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Gov. Gavin Newsom approved many consequential health care bills by his bill-signing deadline Wednesday, including a ban on the sale of menthol and other flavored tobacco products, the creation of a state generic drug label and better coverage for mental health disorders.
Daniel Prude’s family knew he needed psychiatric care and tried to get it for him. Instead, his encounter with police hours after he was released from Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, proved fatal.
The climate change center at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health plans to study and help implement policies for slowing climate change and adapting to it.
This pandemic is like war, and California’s local health officers are leading the state's response. Yet unlike war heroes, who are lionized, they are facing unprecedented attacks and death threats.
In a series of July U.S. Census Bureau surveys, nearly half of California adult respondents reported levels of anxiety and gloom typically associated with diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder, a stunning figure that rose through the summer alongside the menacing spread of the coronavirus.
In a highly produced, made-for-TV political convention, Democrats papered over their differences on a variety of issues, including health care, to show a unified front to defeat President Donald Trump in November. Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues to complicate efforts to get students back to school, and a federal judge blocks the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate anti-discrimination protections for transgender people. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too.
COVID-19 has upended the lives of people with dementia, limiting their interactions with others and complicating matters for their caregivers.
About 70 college students are enrolled this summer in a program developed by San Francisco researchers and funded by the National Institutes of Health that allows them to explore the pandemic’s impact on communities facing health disparities.
In dealing with her son’s violent murder, fear over the coronavirus pandemic and the stress of coping with systemic racism, Beverly Grant has found strength and peace through yoga. The Denver native is part of a yoga co-op seeking to bring the ancient practice to more diverse communities as a health care tool.
Across the country, the recession has cut state revenues at the same time the COVID-19 pandemic has increased costs, forcing state lawmakers into painful decisions about how to balance their budgets. Health care is one of the targets even in the midst of a health care crisis.
Experts say a bit of extra drinking isn’t a problem for many people, but they recommend watching out for specific behaviors that signal addiction.
In communities of color, the decision to participate in this moment of collective trauma — whether by watching and sharing the video of George Floyd’s death, discussing racial injustice on social media, or protesting and speaking out in the 3D world — can be one rife with anxiety and profound mental distress.
Counting deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic is easier said than done. Without widespread testing, officials must sort through presumed COVID deaths and those who died with infections rather than from them. Then there are the indirect deaths of people who died from circumstances created by the pandemic.
During the coronavirus pandemic, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and other serious anxieties may struggle to distinguish concerns brought on by their conditions from the fears shared by the general public. But some patients say successful treatment has armed them to handle COVID-19’s uncertainties.
In areas hit hard by the coronavirus, such as Detroit, behavioral health care workers have been overburdened and forced to scale back services at the same time people battling mental health disorders became more stressed and anxious.
Relaxed regulations in response to the pandemic means more access to addiction treatment medications. But recovery programs are accepting fewer people, and the danger of overdose remains high.
Of those who went without seeing a doctor or other medical provider, 11% experienced a worsened medical condition, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, nearly 40% said stress related to the coronavirus crisis has negatively impacted their mental health.
The pandemic has forced millions of families to weigh the risks of vulnerable grandparents getting too close to their beloved grandchildren — against the heartache of staying away.
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Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
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