A Matter of Substance, May 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, June 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, July 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, August 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, September 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, October 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, November 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, December 2010.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, January 2011.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, February 2011.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

A Matter of Substance, March 2011.

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

Multi-level modeling of aspects associated with poor mental health in a sample of prehospital emergency professionals.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this paper is to investigate the respective influence of work characteristics, the effort-reward ratio, and overcommitment on the poor mental health of out-of-hospital care providers. METHODS: 333 out-of-hospital care providers answered a questionnaire that included queries on mental health (GHQ-12), demographics, health-related information and work characteristics, questions from the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, and items about overcommitment. A two-level multiple regression was performed between mental health (the dependent variable) and the effort-reward ratio, the overcommitment score, weekly number of interventions, percentage of non-prehospital transport of patients out of total missions, gender, and age. Participants were first-level units, and ambulance services were second-level units. We also shadowed ambulance personnel for a total of 416 hr. RESULTS: With cutoff points of 2/3 and 3/4 positive answers on the GHQ-12, the percentages of potential cases with poor mental health were 20% and 15%, respectively. The effort-reward ratio was associated with poor mental health (P < 0.001), irrespective of age or gender. Overcommitment was associated with poor mental health; this association was stronger in women (β = 0.054) than in men (β = 0.020). The percentage of prehospital missions out of total missions was only associated with poor mental health at the individual level. CONCLUSIONS: Emergency medical services should pay attention to the way employees perceive their efforts and the rewarding aspects of their work: an imbalance of those aspects is associated with poor mental health. Low perceived esteem appeared particularly associated with poor mental health. This suggests that supervisors of emergency medical services should enhance the value of their employees' work. Employees with overcommitment should also receive appropriate consideration. Preventive measures should target individual perceptions of effort and reward in order to improve mental health in prehospital care providers.

Health and (Other) Asset Holdings

Despite clear evidence of correlations between financial and medical statuses and decisions, most models treat financial and health-related choices separately. This article bridges this gap by proposing a tractable dynamic framework for the joint determination of optimal consumption, portfolio holdings, health investment, and health insurance. We solve for the optimal rules in closed form and capitalize on this tractability to gain a better understanding of the conditions under which separation between financial and health-related decisions is sensible, and of the pathways through which wealth and health determine allocations, welfare and other variables of interest such as expected longevity or the value of health. Furthermore we show that the model is consistent with the observed patterns of individual allocations and provide realistic estimates of the parameters that confirm the relevance of all the main characteristics of the model.

Facts about Iowa Law Enforcement Physical Standards for Pre-employment Testing, 2011

The Iowa Law Enforcement Academy Council, in recognizing the importance of physical fitness status for job performance, established this physical test regimen as a employment standard effective February 15, 1993. No person can be selected or appointed as a law enforcement officer without first successfully passing all of the elements of this test. (See 501 IAC 2.1, adopted pursuant to Section 80B.11(5), Code of Iowa.) Upon entry into the Academy every candidate will be given the same test as an assessment for training purposes and to ensure that each recruit can undergo the physical demands of the Academy without undue risk of injury, and with a level of fatigue tolerance to meet all Academy requirements. If at the time of entrance into the Academy an officer does not meet minimum standards, he or she will not be admitted. This pamphlet will provide information on the rationale, purpose, testing procedures, standards of performance and fitness activities to prepare for the fitness testing. It is intended to answer the basic questions pertaining to all aspects of the fitness testing process.

A Matter of Substance, April 2011

A publication of the IDPH Division of Behavioral Health to find out what's happening with Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.