June 3, 2025
Community Health Corner
The National Extension Framework for Health Equity and Well-being recommends using community development strategies and health literacy programs for everyone’s health. From urban, metro, suburban, rural and frontier locations, Extension works in partnership with communities to deliver meaningful and relevant programs and initiatives to keep health closer to home. The following resources help us improve well-being for all, and achieve Healthy People 2030 objectives.
Deaths Due to Drug Overdose and Alcohol are Down Nationally in 2023: The national Pain in the Nation 2025: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths report reveals that the combined number of deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide in the United States declined in 2023 for the second straight year. The decline is attributed to ensuring adequate mental health, substance use, and crisis intervention services, access to overdose reversal drugs, and investing in data systems that allow for real time drug trends tracking and tailored interventions. Learn more about the Pain in the Nation report here.
Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment Released: The White House has released its first of two reports to further the administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative. The first report, which is the Initial Assessment and Strategy from the MAHA Commission is available here.
The next report, will be the MAHA Strategy, which will have policy action items to restructure the federal government’s response to the childhood chronic disease crisis. Policy action items may be published as early as July. Make Our Children Healthy Again reports are focused on children, but initial findings -- e.g. on ultra processed food, environmental toxins, the decline of physical activity, vaccine schedules, etc. may be universally implemented for all ages, or applied to adults in addition to children. Learn more here at the Department of HHS website.
KDHE Reports New Measles Resources: On May 26, 2025, KDHE released new measles resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These resources include a comprehensive Measles webpage dedicated to supporting healthcare providers and local health departments. The KDHE Measles Dashboard is updated regularly with new outbreak numbers, information and resources. As of May 28, there are 64 reported cases of measles in Kansas.
For more information, contact Elaine Johannes, ejohanne@ksu.edu; and Stephanie Gutierrez, smgutier@k-state.edu