Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
The Marshall Project: Fish Tanks, Plants and Podcast Studios — Some States Try a New Approach to Incarceration
When most people picture U.S. prisons, they don’t usually imagine green plants, vibrant murals, wooden furniture, cuddly dogs or fish tanks. In most facilities, they’d be right. But at SCI Chester, a medium-security prison outside Philadelphia, a small pilot unit known as “Little Scandinavia” is testing whether that kind of environment, modeled on the prisons of Nordic countries like Norway and Denmark, can not only change how prisons look, but also how they work. (Lartey, 4/19)
NBC News: The Killing Of An Autistic Teen Highlights Potential Police Violence That People With Disabilities Face
When police opened fire on Victor Perez , the autistic, nonverbal 17-year-old with cerebral palsy was experiencing a mental health crisis. Advocates say his death reflects a potential for violence that people with disabilities, in particular, can experience when encountering police. Perez’s death is part of a much larger pattern, explained Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for the Washington, D.C.-based Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a group run by and for people with autism. Police with little awareness of autism are sometimes too quick to act. (Hampton, 4/22)
The New York Times: Sex Hormones Are Brain Hormones. What Does This Mean For Treating Brain Diseases?
A growing understanding of how “reproductive” hormones sculpt the brain could transform the management of neurological conditions. (Gross, 4/22)
The Washington Post: Why Catchy Songs Get Stuck In Your Head (And How To Stop It)
If you have ever had a song on repeat in your brain, you are not alone. Catching an earworm — or having “involuntary musical imagery” in psychological parlance — is exceedingly common and universal. (Sima, 4/24)
The New York Times: When They Don’t Recognize You Anymore
People with dementia often forget even close family members as the disease advances. “It can throw people into an existential crisis,” one expert said. (Span, 4/20)
The New York Times: Suicides And Rape At A Prized Mental Health Center
Timberline Knolls, a mental health center owned by Acadia Healthcare, skimped on staff. Then came a series of tragedies. (Silver-Greenberg and Thomas, 4/22)
The Guardian: ‘You Can Let Go Now’: Inside The Hospital Where Staff Treat Fear Of Death As Well As Physical Pain
René Damgaard, 67, lies in a hospital bed in the palliative care unit at Hvidovre hospital outside Copenhagen. It’s the first evening of May, and the window is open, letting mild air and the sound of a blackbird singing into the room. “This is the kind of weather you love the most. When you usually stand and fish at the sandbank,” says his niece, 53-year-old Mette Damgaard. She is leaning over the bed, her face very close to his. She has been sitting like this for a long time. (Vaaben, 4/22)
