As this century draws to a close and the new one approaches, the United States is still struggling with serious and persistent social problems. These troubling dilemmas, including poverty, homelessness, discrimination, and severe inequity, afflict some subgroups of the population more than others, and it is the plight of these at-risk groups—childr

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Worldwide, millions of people are displaced annually because of natural or industrial disasters or social upheaval. Reliable data on the numbers, characteristics, and locations of these populations can bolster humanitarian relief efforts and recovery programs. Using sound methods for estimating population numbers and characteristics is important for both industrialized and developing nations. Ensuring that the data are geographically referenced for projection onto maps is essential. However, good data alone are insufficient. Adequate staff training and strong organizational and political desire to maintain and use the information are also required. Tools and Methods for Estimating Populations at Risk from Natural Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Crises, reviews the main methods and tools for making estimates of subnational populations and makes several recommendations to improve the collection and the use of population data for emergency response and development.

Group Work with Populations a Risk, Fourth Edition is a fundamental resource for practitioners in health and mental health settings and a comprehensive guidebook of group work skills. Geared toward students and professionals gaining a beginning understanding of groups, this volume describes how to work with vulnerable populations. The first chapters, new additions to this edition and written by a new co-editor, provide overarching skills and techniques that apply across group work settings and populations. These skills, along with case examples, provide a template for practice with groups. The vulnerable populations that are addressed include returning war veterans, immigrants, the aging and their caregivers, children and adults who have been abused, and people struggling with substance abuse issues, cancer, and chronic mental illness. New chapters have been added for survivors of sex trafficking, children in need of social skills training, people who experienced intimate partner violence, parents who are homeless, and fathers who are incarcerated. Each chapter (designed to stand alone for easy reference) describes the population and reviews the relevant literature, identifies themes and practice principles, presents case illustrations, provides evaluation guidance, and refers readers to key references and web resources.