AHF on STD Crisis: DPH Fiddles While L.A. Burns
At yesterday's weekly Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting, advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), US' largest HIV/AIDS healthcare, prevention and education provider, criticized the County's Department of Public Health for its slow and ill-conceived response following an alarming county report that revealed that syphilis incidence was up 40% in Los Angeles County in 2005…
…six months ago, when the report was first released, the County pledged an immediate response to combat the outbreak, but now presents an ineffective plan that includes increased bureaucracy, additional staff and a social marketing campaign, when what is needed is participation from community groups already engaged in STD screening and prevention:
... "Sadly, we are at a point where syphilis is now endemic in L.A. County," said Michael Weinstein, AHF's President. "We are disappointed by the bureaucratic inertia and lack of transparency that has characterized this process and call on the County to take immediate action by partnering with existing and effective community groups to focus on syphilis screening -- the single most important component of a campaign to eradicate the disease in Los Angeles."
Social Marketing Mulled to Sweep Bohol "Landfill Foes"
Wanting to help sanitize the dirtied talks about the Metro Tagbilaran Cluster Sanitary landfill [Phillipines], cluster members are now mulling a social marketing team that will help scrub the issue clean from host Alburquerque and Mayor Efren Tungol's sleeves.
…Oppositors of the cluster landfill have so far been very effective in voicing out the popular "not in my back yard (NIMBY) advocacy. They have alleged that the plan was mulled without consultation and that their town would never be used as a dumpsite for the refuse that comes from more than ten town cluster members.
Review Shows Gaps in Mental Health Program
“The Border Children’s Mental Health Collaborative [El Paso, TX] has many strengths, including effective wraparound services provided by dedicated care coordinators, a very creative social marketing effort, committed interagency partners, and an emerging and promising youth program,” the report states. “These strengths will be especially important in the next two years as the El Paso Collaborative embarks on a move toward becoming family-driven and develops plans for sustainability.
Governor Blagojevich Salutes Adoptive Families in Illinois on National Adoption Day
During the last four years of the Governor’s administration, [the The Illinois Department of Children and Family Service] has reached out to the public to engage and encourage potential foster and adoptive parents. An innovative social marketing campaign – “DON’T WRITE ME OFF – FOSTER KIDS ARE OUR KIDS” – aims to change perceptions of these often-forgotten children and youth, and challenges the public to become involved with their local community child welfare agencies.
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