Join Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) for a national webinar exploring healthy aging across the lifespan. Building on the recognition of September’s Healthy Aging Month, we will highlight strategies to enhance wellbeing at every age and ensure a higher quality of life for all.
As Americans live longer and healthier lives, the public health sector can enhance supports for people across the lifespan. TFAH’s Age-Friendly Public Health Systems initiative offers strategies for strengthening public health policy and programs to build effective healthy aging efforts. In addition to older adults, populations at key life stages—including children, young adults, and near-older adults—and their advocates are also navigating the effects of public health policies and finding opportunities to advance health.
This webinar will highlight strategies for public health practitioners to advance key programs and practices that promote health across the life span. Speakers will discuss policy considerations for key age groups and share how public health leaders are navigating the current health policy environment. Participants will gain insight into opportunities for collaboration and how to integrate strategies into their work, informing the future of intergenerational public health practice. The webinar will include time for Q&A from the audience.
On July 28, 2026, Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) held a national webinar and congressional briefing on our recently released report, Pain in the Nation 2026: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths.
TFAH’s Pain in the Nation 2026 report finds that the United States is at a turning point, with the combined age-adjusted rate of deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide declining by 16 percent in 2024. While alcohol-induced, drug overdose, and suicide mortality all saw decreases, this progress remains fragile. The report explores what’s behind these recent downward trends and which demographic groups are still experiencing high rates of death from these causes. Furthermore, while the reported data represent meaningful gains, funding disruptions and severe workforce reductions within federal behavioral health and injury prevention systems threaten to undermine this progress.
Our panel of subject matter experts discussed steps to sustain the recent progress in reducing the combined age-adjusted rate of deaths from alcohol, drug, and suicide and to ensure that vital public health infrastructure, prevention programs, and data systems are supported. The briefing included time for Q&A from the audience.
As many states conclude their 2026 legislative sessions, TFAH took a closer look at how communities are defining progress and securing vital public health victories despite increasing challenges.
TFAH is dedicated to supporting public health community partners through our core reports, convenings, and the Promoting Health and Cost Control in States (PHACCS) initiative. Through PHACCS, we identify how states are actively pursuing health-promoting policies during a time of federal policy flux. As jurisdictions navigate growing budgetary shortfalls and adapt to new directives, national partners are increasingly looking to the local level for inspiration on how to leverage unique administrative decisions and effective coalition-building to achieve lasting public health successes.
We discussed the key goals, activities, and partnerships that have helped policymakers, government leaders, and advocates drive recent progress for the public’s health and well-being. Speakers highlighted actionable strategies to advance essential programs, share lessons on navigating challenging policy environments, and offer insights for future collaboration and practice.
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) hosted a Congressional Briefing and National Webinar on the latest information on public health emergency readiness and findings from TFAH’s report, Ready or Not 2026: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism.
The past year alone saw the U.S. facing the most severe flu season in nearly a decade, the highest annual measles case count since 1991, and devastating weather-related emergencies. In addition, these challenges occurred alongside deep federal staffing cuts and destabilized funding to the public health system. As TFAH marks its 25th anniversary, the webinar will review the highlights from this year’s report, which measures the nation’s readiness for public health emergencies through 10 indicators of state preparedness to respond to a wide spectrum of health emergencies and to provide ongoing public health services.
Subject matter experts discussed the nation’s readiness for public health emergencies, examine the findings of the report, and discuss key recommendations for policymakers.
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) hosted a national webinar in recognition of National Public Health Week 2026. This year’s theme is Ready. Set. Action!, a call to reflect on the progress public health has made and next steps needed to build a healthier future.
Good health does not happen in a vacuum. It’s shaped by sustained investments, strong federal leadership, and effective partnerships across state and local communities. For 25 years, TFAH has stood at the center of the nation’s most critical public health milestones, championing initiatives like the Prevention and Public Health Fund to secure sustainable resources. However, following a year of significant challenges and a Fiscal Year 2026 budget that deviates from expectations, the question remains: how are federal, state, and local programs adapting to move forward?
This webinar discussed how public health systems are navigating this evolving landscape, examining the status of key federal agencies and the broader network of public health programs. Speakers reflected on lessons learned, emerging threats and opportunities, and strategies to sustain momentum in a changing fiscal and policy environment.
Trust for America’s health hosted a national webinar on the recently released report, Advancing Policies that Create Conditions for Good Health: Opportunities, Barriers, and Strategies, a report of TFAH’s Promoting Health and Cost Control in States (PHACCS) initiative.
How can we advance the public’s health in an era of diminished federal and state public health infrastructure and funding? The report shares strategies and trends about how states are addressing policies beyond traditional public health infrastructure that promote residents’ health and create return on investment. The webinar highlighted perspectives from national, government, and advocacy partners about the federal and state implications of policies that can help improve community health. As the current policy environment shifts responsibility to address non-medical drivers of health from federal to state governments, states will need to embrace new strategies, collaborate across sectors, and act creatively to continue advancing policies that support residents’ health.
We discussed how states have and can continue to advance health promoting policies in a variety of policy environments, ensuring that improvements are experienced in all communities amid a weakened public health infrastructure.
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) hosted a national webinar on our report, Pain in the Nation 2024: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths.
TFAH’s report found that a decrease in the alcohol-induced mortality rate led to a slightly lower combined rate of all U.S. deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide in 2022, but the long-term trend of such deaths is still alarmingly high. Between 2002 and 2022, combined deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide have increased by 142 percent from 74,003 deaths in 2002 to 207,827 deaths in 2022. For 2022, the alcohol-induced mortality rate decreased by six percent to 13.5 deaths per 100,000 people, the first decrease in the rate after more than a decade of increases, but death rates for drug overdose and suicide remained unchanged. The report also includes a special feature on polysubstance misuse and overdose.
The webinar discussed steps policymakers should take to begin to reverse these crises.
The Ready or Not 2024: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report identifies gaps in national and state preparedness to protect residents’ health during emergencies and makes recommendations to strengthen the nation’s public health system and improve emergency readiness. As the nation experiences an increasing number of infectious disease outbreaks and extreme weather events, the report found that while emergency preparedness has improved in some areas, policymakers not heeding the lessons of past emergencies, funding cuts, and health misinformation put decades of progress at risk.
Resource:
Ready or Not 2024: State-by-State Factsheets
A person’s economic well-being can be a driver of their mental and physical health, while an individual’s overall health status can affect their income and economic well-being. One example of how overall health and economic well-being are connected was the COVID-19 pandemic, as people in the United States simultaneously experienced health and economic crises. While current unemployment rates are among historic lows, the uneven economic recovery spotlights the degree to which household financial security remains fragile in America, particularly along racial and socioeconomic divides. States are uniquely positioned to take action to fill gaps in the economic security safety net and adopt innovative solutions to help communities thrive.
A panel of subject experts discussed the impact of COVID-19 pandemic financial assistance programs and opportunities to enact evidence-based policies to further address the economic needs of communities, improve their financial stability, and promote their health and well-being.
Resources
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) will host a Congressional briefing, national webinar on our recently released report, Pain in the Nation 2023: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths.
TFAH’s Pain in the Nation 2023 report found that the death rate due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide increased by 11 percent in 2021. Deaths due to substance misuse and suicide have been rising in the U.S. for over two decades, with numbers doubling from 104,379 deaths in 2011 to 209,225 in 2021. The increase in 2021 death rates occurred among all ages, races, and geographic groups, but TFAH’s report found that increases were particularly high for youth suicides and drug overdoses among certain populations of color and in rural regions of the country.
Resources:
Trust for America’s Health
Crisis Text Line