In 2013, the teen birth rate was the lowest it has been since 1991, with 27 births per 1,000 teenage women. While this decrease of 57% from 1991 is certainly a move in the right direction, this rate is still high. According to the World Bank, the United States’ teen fertility rate was 31 births per 1,000 women in 2012, while other countries, such as Germany, Denmark, and China, had births per 1,000 in the single digits (4; 5; and 9, respectively).
In a month when many Americans are resolving to adopt healthier eating habits to counteract the excess imbibed during the recent holidays, January should also be a time to remember that for many families in America, struggling to put food on the table is an everyday concern. Such concern also extends to providing meals containing recommended servings of fruit, vegetables, and nutrients. This issue of food insecurity, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture refers to as the lack of access “by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life,” plagues almost 15 percent of Americans, according to Feeding America, a nonprofit network of food banks.
Our HMACS team works every day to support the efforts of a broad range of community stakeholders working to develop healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities around the country. Our partners include:
By doing this work, we aspire to solve social, economic, and health problems through sustainable community-generated solutions. We believe that the vision of healthier people and communities will require new partnerships and dedication of resources to population health and social determinants of health, including education, housing, environment, food, economic security, and safety. Our organization, Health Management Associates, recognized the need to expand its reach to include these social determinants that so clearly influence individual and community health. In light of this recognition, they pulled together our team, which has both the expertise of HMA and the insight of health and human services leaders. We have the experience to offer effective strategies to foundations, social service organizations, public health, corporations, colleges and universities, among others.