Saturday, November 2

Tag: health

How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together

The mere act of growing up brings special challenges to young African Americans, particularly those living in rural areas. Resources there are often limited, compared to what’s offered in the city. There’s more chronic poverty and economic stress, and less of almost everything else: employment opportunities, public transportation, recreational facilities, families with discretionary income, and health care, both physical and mental. There are bright spots, however, as I’ve learned from over 20 years of research. One was the caregiving practices of many African American families. That nurturing has helped their children avoid major problems, including behaviors that place them at risk for HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies. With that in mind, I developed the Strong African American Famili...
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Why public health officials sound more worried about the coronavirus than the seasonal flu
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Why public health officials sound more worried about the coronavirus than the seasonal flu

The spread of the new coronavirus, which has infected over 80,000 people worldwide and resulted in the death of more than 3,000, has raised alarms around the world. At the same time, the seasonal influenza, known as the flu, causes severe illness in between 3 million and 5 million people, with hundreds of thousands of deaths every year worldwide. With so many fewer cases than the flu, what explains the dramatic response to COVID-19 and worry around the globe? And how would a person know whether seasonal influenza-like symptoms are COVID-19? As an epidemiologist, here’s how I look at these questions. Difficult to distinguish The first thing to realize is that the emergence of the novel coronavirus isn’t a rare “black swan” event. Rather, this is a product of evolution; there have been ab...
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The mental health crisis on campus and how colleges can fix it
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Journalism

The mental health crisis on campus and how colleges can fix it

When college students seek help for a mental health issue on campus – something they are doing more often – the place they usually go is the college counseling center. But while the stigma of seeking mental health support has gone down, it has created a new problem: College counseling centers are now struggling to meet the increased demand. As a researcher who examines problems faced by college students in distress, I see a way to better support students’ mental health. In addition to offering individual counseling, colleges should also focus on what we in the mental health field refer to as population health and prevention. These efforts can range from creating more shared spaces to increase social connections to stave off feelings of isolation, to reducing things on campus that threat...
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Undoing ‘Obamacare’ would harm more than the health of Americans
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IN OTHER NEWS

Undoing ‘Obamacare’ would harm more than the health of Americans

The Affordable Care Act remains on life support after a panel of federal judges ruled on Dec. 18, 2019 that the law’s individual mandate requiring people to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. The decision hobbles the law in ways that are hard to predict politically, particularly in the upcoming election year. It also raises questions for the 20 million people who gained coverage in the marketplaces and all Americans who gained protections through the ACA. The ACA’s individual mandate is a foundation of the law. Experts argued that the mandate was the only way to bring healthy people into an insurance pool. That is important to allow insurers to spread the costs among a broad mix of people, not just the sick. It served as a crucial bargaining chip for the Obama administration in br...
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To stop police shootings of people with mental health disabilities, I asked them what cops – and everyone – could do to help
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IN OTHER NEWS

To stop police shootings of people with mental health disabilities, I asked them what cops – and everyone – could do to help

After Shukri Ali Said left her house during a mental health crisis on April 23, 2018, her sister called 911 for help. Police found Said standing at an intersection holding a knife. Officers shot her five times in the neck and chest, killing her. That same month, in New York, officers answered a 911 call about a black man waving something that looked like a gun. In fact, it was a pipe. But when Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old father with mental illness who was well known in his Brooklyn community, pointed it at police, they shot him dead. Vassell and Said are among the hundreds of people with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses in the United States killed by police every year. According to The Washington Post, 142 of the 752 people shot by police so far in 2019 have had a mental i...
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Journalism

The Surprising Links Between Family Dinner and Good Health

Adults who prepare quality meals for children are offering something more important than a nutrition lesson. When the 10 Garcia-Prats boys got together every night for dinner, they shared more than food around the table. They talked about the successes and frustrations of their days. The older boys helped the younger ones cut their meat. They compared their picks for the World Cup, a conversation that turned into an impromptu geography lesson. Their mother, Cathy, author of Good Families Don’t Just Happen: What We Learned from Raising Our Ten Sons and How It Can Work for You, strove to make the dinner table warm and welcoming, a place where her boys would want to linger. “Our philosophy is that dinnertime is not just a time to feed your body; it’s a time to feed your mind and ...
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

The Unique Arts Festival Where Performers Play for Their Health Care

O+ was created to address the lack of affordable medical care for a chronically underinsured population: artists and musicians. When Christopher Stott-Rigsbee was attacked by assailants in November 2010, he got a concussion, bruised ribs, gravel embedded in his gums, cuts all over his face, and he lost three teeth. But the real pain came later. The lead singer and songwriter for the Plattsburgh, New York-based band Adrian Aardvark, Stott-Rigsbee started having panic attacks and anxiety; after four years, he finally began seeing a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with PTSD and depression. “It has taken years for me to start the recovery process, and I will be working to recover my self-worth, masculinity, and my faith in humanity and society for a long time,” Stott-Rigsbee sa...
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Wake Up America! Beware Of Change For Change Sake: The Health Care Debate/Debacle

Ever since, the, then - controlled, Democratic Congress, passed/ enacted the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare), the opposition, Republican Party (GOP), has continuously attempted to repeal this legislation. While Obama was President, he possessed the veto - power, so the dozens of attempts, became little more than costly, time - wasting positioning. These politicians were able to try to motivate their bases/ constituencies, using a combination of empty rhetoric and promises, blaming, complaining, and negativity, while not having to bring forth a viable solution/ replacement. With the elections of 2016, when Trump was elected President, and the Republicans had control of both houses of Congress, these politicians found themselves, having to put up, or shut up, because they were expected ...
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