or starting a family. Over the past several decades, with more youth entering college and delaying marriage, the transition has become even more complex.
Engaging Employers: Creating Health Care Advocates in the Business Community
Employers provide health insurance coverage to 160 million workers and their dependents, almost two-thirds of the nonelderly population. With health care costs rising, many business leaders are calling for reform. Health philanthropy is experimenting with several ways to engage the business community in conversations about health care reform.
Reducing Gun Violence: Is There a Role for Health Philanthropy?
Every year, approximately 30,000 Americans lose their lives to gun violence. Efforts to reduce this tragic toll raise important questions: How can gun violence be prevented?
“Replication” Local Style: A Philadelphia Story
Adapting a program model that works in one place requires knowing which elements can be modified, which cannot, and how to line up home support.
Annual Report 2006
GIH’s 2006 Annual Report document’s the organization’s programmatic and financial activities.
Key Issues in Reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
Over the last 10 years, the State Children’s health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which now covers 6 million children, and Medicaid, which covers 28 million children, have deceased the uninsured rate of low-income children by one-third. While there is broad bipartisan support for SCHIP, several key issues have emerged during the reauthorization process, including how the program should be financed, who should be covered, and what that coverage should include.
Knowledge to Action: Plenary Addresses from GIH’s 2007 Annual Meeting
This report comprises keynote addresses from GIH’s 2007 annual meeting Knowledge to Action: Applying What We’ve Learned to Improve Health. The volume includes speeches by GIH President Lauren LeRoy, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, as well as panels on HIV/AIDS and critical health issues over the last 25 years.
Considering Quality: Engaging Consumers to Make Better Health Care Decisions
This Issue Brief examines the potential of consumers to use information to select high-quality health services and to become drivers of quality improvement at the systems level. Information tools for consumers, such as report cards on health plans and providers, decision support aides, and the Internet are discussed. It also takes a look at the roles foundations can play in developing and disseminating quality information for consumers, such as developing quality indicators; assessing the effectiveness of information technology, including the Internet; and funding advocacy efforts to ensure consumers have the information needed to make appropriate health care choices.