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Public Policy in Public Health and Social Work: Health Policy

This guide will help you find scholarly resources in public policy.

Health Policy Books

Looking for Books at SCSU

Use SouthernSearch, the library catalog, to locate books (both print and e-books). You can do a keyword search using the terms policy AND whatever it is you are looking for. For example, policy and environmental health, policy and cancer, policy and smoking, policy and obesity, etc. For state and local policy you can add Connecticut as a keyword. Many state documents can be found in SouthernSearch.

If you see a book at another campus that you want, you can request to have it sent here. This usually takes about 4-5 days, so plan ahead!

Journal Articles

The EBSCO databases are a good place to start. You can use the "Find EBSCO Articles" search box on the library home page or you can combine the various subject databases that pertain to your topic. EBSCO includes:

  • Abstracts in Social Gerontology
  • Academic Search Premiere
  • CINAHL Complete (nursing and allied health)
  • EconLit
  • Education Complete
  • Environment Complete
  • ERIC (education)
  • Greenfile (environment)
  • Medline and Medline with Fulltext
  • PsychInfo
  • PsychArticles
  • Public Administration Abstracts
  • SocIndex (sociology, inequality)
  • Urban Studies Abstracts

JSTOR has coverage of many journals in Health Policy, Health Sciences, and Public Health. Use the advanced search to choose the subject areas- just remember that anything VERY recent may not yet be in JSTOR.

Public Health News - Good Places to Find Current Policy Issues

The Connecticut Health Policy Project, a nonpartisan research and educational organization tracks current developments in Connecticut health policy issues. Has a helpful discussion of Connecticut health policy basics.

The Connecticut Mirror has a Bill Checklist for tracking legislation. 

Also from the Connecticut Mirror: CT Budget Tracker

Connecticut Health Investigative Team 

Community Health Center Association of Connecticut 

Connecticut Voices For Children

Health Policy News website is produced by APHA and is a good place to find news on current public health issues. 

Science Daily Health Policy in the News

Kaiser Health News 

MedPage Health Policy

Kaiser Health Global Health Policy News

The Urban Institute Health Policy Center

 

 

Current Federal Policy

For an overview of a policy topic, including historical background, statistical information and viewpoints from various stakeholders, look in CQ Researcher.

For very current developments in law, regulations, and debates at the federal level, look in CQ Weekly. (TIP: You can browse articles by topic (Health, Veterans' Affairs, Pensions and Retirements, Welfare and Housing, etc) on the left side of the screen, then sort by date.)

The site GovTrack.us lets you follow developments in Congress by subject, including environmental protection, families, health, housing and community development, immigration, social welfare, and much more. You can also sign up to have updates sent to you. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services has a page for current news and a page that decribes the regulations that impact its work.

HealthAffairs.org is the online presence of the academic journal Health Affairs