State Highlights: Advocates Push For Better Health Care Access For Transgender Patients In Md., Va.; Oregon Houses Nearly 400 Foster Children In Institutional Settings

The Washington Post: Transgender Healthcare Gaps Persist In Maryland. These Activists Are Trying To Change That.
For seven years, Kyndra Purnell could find no clinic near her home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore that would prescribe the hormones she desperately needed. She was forced to rely on the black market, buying estrogen injections from the few other transgender women she knew in the area. Then, about three years ago, she found Chase Brexton Health Services, a medical provider in Baltimore that offers hormone replacement therapy and other types of health care for the transgender community. But the clinic was more than two hours from Purnell’s home in Ocean City. Still, every three months, she made the drive, taking time off from her full-time job. (Schmidt, 3/17)

The Oregonian: Oregon Sends Hundreds Of Foster Kids To Former Jails, Institutions, Not Families
A move to improve the care of foster children relegated to living in hotels has resulted in 25 percent more children removed from their families being housed in institutions such as former juvenile jails, The Oregonian/OregonLive has found. The children being sent to cinderblock facilities are often the most traumatized and difficult to care for. Most are teens but the state is looking at expanding institutional programs for children as young as six. (Borrud, 3/15)

The CT Mirror: Family Members Plead For Passage Of Aid-In-Dying Bill
Edwards is one of dozens of Connecticut residents imploring lawmakers to support a bill that would give terminally ill patients access to medication to end their lives. A public hearing on the so-called aid-in-dying legislation is scheduled for Monday at the Legislative Office Building. (Carlesso, 3/18)

The Oregonian: Flu Kills Portland Woman, 37, And Unborn Child
A late-season surge of influenza A -- a strain of the flu that has made up about 99 percent of all flu cases this year -- has sickened thousands of people across the country. In Portland, it left two young girls motherless when it killed a 37-year-old woman and her unborn child. ...Pregnancy weakens the immune system so that the mother’s body doesn’t fight off the baby growing inside her. So even though she was immunized for the flu this year, she faced an increase risk. The flu shot this year also has little protection against the strain influenza A, which has contributed to its spread and severity since mid-February. (Harbarger, 3/15)

Denver Post: Colorado Court-Ordered Mental Health Evaluation Dispute Reaches Agreement
The state and disability advocates reached a new agreement Friday in a longstanding legal battle over long waits for court-ordered mental health evaluations and treatment that will create a system of fines to penalize Colorado when it fails to meet deadlines. The consent decree filed Friday ends eight years of legal disputes between the Colorado Department of Human Services and Disability Law Colorado, a nonprofit that in 2011 sued in federal court over wait times. The two parties settled the case the next year but reopened it in 2016 when the state failed to meet the terms of the settlement. (Schmelzer, 3/15)

Texas Tribune: Imprisoned Texas Women Face Numerous Challenges
Many women who have spent time in the state’s prisons have similar stories. In a survey of over 400 incarcerated women conducted by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition last year, more than half said they didn’t have access to enough pads and tampons each month, and that the quality of products was poor. It’s just one of many issues that make it difficult to be a woman in prison, and one of many that advocates and lawmakers are hoping to address this legislative session. (Marfin, 3/18)

Columbus Dispatch: DeWine Calls For Raising Ohio's Legal Age To Buy Cigarettes To 21
Ohio would become the latest state to increase the legal age to buy cigarettes under Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed two-year operating budget. DeWine wants to increase the threshold from 18 to 21 for tobacco products in Ohio. (Siegel, 3/15)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: How Dangerous Is Childbirth In The Philadelphia Area? Here Are The Rates Of Severe Complications.
Every year in this country, about 700 women die during or soon after giving birth, making this the most dangerous nation in the developed world to have a baby. Far more women – 50,000 – narrowly survive childbirth. And women who are poor or African American are at greatest risk of life-threatening complications such as hemorrhage or stroke. (McCullough, 3/18)

NOLA: More LSU Health Medical Grads Staying In State And Going Into Primary Care 
Half of the 181 graduating medical students from LSU Health New Orleans who participated in Match Day this year will remain in Louisiana to finish their training. The National Resident Match Program is a pivotal day in a medical student’s career when the location of their post-graduate medical training is revealed. Applicants across the United States are matched to residency programs with available positions at U.S. teaching hospitals and academic health centers.  These results are an indicator to the future of the healthcare workforce, as higher number of physicians end up setting up their practice in states they trained in.  (Clark, 3/15)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Senior Who Refuses Chickenpox Vaccine Sues NKY Health Department
An 18-year-old Catholic high school student who has not been vaccinated against chickenpox filed a lawsuit this past week against the Northern Kentucky Health Department. Jerome Kunkel, a senior at Assumption Academy in Walton, claims health officials violated his freedom of religion and other rights by ordering students without the vaccine to not attend school or extracurricular activities. (Londberg, 3/16)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: This Year's Flu Season May Be Winding Down
The Georgia Department of Public Health said 4.2 percent of patient visits to doctors were for the flu during the week ending March 9. That’s the same percent of visits during the week before, according to the most recent report released on Friday. (Oliviero, 3/15)

Miami Herald: Patient On Ventilator Cannot Find Florida Nursing Home
Under normal circumstances, a frail elder such as Robinson would transfer to a nearby nursing home. But because Florida’s reimbursement rate for nursing home patients who require ventilators is so low, only two homes in the state were willing to take Robinson. (Miller and Chang, 3/15)

New England Public Radio: 6 Months After Springfield Casino Opens, Gambling Addiction Services Roll Out ... Slowly
Half a year since the opening of the MGM casino in Springfield, Massachusetts, some mental health counselors are seeing an uptick in gambling among clients — though not necessarily an increase in people seeking addiction treatment. The Gandara Center is a mental health clinic in the North End of Springfield, where daytime TV plays continuously in the waiting room. (Brown, 3/18)

The Star Tribune: With Suicides And ER Visits On The Rise, North Metro Group Forms New Collaboration 
Rising numbers of suicides and emergency room visits due to mental health crises are prompting leaders in the north metro to join forces to address the problems. The North Metro Mental Health Roundtable held its first meeting in February, on the hope that greater collaboration among medical providers, law enforcement, social service agencies, homeless shelters and others can reverse some troubling trends. (Olson, 3/16)

The Associated Press: Puzzling Number Of Men Tied To Ferguson Protests Have Died
Two young men were found dead inside torched cars. Three others died of apparent suicides. Another collapsed on a bus, his death ruled an overdose. Six deaths, all involving men with connections to protests in Ferguson, Missouri, drew attention on social media and speculation in the activist community that something sinister was at play. Police say there is no evidence the deaths have anything to do with the protests stemming from a white police officer's fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, and that only two were homicides with no known link to the protests. (3/17)