Tagged: michigan department of community health

Michigan's legislators have moved to protect student athletes from concussions. The AP has more:

The Senate on Tuesday passed measures requiring the Michigan Department of Community Health to develop educational materials and training for athletes, parents and coaches on concussion-related injuries and treatments.

The materials would identify the nature and risk of concussions and criteria for removing athletes from activity when they're suspected of having a concussion.

Update Aug. 30, 10:30 a.m.

Michigan health officials say an 87-year-old woman from Kent County is the fifth person to die from the West Nile virus in the state this year.

State Department of Community Health spokeswoman Angela Minicuci confirmed the death this morning.

She had no other details on the woman.

Aug. 29, 2012

Reports of West Nile virus cases keep coming in, and now Michigan health officials say the illness has reached epidemic proportions in the state.

Michigan State University entomologist Ned Walker recently told Michigan Radio's Rina Miller that the intensity of the virus is very alarming.  "I haven't seen anything that is this intense in my career," said Walker.

Officials said today an 86-year-old woman from Wayne County is the fourth person to die from the West Nile virus in the state this year.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The director of Michigan's Department of Community Health has stepped down.

Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday accepted Olga Dazzo's resignation and appointed former department director James Haveman Jr. as her replacement.

Snyder's office says in a release that Dazzo has decided to return to the private sector. Snyder appointed her to the post in December 2010.

Snyder says Dazzo "wants to more directly work with the health care system to bring about positive change."

In taking the job, Haveman resigned from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Board of Directors. His appointment is subject to Senate approval. He is scheduled to start Sept. 1.

Haveman served from 1996 to 2003 as Community Health director and from 1991 to 1996 as head of the state Department of Mental Health.

The Snyder Administration has outlined its plan to reduce infant mortality in Michigan, but some say the plan needs more state funding to work.

It’s another sign things are starting to get back to normal… two years after the spill. Earlier this month the state opened up the river to swimmers and boaters for the first time since the spill.

The Michigan Department of Community Health says it’s now safe to eat fish from a thirty-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River affected by a massive oil spill.

Today, Gov. Rick Snyder signed an order creating an Autism Council in Michigan's Department of Community Health.

The governor's office said the order is a step to implement Michigan's Autism Spectrum Disorders State Plan. According to a 2009 issue paper concerning the plan, autism diagnoses have dramatically increased amongst children over the past several decades.

The AP reports:

The council will have 12 gubernatorial appointees.

Snyder and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley pushed hard to win passage of a mandate for insurance coverage for autism treatment for children. Insurers are reimbursed through a $15 million autism coverage incentive fund.

Calley's daughter Reagan has been diagnosed with autism.

Michigan's upcoming budget also provides for Medicaid coverage of autism treatment for children through the age of 18.

-Elaine Ezekiel, Michigan Radio Newsroom