Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hospital Shortages Leave Missouri Jails With Hundreds Of Mentally Ill Patients
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Hundreds Of Mentally Ill Patients Are Stuck In Missouri Jails As State Struggles With Staffing Issues
Staffing problems at Missouri’s mental hospitals, often linked to the state’s low worker pay rates, have left hundreds of people needing treatment sitting in county jails for months. Nearly 160 people are awaiting admission to the state’s psychiatric hospitals under orders from judges to receive “competency restoration,” according to the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Another 65 individuals who, as of Jan. 20, have been evaluated and found to be incompetent to stand trial are awaiting new court orders that could lead to potential admission to state mental health facilities. But even then, they will remain in jail until more space opens in a treatment center. (Erickson, 1/25)
In other news from across the U.S. —
North Carolina Health News: Fentanyl Is Everywhere, Increasing Overdoses In The South
A rising number of people in North Carolina have landed in hospital emergency departments due to drug overdoses involving fentanyl. Fentanyl and its synthetic opioid cousins are much stronger than other common opioids, such as heroin, morphine or prescription painkillers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is at least 100 times more powerful than an equivalent amount of morphine. Despite its intense potency, in recent years, fentanyl has been added to almost every kind of illegal drug. Though the epidemic has long been viewed as a “white problem” because white people made up the majority of opioid-related overdose deaths over the last two decades, that’s no longer the case. As fentanyl spreads, people who use other drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine, have been pulled into the opioid epidemic. (Knopf, 1/25)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Ohioans Submit 9 New Illness Petitions To Add To Ohio Medical Marijuana Conditions List
The State Medical Board of Ohio will study medical marijuana’s potential efficacy for a handful of conditions that nine state residents want to add to the list of qualifying conditions... Each year, the State Medical Board considers new conditions. All the petitions are expected to be presented to a medical board committee during a Feb. 9 meeting, when it will determine which petitions warrant further consideration and open a public comment period for them via email. (Hancock, 1/24)
AP: House OKs Plan To Put Teachers On State Health Insurance
Legislation allowing Idaho K-12 teachers to take home more of their paychecks by giving school districts an opportunity to leave private health care carriers and join the state’s self-funded health insurance plan cleared the House on Monday and headed to the Senate. The House voted 55-14 to approve the legislation backers said is needed to help the state hire and retain teachers and other school workers by reducing premiums and lowering deductibles. Backers also said it could reduce reliance on school levies some school districts use that can raise property taxes. (Ridler, 1/24)
Houston Chronicle: Students In Any Major Can Learn To Battle Health Inequity In New University Of Houston Program
The University of Houston is launching an initiative to combat health inequity that will launch new programs and courses to reach each of the university’s 16 colleges and schools. The UH Population Health initiative will focus on the 70 percent of factors other than genetics and healthcare that influence health for groups of people — including food, behavior and the environment. The approach was in the planning stages at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which drove home the need for more health-related efforts outside of medicine, UH officials said. (Ketterer, 1/24)
In news about the homelessness crisis —
San Francisco Chronicle: Appeals Court Upholds San Francisco Law Protecting Tenants From ‘Eviction By Another Name’
A state appeals court on Monday upheld a San Francisco tenant-protection law that bars property owners from sidestepping the city's limits on evictions by imposing huge, bad-faith rent increases to force renters to leave. The case tested the limits of the Costa-Hawkins Act, a California law backed by the real estate industry that banned local rent control on apartments built after February 1995 and on all single-family homes and condominiums. It did not limit a city or county’s authority to restrict tenant evictions, but the issue before the court was whether San Francisco’s eviction rules were a form of rent control. (Egelko, 1/24)
The Washington Post: Serial Murders, Beatings And Beheadings: Violence Against The Homeless Is Increasing, Advocates Say
According to experts and advocates, the last year has seen a spike in violence against the homeless. There was a beheading in Colorado. A sleeping man lit on fire in the stairwell of a New York City apartment complex. An attack by four juveniles on a sleeping woman in Washington state. Beyond these lurid headlines, however, are dozens of daily acts of violence occasioned by increasing collisions between the housed and unhoused populations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, experts say. (Swenson, 1/24)
