Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

Over the past fifteen years, people in low- and middle-income countries have experienced a health revolution—one that has created new opportunities and brought new challenges. It is a revolution that keeps mothers and babies alive, helps children grow, and enables adults to thrive. Millions Saved: New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health chronicles the global health revolution from the ground up, showcasing twenty-two local, national, and regional health programs that have been part of this global change. The book profiles eighteen remarkable cases in which large-scale efforts to improve health in low- and middle-income countries succeeded, and four examples of promising interventions that fell short of their health targets when scaled-up in real world conditions. Each case demonstrates how much effort—and sometimes luck—is required to fight illness and sustain good health. The cases are grouped into four main categories, reflecting the diversity of strategies to improve population health in low-and middle-income countries: rolling out medicines and technologies; expanding access to health services; targeting cash transfers to improve health; and promoting population-wide behavior change to decrease risk. The programs covered also come from various regions around the world: seven from sub-Saharan Africa, six from Latin America and the Caribbean, five from East and Southeast Asia, and four from South Asia.

This timely analysis spotlights the concepts and possibilities of the Patient-Centered Medical Home for bringing mental health and other specialties into primary care. Overview chapters present the Patient-Centered Medical Home model, emphasizing how such systems are organized to solve widespread problems with accessibility, affordability, efficiency, and safety. Practitioner roles, boundaries, and opportunities plus applications are clarified, as well as staffing, financial, and technological challenges. And the section on applications describe care models for special populations, such as comprehensive services to the seriously mentally ill and behavioral services to patients with chronic health conditions. Included in the coverage: Integrated care and specialty behavioral health care in the patient-centered medical home. Training the behavioral health workforce for the patient-centered medical home. The importance of stepped care protocols for the redesign of behavioral health care in patient-centered medical homes. Depression management in the medical home. Treating obesity in a primary care setting. Integrating behavioral health in the pediatric medical home. For health and clinical psychologists, primary care and family physicians, and public health professionals, Integrated Primary and Behavioral Care represents the potential for an exciting new frontier in primary care reform.

America's health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual. Best Care at Lower Cost explains that inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation's economic stability and global competitiveness. According to this report, the knowledge and tools exist to put the health system on the right course to achieve continuous improvement and better quality care at a lower cost. The costs of the system's current inefficiency underscore the urgent need for a systemwide transformation. About 30 percent of health spending in 2009-roughly $750 billion-was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state. This report states that the way health care providers currently train, practice, and learn new information cannot keep pace with the flood of research discoveries and technological advances. About 75 million Americans have more than one chronic condition, requiring coordination among multiple specialists and therapies, which can increase the potential for miscommunication, misdiagnosis, potentially conflicting interventions, and dangerous drug interactions. Best Care at Lower Cost emphasizes that a better use of data is a critical element of a continuously improving health system, such as mobile technologies and electronic health records that offer significant potential to capture and share health data better. In order for this to occur, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, IT developers, and standard-setting organizations should ensure that these systems are robust and interoperable. Clinicians and care organizations should fully adopt these technologies, and patients should be encouraged to use tools, such as personal health information portals, to actively engage in their care. This book is a call to action that will guide health care providers; administrators; caregivers; policy makers; health professionals; federal, state, and local government agencies; private and public health organizations; and educational institutions.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare overall. Along with sweeping change came sweeping criticisms and issues. This book explores the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, and explains who benefits from the ACA. Readers will learn how the economy is affected by the ACA, and the impact of the ACA rollout.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/