This week we’re reading about new federal initiatives to advance hiring for Americans with disabilities, recommendations for integrated health care, health and wellness trends for older adults, and advancements in telemedicine.
- The White House is launching TechHire, a new initiative to work with communities to get more Americans trained for well-paying technology jobs, including Americans with disabilities.
- The American Psychiatric Association is pushing for integrated behavioral health and physical health care in the form of new training recommendations, which will be sent to general psychiatry training programs across the country. The recommendations emphasize collaboration among specialties, exposing undergraduate medical students to primary care settings that incorporate behavioral health, and recruiting faculty who practice integrated approaches to care.
- Twenty-nine percent of children in foster care failed to receive at least one required medical checkup, which may prevent their mental health, physical health and developmental needs from being identified and treated, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- Mississippi is the nation’s emerging leader in telemedicine with a program ranking among the seven best in the country and an academic hospital interconnected remotely to 165 sites, per POLITICO.
- Kaiser Health News is examining the impacts of obesity on older adults, with one physician forecasting “the primary fallout” being increased disability rates.
- More on health concerns facing older adults: The New York Times spotlights a January 2015 federal study citing evidence of widespread overuse of psychiatric drugs by Americans with Alzheimer’s disease.