State Highlights: Workers, Patients From Closed D.C. Area Women’s Hospital Look Back On ‘Cutting Edge’ Treatment; Virginia Communities Work On Ways To Keep Mentally Ill Out Of Court Systems

The Washington Post: How D.C.’s Historic Columbia Hospital For Women Became A Trader Joe’s, Expensive Condos
Dwayne Lawson-Brown couldn’t find a home in his hometown. He spent over a year searching the District in 2016, but everything was too pricey. Frustrated and mourning the Washington he knew as a child, Lawson-Brown, 35, decided to list all the places he’d “lost.” The list became a poem — a poem centered on the Columbia Hospital for Women. (Natanson, 8/18)

The Washington Post: Arlington Finalizes Mental-Health Court Plan, But Advocates Say It Won’t Go Far Enough
After 15 years of failed efforts, Arlington is close to starting a specialized court program to address mental illness in the criminal justice system. But advocates say they were shut out of a plan that is now moving too quickly and would help too few people. “This is an issue of national importance,” said Naomi Verdugo, an advocate who helped organize a forum Thursday night to solicit comments on a plan expected to be sent to the Virginia Supreme Court for approval this fall. Most people in the criminal justice system, she noted, start in local jails. (Weiner, 8/16)

Seattle Times: The Sugary-Drink Tax Is Working In Seattle, But Will It Curb Soda Sales? 
The City Council adopted the tax in June 2017 to improve the health of Seattle residents, and address persistent health and education inequities. The measure also created the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board, which makes community-informed recommendations to the city about investing tax revenues to meet the goals identified above. The board prioritizes programs that advance equity and are likely to improve community well-being. (Krieger, 8/18)

Kaiser Health News: ER Redo: As Rural Hospital Closes, Emergency Care Is On The Blink With Fate Uncertain
For more than 30 minutes, Robert Findley lay unconscious in the back of an ambulance next to Mercy Hospital Fort Scott on a frigid February morning with paramedics hand-pumping oxygen into his lungs. A helipad sat just across the icy parking lot from the hospital’s emergency department, which had recently shuttered its doors, like hundreds of rural hospitals nationwide. (Tribble, 8/19)

Kansas City Star: Johnson County Parents Sue School District Over Vaccines
A Johnson County lawyer and his wife — who have never vaccinated their 4-year-old son — are suing Blue Valley schools and state officials, calling Kansas’ immunization requirements unconstitutional and archaic. Linus and Terri Baker had previously sued the Kansas Department of Children and Families, which in 2017 had notified them it would vaccinate the boy against their wishes. That never happened. (Ritter, 8/17)

Los Angeles Times: Power Shutoffs Can Prevent Wildfires, But Put Vulnerable People At Risk
Cecilia Santillano faced a difficult decision last year before the power went out in her Simi Valley neighborhood: Ignore her monthly bills and buy a generator, or hope the batteries on her husband’s ventilators would outlast the next outage. “If I didn’t have the generator and there was no power and no sign of it getting turned on, George could start passing away,” said Santillano, whose husband suffers from a rare autoimmune disease and is bound to a wheelchair. “They are expensive and I didn’t want to buy it, but I’d rather be safe.” (Luna, 8/18)

Columbus Dispatch: Ten Columbus Area Facilities Score 100% On LGBTQ Health Care Index
The HRC is the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights group, and the 12th annual Healthcare Equality Index scores health care institutions on their ability to adopt non-discrimination policies so that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation and/or gender, receives quality care. The index was specifically developed back in 2007 to create a national standard to help facilities limit discrimination, HRC Director Tari Hanneman said. Hanneman said the HRC wanted to launch its national tour in Columbus because 10 of the index’s participating area facilities scored 100%, meaning those 10 institutions offer trans-inclusive benefits, increased staff training and recording of patients’ sexual orientations, among many other comprehensive practices. (Doyle, 8/16)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Unless It Acts, Milwaukee County May Lose Psychiatric Crisis Center
The psychiatric emergency department may be obscure to anyone who doesn't live with crippling depressive, bipolar, suicidal and schizophrenic episodes. But the stakes are high for the region, the clock is ticking and there are a raft of tough decisions and delicate compromises to work out if the county wants to replace the crisis center — not least, how to pay for it. (Schmid, 8/16)

Boston Globe: City Pleads For State, Regional Help With Homelessness, Drug Crisis In South End
It seems like the most Boston of problems, geographically located at the intersection of two of its busiest streets in the heart of the city. But city officials are saying the growing chaos near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, where a congregation of people struggling with homelessness and addiction have clashed with neighbors and police, is a regional crisis that demands swift action from the state and other municipalities. (Levenson, 8/16)

Austin American-Statesman: Homeless Outreach Street Team Goes One-On-One To Connect People To Services
Community health paramedics like Price and the Travis County mental health care provider Integral Care, where Dorrier is a program manager, work with Austin police and the Downtown Austin Community Court to eliminate barriers to permanent housing that Austin’s homeless population can face. In some cases, that might mean helping someone get a new copy of their birth certificate or Social Security card. In other instances, where heath is an issue, it could be rushing someone to an emergency room. (Karacostas, 8/18)

NPR: Amid Homelessness Crisis, Los Angeles Restricts Living In Vehicles
Along a big, commercial street in L.A.'s North Hollywood area, near a row of empty storefronts, about a half dozen motor homes sat parked on a recent morning. Inside one of them, 67-year-old Edith Grays and her husband watched TV with the door open. Grays said they'd been there a few days, despite a two-hour parking limit. "Thank God they're not bothering us right now," she said. (Scott, 8/19)

Boston Globe: Marijuana Brownies, Gummies, And Chocolates Ending Up In Toddlers’ Hands
Amid a proliferation of new pot shops in Massachusetts, health care officials are seeing an ominous trend: a sharp increase in calls to the state’s poison control center about toddlers getting into marijuana products — usually brownies, chocolate bars, or gummies — and ending up in the emergency room. The number of calls about children 5 and younger ingesting marijuana nearly tripled in the first seven months after recreational pot shops opened last November, compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention. (Lazar, 8/16)