Medical home's role in children's health still evolving

by Thomas Dahlborg
In a previous blog post I stressed that we must refocus the principles of patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) to ensure compassionate care is elevated in the hierarchy of priorities if we are to truly position children to achieve their optimal health.
Since then, two additional barriers to children's health have become all too familiar--bullying and adolescent substance abuse (and the link between the two).
For example, in the online December issue of Pediatrics, researchers from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University found that 64 percent of those surveyed report getting bullied at school (with the risk of bullying increasing relative to the child's body weight).

And even more disturbing to me: Children also report being bullied by physical education teachers and sports coaches (42 percent), parents (37 percent) and classroom teachers (27 percent).
Moreover, the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health has found the rate of current illicit drug use among youths aged 12 to 17 is 10.1 percent (and increases to more than 21.5 percent once they become young adults--ages 18 to 25).
And as noted above, a recent Ohio State University study has found that "youth involved in bullying were more likely than students not involved in bullying to use substances, with bully-victims reporting the greatest levels of substance use."
So is bullying the only driver of adolescent substance abuse? Absolutely not. But a link has been id...

Source: hospital impact - January 17, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs