The Council on Older Persons (COOP) has been a standing committee of The Center for Community Solutions for more than 70 years. Each year brings new faces, new challenges and new opportunities. This year was no exception. Under the leadership of Chair Catherine Ciha and Vice Chair Stacey O’Brien, COOP continues to be a leading...
December 3, 2018
Racial Equity is at the “Very Heart of Policy:” Reflections from IMPACT 2018
By Will Tarter, wtarter@communitysolutions.com Adam White, awhite@communitysolutions.com Last week, several staff members from The Center for Community Solutions flew to Washington, D.C. to join a delegation of Ohio advocates and policy thinkers at IMPACT 2018, a state policy conference hosted annually by The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). IMPACT is one of...
November 28, 2018
Medication Assisted Treatment Bills Considered by Legislature in Lame Duck
On Wednesday, November 28, the House Health Committee heard testimony on two separate bills that each aim to expand access to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorders by loosening restrictions on pharmacists who dispense or administer MAT drugs. Proponents of Senate Bill 119 and House Bill 601 each testified to the importance of...
November 27, 2018
Education, Adult Guardianship topics of Cuyahoga County meeting
The Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services and Aging (HHSA) Committee met for the first time since July on October 31. The meeting was chaired by Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell, and featured a contract extension for adult guardianship and a PowerPoint presentation from the Cuyahoga County Department of Developmental Disabilities. In an unusual move, the HHSA committee...
November 26, 2018
How Ohio helps needy families in crisis, but still encourages a goal of self-sufficiency
The Prevention, Retention and Contingency (PRC) program, as previously detailed in a report released by The Center for Community Solutions, addresses emergent needs families may experience during a time of hardship. A loss of a job or a sudden illness are only a few examples of issues that could catapult families into poverty. These scenarios...
November 19, 2018
Senior levies in Ohio are popular…once they pass: Senior tax levy update
Earlier this year, I wrote an analysis of senior tax levies in Ohio. Seventy-four of Ohio’s 88 counties have tax levies that provide various services to support older adults. These communities rely on levy funding to provide both basic need services, such as congregate meals, and more robust health and wellness programming including well-appointed senior...
November 19, 2018
Many questions remain about maternal mortality in Ohio, so what are next steps?
We are reading and seeing personal stories from across the nation of women suffering from complications of pregnancy and families who have lost mothers, babies or both. Back in April, The Center for Community Solutions began to review existing maternal mortality and morbidity data in Ohio. The most recent data available from the Ohio Department...
November 15, 2018
What’s Ohio Medicaid’s target growth rate? JMOC meets to discuss
On Tuesday, November 15, the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee (JMOC) heard from its contracted actuary Optumas about the target growth rate for Ohio’s Medicaid program. For a refresher on what that entails, take a look at this blog from a couple of years ago. The major areas driving cost in the program come from the...
November 12, 2018
Number of Ohio syringe exchange programs more than doubles in two and a half years
Syringe exchange programs are a public health strategy designed to prevent the spread of blood borne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis amongst people who inject drugs (PWID). The programs also connect clients to other services, including substance abuse treatment, HIV testing, and, in some cases, physical and mental health treatment. In March of 2016,...
November 12, 2018
The intersection of health and transportation
Transportation is a wide-ranging term that can mean many things to many people, but it’s something that can have a profound impact on a person’s overall health. Earlier this month, The Center for Community Solutions examined the role of transportation as a social determinant of health in the context of Medicaid. In this blog post,...