These blog posts are a compilation of Irwin’s op-eds, publications, media interviews, and a variety of other features.
A survey released today by the Ukraine Children’s Action Project (UCAP), conducted in collaboration with Kyiv-based Ratings Group, details the extreme toll of the Ukrainian war on the mental health and educational performance of the nation’s children.
America needs every child — regardless of socioeconomic status —to be a success story. Period.
The Future of Us addresses the very serious, grown-up business of fulfilling the promises and potential of all children, and how this could impact America’s future in a #postpandemic world. Plus, see my own wild journey!
Dr. Redlener and Dr. Fair release “A Guide for Restoring the Economy that Matters Most to Americans” where they outline the first phase of reopening America during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Strong evidence supports the existence of Health Barriers to Learning (HBLs)—health conditions that when untreated or unmanaged can interfere with a child’s ability to learn and succeed in school. These HBLs include vision and hearing deficits, uncontrolled asthma, mental and behavioral problems, dental pain, persistent hunger, and the effects of lead exposure. However, 19% of US children aged 6 to 11 did not receive their annual checkup in the past year. School requirements for health screenings can help identify children with HBLs. This study explores which states require health screening for children in elementary school, and the extent to which the 7 HBLs are included.
To enhance the preparedness of US schools to acts of terrorism and mass violence, the landscape of threats against schools must first be understood. This includes exploring the global trends of acts of terrorism against schools, as well as looking specifically at the history of terrorism and acts of mass violence against schools domestically. This paper conducts a review of two databases in order to look at the trends in acts of terrorism and mass violence carried out against schools, and provides recommendations for domestic school preparedness based on this information.
Today, half of the 60 million people displaced worldwide are children—the greatest number of total displaced people since World War II and the greatest percentage who are children in over a decade. Despite a harsh winter, the first months of 2016 have seen record number of refugees arriving in Europe. For the first time since European refugee crisis began, the number of women and children exceed males. In the aftermath of terrorism in Paris and San Bernardino, this period has also been marked by tightened border control measures in many countries, limiting legal pathways to asylum and family reunification.
The impacts of climate change on human health have been documented globally and in the United States. Numerous studies project greater morbidity and mortality as a result of extreme weather events and other climate-sensitive hazards. Public health impacts on the U.S. Gulf Coast may be severe as the region is expected to experience increases in extreme temperatures, sea level rise, and possibly fewer but more intense hurricanes.
“This study points to a major crisis facing the children of the post-Katrina Gulf Region,” says Irwin Redlener, MD, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and president of the Children’s Health Fund. “From the perspective of the Gulf’s most vulnerable children and families, the recovery from Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans has been a dismal failure.”
