PI's Weekly Media digest: Deportation fears effects on children's health, new research on life expectancy by zip code, and US Census data collection faces challenges
A new report by Human Rights Watch warns that “dangerously subpar” medical care in US immigration detention centers caused 18 preventable deaths between 2012-2015, and that an escalation in immigration raids and detention under the Trump administration threatens to strain these centers’ already inadequate resources, risking illness, injury, and death for people detained there. “The medical experts found numerous incidents of substandard and dangerous medical care, including failure to follow up on symptoms that required attention. They also uncovered medical personnel practicing beyond the scope of their licenses and expertise, severely inadequate mental healthcare, the misuse of solitary confinement for people with mental health conditions, and sluggish emergency responses.”
In a Mercury News op-ed, San Francisco pediatrician and First 5 commissioner Dr. Zea Malawa describes the health effects on children who fear their parents will be deported: “In California alone an estimated 750,000 children have undocumented parents. That is one out of every eight children in school. Each day these children are contending with the same fears and stressors my patient described. This toxic stress threatens their health and shortens their lives. It is also completely preventable.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union released a report this week finding that 99% of students placed in handcuffs in NYC schools were black or Latino children. “When a child is handcuffed, the child is humiliated,” [NYCLU executive director Donna] Lieberman said. “It’s incompatible with the safe and supportive learning environment a school is supposed to provide.”
University of Washington researchers published a new study that adds to our understanding of how widely life expectancy can vary by zip code. “The team looked at anonymized death certificates from the National Center for Health Statistics for the 24-year period to calculate how long people all over the US live. Life expectancy grew in most counties, based on population estimates from surveys including the US Census Bureau and the Human Mortality Database. Notably, though, in 13 counties—the majority in Kentucky—life span actually decreased. These changes were at most just a couple of years (Owsley County, Kentucky had the largest decrease at 3% from about 72 to 70 years), but this effectively means that children born in these counties would likely have shorter lives than their parents.”
Many nonprofits, especially those serving low-income families, are being priced out of downtown Oakland as commercial rents spike.
The head of the US Census Bureau is retiring this summer, just ahead of the 2020 census. His departure could raise further complications for gathering population data, already struggling with underfunding in the latest budget that threatens to compromise data collection. Data collected by the US Census Bureau helps determine how many government services are allocated, including support for low-income families, school siting, voting precincts, language status, unmet medical needs, adequacy of transit systems, availability of affordable housing, and more.
West Oakland residents have filed a federal civil rights complaint this month claiming that diesel pollution associated with the Port of Oakland is compromising their health.
A draconian new anti-immigrant law in Texas challenges sanctuary cities like Austin, and authorizes law enforcement to inquire about immigration status during any interactions with the public, and threatens police officers and officials who refuse to comply with federal immigration detention requests with fines, prison, and/or removal from office.
Dr. Ashaunta Anderson, a pediatrics professor at UC-Riverside, co-authored a new study finding that racial discrimination experienced by children is associated with higher incidences of anxiety, depression, and ADHD.
CityLab reports on the many bills at various stages in the California legislature to address the state’s affordable housing crisis. “Dozens of the solutions floating in the state Legislature aim to address that supply problem, including several that would streamline the process by which housing projects get approved (one, for example, would limit the circumstances in which a special permit could be required to build a granny flat). Others would not-so-subtly make it much harder for local residents and government agencies to block new projects, like by requiring a two-thirds vote for any local ordinance “that would curb, delay, or deter growth or development within a city.”’
Trump’s pick to run SAMHSA, Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, has called for shifting money away from education and support services and toward more aggressive treatment of patients with severe psychiatric disorders, Stat reports. Some professionals worry this will put too much emphasis on medicating and hospitalizing patients, and remove supports that might help them integrate successfully into society. McCance-Katz is a psychiatrist specializing in opioid abuse. Stat writes, “SAMHSA has long been criticized for focusing too much on softer, ‘recovery’ programs rather than medication and medical treatment. McCance-Katz is expected to shift that emphasis.
The LA Times writes about “four things you should know” about the new FDA head, Scott Gottlieb, including that he says his first priority is to address opioid abuse and he wants to bring prescription drugs to market faster.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt dismissed more than half the members of an advisory board that exists to ensure science conducted and evaluated at the agency meets rigorous standards.
The Congressional Budget Office plans to release its CBO of the AHCA in the week of May 22,the Washington Post reports. The Senate parliamentarian can't review the legislation and the GOP can’t really start writing its bill in the upper chamber until the CBO scoring is complete, notes Politico. Vox reports that much of the debate over the AHCA in the House focused on coverage of pre-existing conditions, at the expense of discussing massive cuts to Medicaid, but Politico says Medicaid is now the sticking point in the Senate. A new poll by Consumer Reports find 78% of respondents say the government should ensure all can access affordable healthcare, and 56% of Republicans agreed.
Trump named four more members of his White House commission on opioids, and officially designated New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to be head commission. The new member are: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat; Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican; Former Democratic Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, who was addicted to opioids for several years and is now a leader of the Advocates for Opioids Recovery group; and Bertha Madras, a Harvard biopsychologist and former deputy director in the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, Politico reports
CHIP funding runs out at the end of September, and supporters fear the contentious, bipartisan atmosphere in DC right now could threaten it, the Atlantic reports. Either way, CHIP debate is taking a backseat right now to the AHCA and other fights.
Sports illustrated ran an in-depth feature on the long-reaching damage from football injuries on retired player Nick Buoniconti.
The New York Times looks at discussions underway in Cambridge, Massachusetts around installing neighborhood lockboxes containing Narcan (Naloxone), a medication for reviving people who have overdosed. Hear what residents had to say about the boxes and whether they would be willing to administer Narcan. Pacific Standard examines the extent to which each state is making Naloxone available to people who overdose. Their state-by-state map examines laws that influence the availability, accessibility, and use of Naloxone.
Meanwhile, in an interview with STAT, Regina LaBelle, the former chief of staff of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, expressed concern about the Trump Administration’s proposal to slash the office’s budget by 95%. Vox examines the potential implications of the proposed ONDCP cuts, from a return to a “tough on crime” approach that would lead to more incarceration of drug users, to a less coordinated federal approach to addressing substance abuse. TBD: the possible effects on funding for related state and local efforts.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is expected to be operational by June 1, but major safety and legal concerns remain open.
A CDC study published in JAMA suggests that states may be able to reduce methadone overdoses by removing the drug from their Medicaid preferred drug lists. According to the study, in 2014, methadone, which is prescribed for both pain and for opioid addiction, accounted for only 1% of opioids prescribed for pain but 24% of prescription opioid deaths. The study found that fatal and non-fatal overdoses of methadone from 1999-2014 were significantly higher in Florida and North Carolina, where methadone was on the Medicaid preferred drug list, than in South Carolina, where it was not.
STAT tells the story of a pharma salesman addicted to the drugs he was selling. He was eventually charged with pressuring doctors to prescribe Subsys, a prescription form of the highly addictive opioid fentanyl.
A study published in Pediatrics shows links between experiencing bullying in elementary school and mental health and substance abuse problems in later years.
This Association of Health Care Journalists’ (AHCJ) Storify highlights some takeaways from a panel discussion on the intersection of mental illness and criminal justice at the association’s recent conference.