Family & Community Health

Welcome to Family & Community Health’s website.  I think you will find this electronic journal platform  easy to use to help you find journal content, collaborate and share innovative health care ideas in family and community health.  This platform introduces new features that are designed to enrich readability and usability of the many excellent articles.  Some of the features that I think you will enjoy using include:

• Editor’s Picks showcase selected articles included in the journal over the past year.
• Up-coming issue themes and contact information for issue editors are in the section for authors
• A preview of the next issue so you can see what to watch for
• New options for delivering articles that include an enhanced HTML format for easier reading.
• New ways to customize the site, including saved searches, personal article collections, e-mail and RSS alerts, and more.

With the many changes that are occurring in  health care keeping up with how they will effect the health of the public is vital.  Our upcoming themes provide ideas of how to deal more effectively with high risk populations, boomers, as well as how to promote health in a variety of community-based and evidence based approaches. A special supplement accompanied issue 34.1 that describes several interesting programs that are funded through the CDCs REACH US program. Be sure to read this supplement and the issue that describes many contemporary programs in family and community health.

To use these features, all you need to do is register.  Click on the “Register” button located at the top right corner of the website. Then enter your subscriber account number that is located on your journal label just above your name. Now you will have full, unrestricted access to all the site’s easy-to-use features. If you have already registered, then all you have to do is log in as your have always done to begin taking advantage of all the new features.

Jeanette Lancaster, PhD, RN, FAAN
Editor

36.1: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Strategies
Areas of interest are as follows:
• Genetic, biological, behavioral, social policy, or economic influences on individual or  population health
• Influence of environmental contexts and bio-behavioral regulatory systems on the development and/or management of chronic disease. (e.g. stress and the neuroendocrine system)
• Cumulative risk and protective factors influencing health and wellbeing of children or the elderly
• Health risks that are created and maintained by social systems
• Early childhood experiences that influence the development of chronic disease or disability
• Allostatic load hypothesis’ influence on chronic diseases’ pre-disease pathways  (the biological influences  and related links to behavioral, psychological, and social influences that precede morbidity and mortality)
• Disease prevention strategies related to environmental factors
• Prevention strategies for critical developmental periods when an individual is responsive to favorable or unfavorable environmental factors that influence long term health
• Historical development or current trends and definitions of Life Course
• Health Development (LCHD)
• Concept analyses or systematic/ integrative reviews related to LCHD

36.1  HEALTH PROMOTION AND  DISEASE PREVENTION STRATEGIES
Due to Issue Editor: 4/1/2012
Michele Clark, RN, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Nursing
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Bigelow Health Sciences (BHS), Room 463
4505 Maryland parkway, Box 54018
Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-3018
Phone: 702/895-5978
Michele.clark@unlv.edu and
Carrie Jo Braden PhD, RN, FAAN
Associate Dean for Research
Hugh Roy Cullen Professor of Nursing
School of Nursing, University of Texas
Health Science Center at San Antonio
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio TX 78229-7947
Phone: 210/567-5808; Fax: 210/567-3120
bradenc@uthscsa.edu

36.2 PROGRAMS THAT PREVENT OR INTERVENE IN CHRONIC ILLNESS
Due to Issue Editor: 8/2/2012
Bettina Beech, DrPH, MPH
Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Piedmont Plaza II, Suite #282
Winston Salem, North Carolina 27157
Phone:  336/716-6511
bbeech@wfubmc.edu 

36.3: FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE HEALTH         
Due to Issue Editor: 10/1/2012
Marino A. Bruce, PhD, MDiv
Director of Research and Operations
Gramercy Research Group
500 West 4th Street, Suite 203
Winston-Salem NC 27101 
mbruce@gramercyresearch.com and
Melicia C. Whitt-Glover, PhD, FACSM
President & CEO, Gramercy Research Group
Address as above
mwhittglover@gramercyresearch.com

Take a moment and look at these articles from issues 34.2, 34.3, 34.4 and the supplement of FCH. They talk about public health issues that may not be familiar to you. Each article offers new and useful information.

In 34.2 take a look at Patient-centered medical homes: Will health care reform provide new options for rural communities and providers?  I think this is a question that many people would like to have answered. See what the authors say.

In 34.3 the author providers a candid view of the supports and barriers to establishing a women's shelter in a rural American Indian Community. See A women's shelter in a rural American Indian community.

In 34.4 two articles provide useful information about topics of interest: youth drug use and youth coping when they are displaced during a civil war. See: Employing a youth-led adult-guided framework: Why drive high?" social marketing campaign  and Starting over from scratch: Social support and youth coping with internal displacement.