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WATCH BWCH

Spring
2009

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

News from Office of
Children with Special
Care Needs

2

Zero to Five

3

New Materials from

3

The Bystander Effect

4

Keeping Up with BWCH

6

It’s Your Time! Is the theme of the Tenth Annual Women’s Health
Week in Arizona, May 10th-16th. The goal of Women's Health Week is
to raise awareness about women's health issues and encourage
women to manage their health and avoid risky behaviors.

Special points of
interest:
Why do so many
witnesses of a crime
fail to act?
What are the consequences of Bystander intervention?
(See page 4)

The Arizona Department of Health Services is working in partnership
with the Governor’s Office for Children, Youth and Families, the
Governor’s Commission on Women’s and Children’s Health, and
community organizations across the state to plan events for this year’s
Women’s Health Week. Activities focusing on women’s health will be
held statewide. For information about events in your area, check out:
http://gocyf.az.gov/WHW
One event you won’t want to miss is the Health Expo being held at two
locations on Friday May 15th, from 9am until 4pm. The Wellness Community and St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center will be hosting
the Expo. At both locations, this FREE event will have health screenings, educational workshops, raffles, informational booths, on-site
mammograms, and healthy refreshments. Over 2,000 community
members are expected to participate, so put it on your calendar now!

Page 2

SPRING 2009

News from the Office for
Children with Special Health Care Needs
Effective July 1, 2009, funding for the Arizona Department of Health Services
(ADHS) Office for Children with Special
Health Care Needs (OCSHCN) Family Resource Coordination (FRC) Program will
end. As a result of the current state budget
crisis, ADHS-OCSHCN and the Governor's Council on Spinal and Head Injuries
are reducing their budgets. Because of
these budget reductions, it is necessary to
end funding for the Family Resource Coordination Program.
The family resource coordinators and
ADHS-OCSHCN are committed to making
every effort to help families transition to
other community resources.
ADHS-OCSHCN staff will continue to be
available to provide information and referral support. For any questions or concerns, please contact Ellen Holmes or
Marta Urbina at (602) 542-1860 or the
Children’s Information Center at (800) 2321676 and ask for OCSHCN. You can email us at OCSHCN@azdhs.gov. or visit
our website: http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/
ocshcn.
Listed below are some key resources for
information and guidance:
Community resources and family support Raising Special Kids at (602) 242-4366, or
(800) 237-3007 toll free or visit the website: http://www.raisingspecialkids.org ,
email them at info@raisingspecialkids.org
or visit the office at 5025 E. Washington
St. Suite 204, Phoenix 85034.
Community Resources and family support
in Southern Arizona - Pilot Parents of
Southern Arizona at (520) 324-3150 or

visit the website: www.pilotparents.org ,
e-mail them at info@pilotparents.org or
visit the office at 2600 N. Wyatt Dr., Tucson, AZ 85712.
Spinal Cord Injury resources and support
- the Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association at (602) 507-4209 or (888) 889-2185
toll free, visit the website: http://
www.azspinal.com , email them at
info@azspinal.org or visit the office at
5025 E. Washington St. Suite 110, Phoenix 85034.
Traumatic Brain Injury resources and
support, - the Brain Injury Association of
Arizona at (602) 323-9165 or (888) 5009165 toll-free, visit the website: http://
www.biaaz.org , email them at
info@biaaz.org or visit the office at 777
East Missouri Ave., Suite 101 Phoenix,
Arizona 85014.

ADHS-OCSHCN staff will continue to be
available to provide information and
referral support.

3

SPRING

Zero to Five
The Arizona Department of Health Services has formed an internal early childhood workgroup called Zero to Five. The mission of this group is to coordinate programs and services offered by the Arizona Department of Health Services around infants and young
children and to provide timely and authoritative information from all of the ADHS programs who serve or study this population when needed. The group will identify commonalities as well as areas where collaboration will strengthen the efforts of the separate programs.
The group looked at other agencies with similar work groups, including the Department of
Economic Security, for guidance and then identified the following goals: expand knowledge of early childhood, including the preconception and prenatal period, within ADHS;
increase awareness of early childhood concerns, resources and opportunities and to promote policy and practices that have been proven to be best practices and are in the best
interests of young children and their families.
The work group hopes to achieve its goals through agency wide Brown Bag lunches with
content experts, exploring opportunities to provide early childhood information to ADHS
employees as well as clients and by identifying and addressing emerging early childhood
issues within the appropriate Bureau/Office.

New Materials from the Health Resources and
Services Administration (HRSA)
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bright Futures for Women’s Health
and Wellness (BFWHW) project has recently added materials specific to the perinatal period.
The message is “Taking Care of Mom, Nurturing Self as Well as Baby”. The materials were developed for three specific audiences 1.Consumers – women ages 14-44, form pregnancy through one
year after pregnancy; 2. Community – individuals and organizations with whom perinatal women
come into contact and, 3. Healthcare Providers – physicians, nurses, counselors and others providing care to perinatal women.
The materials include a 10 page booklet for consumers that promotes emotional wellness by increasing awareness of and providing interventions to reduce stressors that typically occur during
the prenatal/postnatal period. These stressors include relationship changes, sleep deprivation and
weight gain.
Continuation “New Materials” page 5
WATCH BWCH

Page 4

SPRING 2009

The Bystander Effect
Early in the morning on
March 13, 1964, outside her
apartment, in Queens, New
York, a young woman
named Kitty Genovese was
sexually assaulted and
stabbed to death. ( This brutal sexual assault and murder would not have been
particularly notable except
for the fact that thirty-eight
of her neighbors watched
the attack from their windows or heard her screams
for help but did nothing to
intervene during the thirtyfive minutes that Genovese
was being attacked. In fact,
twice the killer, frightened by
the lights in the neighbor’s
windows, left Genovese but
after realizing that no one
was going to intervene,
came back and resumed
attacking her (Manning
2007).
That 1964 incident eventfully became a textbook
case. Why did so many witnesses fail to act? Calling
the police would involve no
risk, and likely would have
saved Ms. Genovese's life.
Social psychologists Latane
and Darley decided to investigate the non-action of her
neighbors. They focused
specifically on social issues
surrounding this case, which
may influence people, especially crowds, to turn away
as witnesses. After months
of interviewing and heading
up experiments, they concluded that people are less
likely to intervene or offer

help in emergencies when
they are in the presence of
others than when they are
with only a few others. This
became known as the Bystander Effect. This is also
known by two other names,
the Bystander Apathy Effect
or the "Genovese Syndrome”.
Why do people who are so
willing to help in nonemergency situations not
so willing in emergencies
situations?
Steve Prentice-Dunn, a psychology professor at the University of Alabama, describes the mind-set that
one might have when faced
with a situation. The larger
the number of people who
witness a crime, the less
likely any one person is to
jump in and assist. "It's
mainly because when a
number of people are looking, they don't feel as individually responsible for
what's going on," he said.
Latene and Darley defined
factors which may influence
you helping:
Characteristics of
Emergencies
Emergencies come without
warning with no practiced
responses to fall back on.
Yet it requires instant action
on your part.
Model of the Intervention
Process

A bystander (you) must
make a series of decisions.
First, you must notice the
event, and then interpret it
as an emergency. You must
decide if you have the responsibility to act, and if so
what form of assistance you
should use. Should you help
directly or call the police?
Then you must decide how
to act and implement your
choice.
Social Determinants to Bystander Intervention
When you happen upon an
ambiguous "situation", you
often may look to others’ behavior to see if they observe
it as an emergency. An individual, seeing the inaction of
others, will judge the situation as less serious than
they would if alone.” People
may react less to an emergency if they are in a group
situation than if they are
alone.
What are the consequences of bystander
Intervention?
Studies consistently show
that the result of bystander
intervention is the reduced
likelihood of violent attempts
being successful, the reduction of overall violence, and
increased intervention by
others in conflict situations
(Christy & Voigt 1994, Rigby
& Johnson 2005). For these
reasons, anti-bystander
See “Bystander” on Page 5

Page 5
SPRING 2009

“New Materials” Continued from Page 3
“Bystander” Continued from Page 4

apathy education programs have
been implemented by a number of
different institutions to increase
helping behavior, especially in
situations of sexual violence or violence against children .
Remember communities where
people intervene for the good of
others creates a safer community.

In addition to the booklet, the BFWHW project includes a
poster for use in community settings and a laminated pocket
card for healthcare providers that describes why it is important for them to discuss emotional wellness with perinatal
women and a list of questions they can ask related to emotions, support systems and locus of control in their role as
mothers. The materials are easy to read, colorful and provide
excellent information for consumers and professionals. The
booklet, poster and pocket card are free in limited amounts
(10 of each product) and can be obtained by calling the HRSA
Information Center at 1-888-ASK-HRSA,
(1-888-275-4772) or online at www.MCHB.HRSA.GOV/
pregnancyandbeyond .
Please contact :
Capt. Karen Hench, RN, MS Deputy Director, Division of
Healthy Start and Perinatal Services at khench@hrsa.gov or 1301-443-0543, if amounts exceeding the limits are needed.
The materials are also available in Spanish.

Hey there!
Arizona Department of Health Services is using Twitter. Twitter is a
free service that lets you keep in
touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to
one simple question: What are you
doing? Join today to start receiving
AZDHS's updates.
To sign up for ADHS’s twitter go to:
Twitter.com/azdhs

Another wonderful and free Bright Futures toolkit is “A
woman’s guide to emotional wellness”, and “ A young
woman’s guide to emotional wellness”. The toolkit also includes a poster proclaiming “You can learn to feel your best”,
is a guide for health care providers and community organizations that describes how they can promote emotional wellness. The toolkit consists of a booklet for each of the four
audiences that provides very targeted suggestions for helping
women learn how to appreciate themselves, find balance and
purpose and connect with others. The women’s guides can be
used on an individual basis and as a guide for group discussions.
During this ever evolving period, it is especially important
that health care providers and policy makers address, encourage and support the emotional wellness of women of all ages.
The emotional wellness of women impacts more than just her
quality of life, it can have a long term impact on her family,
loved ones, friends and co-workers.
These materials are available online at http://www.hrsa.gov/
WomensHealth/ewtools/wguide/index.htm
In addition to the materials described above, HRSA’s BFWHW
continues to offer other tools designed to support physical
activity and healthy eating among women of all ages.

Page 6
SPRING 2009

KEEPING UP WITH BWCH

Just like the world around us, the Bureau of Women’s and Children’s Health has undergone some
changes in the past eight months. Some of these changes are related to the current state budget
situation which resulted in the loss of state funding for the Pregnancy Services Program and the
County Prenatal Block Grant. In addition, the Newborn Screening Program moved to the state
laboratory in September 2008 to facilitate a seamless communication flow and efficient use of
resources.
The Bureau of Women’s and Children’s Health decided to review the functions, resources, focus
and structure of the bureau during this period of change and proposed a restructure that supports
the bureau’s growing emphasis on the importance of women’s health prior to pregnancy and the
holistic health of young children. The new structure will allow BWCH to be in the best position
possible to address emerging maternal and child health trends as well as any challenges the future
may bring. The restructure of BWCH resulted in the establishment of the following; an Office of
Women’s Health headed by Toni Means, an Office of Children’s Health headed by Mary Ellen
Cunningham and an Injury and Child Fatality Section lead by Tomi St. Mars. Additional personnel changes include the selection of Khaleel Hussaini as Acting Office Chief of Assessment and
Evaluation and the appointment of Rosalinda Castaneda as the State Child Wellness Expert for
Project LAUNCH.
Programs within the Office of Women’s Health include Health Start, Family Planning, Teen
Pregnancy Prevention, Abstinence Education, Sexual Assault Prevention, Domestic Violence, as
well as the Community Involvement Project and the Preconception Care Initiative. The Office of
Children’s Health is comprised of the High Risk Perinatal Program, Community Health Block
Grants, Sensory Program, Maternal and Child Health Hotlines and Project LAUNCH. Injury prevention and Child Fatality Review were merged because of the direct link between intentional
and unintentional injuries and child deaths.
In February 2009, the Bureau of Women’s and Children’s Health was pleased to welcome the Office of Oral Health. The Title V Maternal and Child Health block grant has been a source of
funding for sealants and other Office of Oral Health activities for a number of years. The addition of the Office of Oral Health to BWCH will facilitate increased integration of oral health into
programs serving women and children.
If you have any questions regarding the information provided above
please feel free to call Sheila Sjolander at 602-364-1400.

This newsletter brought to you by:
Arizona Department of Health Services
Bureau of Women’s and
Children’s Health
150 N 18th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85007