Somewhere between 1 and 1.7 million youth under the age of 18 are homeless in the United States, with often destructive consequences. Young people who experience homelessness are at high risk for a variety of physical and mental health problems, violence and early death. [Read more…]
What Interventions Help to Prevent Suicide?
Every suicide is heartbreaking, leaving loved ones wondering what went wrong and how they could have prevented such a tragedy.
And yet suicide rates are currently at their highest level since World War II, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In 2017, there were more than 47,000 recorded suicides in the U.S. – a 33 percent increase compared to 1999.
But what can we do about the devastating problem of suicide? [Read more…]
How To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
‘Tis the season for cookie baking, holiday parties, candy canes and countless other opportunities to indulge in delicious food. Unfortunately, all of that delicious food means that most of us consume extra calories during this time of year. [Read more…]
What’s the Best Way to Help Low-Income Mothers?
For 40 years, an intervention program called the Nurse-Family Partnership has been sending public health nurses to visit first-time, low-income mothers to encourage healthy behaviors and offer advice on child development. [Read more…]
Mentoring works for troubled, but how?
How to keep teen parents in school
The evidence shows that high school dropouts earn less money, have poorer health outcomes and are more likely to get into legal trouble. And teenagers who are pregnant or who are parents are especially vulnerable to dropping out of school. There are hundreds of programs designed to keep teens in school. But how effective are they, especially for pregnant and parenting teens?
Evaluating programs to promote teen sexual health
Teenagers and young adults represent only 25 percent of the sexually active population in the U.S., but they acquire nearly half of all new sexually transmitted infections, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. [Read more…]