October 1, 2008
 

Thank you to everyone who attended and/or contributed to the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition’s 20th Anniversary Benefit Gala on September 10th! We had a record number of attendees who helped us celebrate the many accomplishments that IMCHC and our partners have achieved over the past 20 years.

A sincere thank you also goes out to the IMCHC board, host committee members, sponsors, silent auction donors and ad book purchasers who helped us raise a record amount of money at this event.

To view pictures from the event, visit IMCHC’s home page; contact Lilah Hander if you are interested in obtaining a copy of a picture.  

If you were unable to attend, you can still support IMCHC by making a contribution through our secure donation page or by contacting Kathy Chan at 312-491-8161x24.

Voter Registration Deadline

The Illinois voter registration deadline is 30 days prior to the election or Tuesday, October 7th. If you are not yet registered, you can visit the Illinois State Board of Elections’ website to find out more information on how to register.

Cook County residents can visit the County Clerk’s website for local registration information.

Upcoming Candidate Forums on Health Care

IMCHC, the Campaign for Better Health Care and Working Families Win have partnered to put together three health care forums featuring several North suburban legislators and their opponents.

On Sunday, October 5th, Representative Kathy Ryg and her challenger, Dan Sugrue will address the health care concerns of the 59th District from 2pm-4pm at the Vernon Township Community Service Building, 2900 N. Main Street in Buffalo Grove.

Representative Eddie Washington and his challenger, Bill Anderson will address the health care concerns of the 60th Illinois State House District on Wednesday, October 15th from 7pm-8:45pm at the Waukegan Public Library in the Ray Bradbury Room at 128 N. County Street in Waukegan.

Senator Dan Kotowski will hold a public hearing on health care on Thursday, October 16th from 7pm-9pm at the Des Plaines Public Library at 1501 Ellinwood Avenue.

Email Eric Quamme or contact him at 312-491-8161x25 to RSVP for any of these events or for more information.



Get involved with the School Health Center Back-to-School Campaign

The Illinois Coalition for School Health Centers is collecting endorsement forms from school leadership, including principals, assistant principals and superintendents who support the school health center model.  

If you are interested in starting a school health center in your community, this is a great opportunity to educate school leadership about the benefits of the model and to obtain their support for future advocacy efforts. Visit the ICSHC’s website for more information about tools that you can download, including an endorsement form and a power point file that you can use for meetings and presentations.
Contact ICSHC Project Coordinator Megan Erskine for more information.



Chicago Area Immunization Campaign Fall General Meeting – October 10th

The Chicago Area Immunization Campaign’s fall general meeting will take place on Friday, October 10th from 8:30am – 12pm. The meeting will take place at Sinai Community Institute, 2653 W. Ogden Avenue in Chicago.

The featured presenter will be Dr. James Conway, a well-known infectious disease pediatrician from the University of Wisconsin, who will present "Influenza Programs and Policies: Shifting and Drifting." Afterwards, Dr. Kenzie Cameron, a researcher from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, will screen a video on community influenza prevention.

To RSVP or for more information, email Melissa Ponce or call her at 312-491-8161x33.

Archived Topics

Visit our newsletter archive to read about recently listed articles from past issues. Past topics include:

• IMCHC Staff Updates
• Upcoming Voter Education Event
• Congratulations to Arden Handler

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Encourage the Presidential Candidates to Address School Health Centers!

The National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) has been in contact with both the Obama and McCain campaigns to discuss school-based health centers (SBHCs) as solutions to include in their health care plans.  Our goal is to have both candidates talk about SBHCs during the debates, in town hall meetings and at rallies.

As NASBHC works on meetings with the candidates’ offices, they need hear from you about how important SBHCs are in your community and state. The letters we sent to each candidate addressing their separate campaigns can be found at NASBHC's website. Please take a few minutes to read the statements and then share a brief comment on each candidate’s website.  

Click here to visit the McCain/Palin campaign website.
Click here to visit the Obama/Biden campaign website.

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Save the Date! Improving the Healthcare of Chicago Seminar – October 7th

The Chicago Asthma Consortium and partners are hosting “Improving the Healthcare of Chicago: An Interactive Approach to Reducing Healthcare Disparities” on Tuesday, October 7th. Registration and breakfast will take place from 7:30am – 8am and the seminar portion will take place from 8:30am – 11:30am at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Hermann Union Building, 3241 S. Federal Street in Chicago.

Meeting goals include:
• Provide a solid understanding of healthcare disparities and its three components, cultural competency, health literacy and language specificity.
• Provide participants with new information and ideas to reduce healthcare disparities which can be implemented within their own organizations.
• Begin development of a plan of action to address asthma healthcare disparities from the grassroots up.

Visit the Chicago Asthma Consortium’s website for more information about the seminar and to register.


Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership Community Planning Assembly

The Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership (ICMHP) hosted a statewide assembly in Springfield in March 2008. The assembly provided an opportunity for partners in children's mental health from across the state to network, hear from ICMHP grantees about their initiatives and meet as regional groups to discuss their children's mental health system.

ICMHP would like to invite you to attend a Community Planning Assembly in Mt. Vernon on October 8th, in Springfield on October 29th or in DeKalb on November 13th. We will focus on building children’s mental health community partnerships. Each Assembly will include a panel of regional leaders in children’s mental health, including representatives from schools, Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health Regional Offices, early childhood, juvenile justice and families.

There is a registration fee of $20 that includes lunch. The fee will be waived for family members, who are encourage to attend. Space is limited.

To register, please email Ashleigh Kirk or contact her at 312-516-5567.
     

Illinois DocAssist – New Behavioral Health Consultation Services

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services recently sent a notice to providers notifying them of “Illinois DocAssist” a new behavioral health consultation service for primary care providers (PCPs) and clinicians that began on September 8th.  

Illinois DocAssist is designed to assist PCPs and clinicians in their assessment and treatment of children and youth with mental health or substance use problems. The hotline at 1-866-986-ASST (2778) is available for use at NO COST to PCPs and clinicians Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm, except holidays.

Illinois DocAssist offers the following:

•    Problem-based consultations to guide the mental health and substance abuse assessment of children and youth, and provide evidence-based treatment options including medication management strategies.
•    Education and technical assistance via Web-based clinical resources, office-based training workshops including access to, and training on, the use of screening tools and diagnostic aids, stepped-care algorithms to guide clinical decisions including when to treat and when to refer, training to PCPs, clinicians and clinic staff on ways to improve the integration of mental health and substance use assessment and treatment into the clinic routine.
•    Referral services to identify local community referral options for youngsters that cannot be managed in a primary care setting.

Visit HFS’s website to view the full memo.


New Position Established in Chicago to Coordinate School Health

The Chicago City Council recently passed an ordinance authorizing a five-year partnership between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) to coordinate and strengthen health-related services for CPS students. The new CPS Director of School Health and Medical Affairs position will be housed within the CPS Office of the CEO.

The partnership was prompted and promoted by the Stakeholders Collaboration to Improve Student Health, a project of the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. The first year of this position will be funded by the Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute, which also funds the Stakeholders Collaboration.

IMCHC was asked to testify at the joint city-council Education and Health Subcommittees. Visit IMCHC’s website to view our testimony.

Behavioral Counseling Can Reduce Some Health Risks Among Low-Income Black Pregnant Women

Behavioral counseling on smoking cessation and other health issues significantly reduced the number of low-income black women who ended their pregnancies with health risk factors.  Such counseling through existing social service programs could help more women; those who received counseling were 86% more likely than those who did not to have “resolved” all their risk factors.

Source: National Partnership for Women and Families Daily Women’s Health Policy Report - September 8, 2008


Congress Unlikely to Reauthorize SCHIP Before Election

Congressional Democrats recently said they will not hold a vote on the State Children's Health Insurance Program legislation this year, citing an inability to override a promised veto by President Bush.  

First Focus President Bruce Lesley said, "This is really unfinished business of this Congress," adding, "We should just get SCHIP done and then really focus on national health reform."

Source: Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report – September 15, 2008


Study Finds That Increased Federal Aid for Low-Income Women Can Lower Abortion Rates

Abortions in the U.S. dropped to 1.31 million in 2000, from a peak of 1.6 million in 1990. In 2005, the last year for which statistics are available, the number was 1.2 million. States that provided more generous assistance to families had a 20% lower abortion rate than other states.

The study suggested that lifting what is known as the "family cap" -- an element of welfare law that does not permit recipients to receive additional aid for additional children -- would decrease the abortion rate by 15%. Although welfare critics in the 1990s claimed that low-income women had more children to get assistance prior to implementation of the family cap, low-income women on average have had the same number of pregnancies since the measure went into law. But without the additional assistance, more women had abortions instead of giving birth.

Low-income women are much more likely to have an abortion. According to a 2000 study of more than 10,000 women, the abortion rate among women living at the poverty line is 44 abortions per 1,000 women compared to 10 abortions per 1,000 among women with family incomes three times the poverty line.

Source: National Partnership for Women and Families Daily Health Policy Report – September 17, 2008


House Committee Approves 10 Health-Related Bills

The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently approved a number of health care-related bills, CQ Today reports. The committee approved:

• HR 758 would prohibit insurance companies from limiting hospital stays to less than 48 hours for patients who have had a mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery and less than 24 hours for patients who have had lymph node dissection for the treatment of cancer. The committee also approved an amendment that would prohibit insurers from discontinuing coverage if a plan member unintentionally failed to disclose information on an insurance application about an unrelated condition;
• HR 1014 would require new drug applications submitted to FDA to include specific data on the drug's effect by gender, age and race. The measure also would create a campaign to educate women older than age 65 about cardiovascular health. An amendment to the bill would provide $204.4 million over five years to reauthorize a chronic disease risk factor screening program for uninsured and underinsured women ages 40 to 64;
• HR 1532 would create a nationwide initiative to eradicate tuberculosis through new medications and public health programs;
• HR 2583 would provide $44.2 million from FY2010 to FY2014 to establish a loan program for public and not-for-profit hospitals to create residency training programs for physicians. Under the bill, preference would be given to rural areas;
• HR 2994 would encourage physicians and hospitals to improve pain management;
• HR 5265 would encourage research on muscular dystrophy treatment and increase data collection about the disease by government health agencies;
• HR 6469 would authorize a $5 million increase for the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to $7 million per year;
• HR 6353 would prohibit online pharmacies from dispensing prescriptions in most cases to patients who have not been seen in person by the prescribing physician;
• HR 5265 would encourage research on muscular dystrophy treatment and increase data collection about the disease by government health agencies; and
• S 1760 would provide $120 million annually between FY2008 and FY2013 to reauthorize the Healthy Start program, which provides grants to communities with higher infant mortality rates.

Source: Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report – September 18, 2008


NPR's 'Morning Edition' Examines Parents' Concerns About HPV Vaccine

As of late 2007, about 20% of girls younger than age 18 had received the HPV vaccine, which can protect against cervical cancer. Experts say the low numbers largely can be attributed to parents who doubt that their child is sexually active, as well as a mistrust of vaccines and concerns about cost, with the required series running more than $400.

Jessica Kahn -- a pediatrician, research assistant and mother of an 11-year-old girl -- said that middle- to high-income parents typically are more suspicious of vaccines, which is why it is crucial that parents and pediatricians discuss the vaccine. "If parents don't believe the vaccine is safe, and believe the vaccine has serious side effects, that will weigh against their daughter being vaccinated," Kahn said. She said that media coverage relating to adverse reactions to HPV made parents unwilling to vaccinate their daughters.

Source: National Partnership for Women and Families Daily Women’s Health Policy Report – September 19, 2008


Legislation in Massachusetts and New York City to Improve Primary Care Services

Massachusetts lawmakers in July approved a package of incentives to attract primary care physicians, providing $1.5 million for the University of Massachusetts Medical School to increase its class size from 103 students to 125 and waiving tuition and fees for those who agree to work as primary care physicians in the state for four years after they graduate.

In addition, the state is spending $1.7 million to help doctors who work in community health centers pay off student loans and at least $500,000 to pay off debt for primary care physicians who work for two years in underserved areas. The law also calls on state lawmakers to create a housing grant or loan program to help doctors buy houses in the state.

Meanwhile, the New York City Council Speaker announced a proposal to spend $26 million through 2012 to expand the city's health care services in 11 high-poverty and underserved areas. Although there is no guarantee for the proposal, the goal would be to provide $17 million in capital financing and $9.2 million in expense money for the primary care proposal through 2012.

Source: Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report – September 23, 2008, Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report – September 24, 2008, New York Times – September 22, 2008

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Health Care Justice Campaign Candidate Forum featuring State Representative Kathy Ryg and challenger, Dan Sugrue
Sunday, October 5th
2pm-4pm
Vernon Township Community Service Building
2900 N. Main Street in Buffalo Grove
RSVP to Eric Quamme

Chicago Area Immunization Campaign’s Fall General Meeting
Friday, October 10th
8:30am – 12pm
Sinai Community Institute, 2653 W. Ogden Ave in Chicago
Dr. James Conway from the University of Wisconsin and Dr. Kenzie Cameron from Northwestern University will present timely topics about influenza. A full breakfast will be provided.
RSVP to Melissa Ponce

Health Care Justice Campaign Candidate Forum featuring State Representative Eddie Washington and challenger, Bill Anderson
Wednesday, October 15th
7pm-8:45pm
Waukegan Public Library, Ray Bradbury Room
128 N. County Street in Waukegan
RSVP to Eric Quamme

Health Care Justice Campaign Public Hearing featuring State Senator Dan Kotowski
Thursday, October 16th
7pm-9pm
Des Plaines Public Library
1501 Ellinwood Avenue in Des Plaines
RSVP to Eric Quamme

Southern Area School Health Center Fall Regional Meeting
Tuesday, October 21st
12:30pm-4:30pm
Adolescent Health Center Multipurpose Room
101 S. Wall Street
Carbondale, IL  62902
Lunch will be served – please RSVP to Megan Erskine

IMCHC Southern Illinois Chapter Meeting and Legislative Luncheon
Co-hosted by the Southern Illinois Perinatal Program and others from the Southern Illinois region
Wednesday, October 22nd
9am – 2pm*
Rend Lake Resort
11712 East Windy Lane in Whittington
RSVP to Lilah Handler
*Chapter and program updates will take place from 9am-11am. Legislators will be attending the luncheon, which will start at 11:30am.

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