News

The following is an excerpt from an article on Kaiser Health News by Sarah Varney:

Patients like the Houston man are health care’s so-called “super-utilizers”— people with complex problems who frequent emergency rooms for ailments more aptly handled by primary care doctors and social workers. They cost public and private insurers dearly — making up just five percent of the U.S. population, but accounting for 50 percent of health care spending.

As health care costs continue to rise, hospitals and doctors are trying to figure out how to find these patients and get to the root of their problems.

An effort to do just that started in New Jersey’s poorest city, Camden, more than a decade ago. Inspired by the way police departments mapped crime data to detect “hot spots,” family physician Dr. Jeffrey Brenner dug into ambulance records and emergency department data to show how high-cost patients were shuttling between city hospitals.

“In America, we’re medicalizing social problems and we’re criminalizing social problems, and we’re wasting huge amounts of public resources,” Brenner said. “We have the wrong tools to solve the wrong problem.”

To steer patients away from expensive emergency care and push health systems to change the way they do business, the Affordable Care Act funds programs called Accountable Care Organizations. These are networks of hospitals, physicians and others who team up to improve care, lower costs and reap the savings.

This high touch, data-driven approach has yielded big savings. ER visits for the first group of patients dropped by 40 percent, cutting monthly hospital bills from $1.2 million dollars to $500,000.

Read the full article on KHN.org.

The HHS Office of Minority Health Youth Health Equity Model of Practice (YHEMOP), provides Health Equity Fellowships to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students interested in a career in health. These fellowships provide hands on, “in the field” learning opportunities through short-term placements in diverse organizations or institutions that promote health equity and/or addresses health disparities. Fellowship sites include but are not limited to government agencies, healthcare delivery organizations and systems, public health organizations, health equity councils, and other institutions that promote health equity and/or address health disparities. Applications are due by February 15, 2017.

Read more about the program.

Growing up in poverty exposes children to greater levels of stress, which can lead to psychological problems later in life, a new study suggests. Researchers at Cornell University reported that kids who grow up poor are more likely to have reduced short-term spatial memory. The study also reported that such kids seem to be more prone to antisocial and aggressive behavior, such as bullying.

Poor children are also more likely than kids from middle-income homes to feel powerless, the study authors suggested. Of course, the findings don’t mean that all children growing up in poverty will have these problems, only that the risk is higher, the researchers said. “What this means is, if you’re born poor, you’re on a trajectory to have more of these kinds of psychological problems,” study author Gary Evans, a professor of environmental and developmental psychology, said in a university news release.

The researchers said the negative psychological effects of growing up in poverty may stem from stress. “With poverty, you’re exposed to lots of stress. Everybody has stress, but low-income families, low-income children, have a lot more of it,” Evans said. “And the parents are also under a lot of stress. So, for kids, there is a cumulative risk exposure.”

For the study, the researchers monitored 341 children and young adults for 15 years. The participants were evaluated at four intervals: age 9, 13, 17 and 24. The young people’s short-term spatial memory was tested by asking the older participants to correctly repeat a series of complex sequences of lights and sounds by pressing four colored pads in a certain order.

Those who grew up in poverty were not able to perform this task as well as those from middle-income backgrounds. “This is an important result because the ability to retain information in short-term memory is fundamental to a host of basic cognitive skills, including language and achievement,” the study authors wrote.

Read more on BismarckTribune.com. Read the abstract of the study.

National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week® links students with scientists and other experts to counteract the myths about drugs and alcohol that teens get from the internet, social media, TV, movies, music, or from friends. It was launched in 2010 by scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to stimulate educational events in communities so teens can learn what science has taught us about drug use and addiction. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism became a partner starting in 2016, and alcohol has been added as a topic area for the week. NIDA and NIAAA are part of the National Institutes of Health.

NIDA’s online guide gives you everything you need to plan, promote, and host your NDAFW event.

Read more on Teens.DrugAbuse.org.

Picture one of those slow motion videos of a tennis ball being hit by a tennis racquet and coiling inward before being released back to its original shape as the ball projects through the air. That’s what mental resiliency is: the ability to “bounce back” from conflict to a state of health and well-being. For some of us, this skill is challenging, but for members of the LGBTQ community, mental resiliency is particularly difficult because of the daily, constant discrimination and adversity the community faces. 

Every time a member of the LGBTQ community is exposed to gay and lesbian jokes, labeling, stereotyping and verbal and physical violence, their mental resiliency is tested. Whether it’s outward displays of verbal and physical violence or subtler forms of personal and systemic discrimination, members of the LGBTQ community require mental resiliency on a much more significant level than straight individuals.

Currently, LGBTQ individuals bear the burden of their own mental resiliency, and they do it well. They strategically seek out support from family and friends who won’t judge or be critical of their sexual orientation or gender identity. They research and pick supportive workplaces, neighborhoods, clubs and organizations to build a community of like-minded individuals to decrease the sense of isolation. They find mental health outlets that can help with depression, anxiety and other emotional and psychological difficulties. And they actively seek out spiritual communities that will be accepting and supportive. But why must the work of mental resiliency fall on the victims of hate and violence? It is time for everyone to help.

You can help by taking a step back and reflecting. Be open enough to look at your own judgment or criticisms of people with different sexual orientation and gender identity. Then consider how you can best support the LGBTQ community. Try to create, in your community, supportive workplaces, neighborhoods, clubs and organizations that are inclusive of all individuals. Support mental health outlets that help with substance abuse, addictions and mental illnesses. Be a spokesperson in your religious and spiritual community for acceptance, love and support.

Read more on NAMI.org.

Together Empowering Asian Minds (TEAM) is a peer-led coalition formed to address the urgent and unique challenges faced by any Asian American with mental health issues, most especially Asian American women. To help raise awareness about this important issue, they are holding an Open Call for videos. 

Participants can submit one original video between 30 seconds and 6 minutes in length in each of the following three categories: 

• Video Essay: What are some of the challenges the AAPI community faces in addressing mental health issues? How can we as a group challenge these cultural forces and de-stigmatize talking about and seeking treatment for mental health issues?
• Personal Story: Have you or someone you know faced mental health challenges? What is your experience with mental health issues? Has your cultural background affected the way you handle it? Share your story with others to know that they are not alone.
• Public Service Announcement (PSA): Create a call to action video. Ask others to join the campaign. Help raise awareness about the mental health challenges faced by the AAPI population by creating a Public Service Announcement video. Encourage others to speak up and seek help. Let them know there’s no shame in seeking help and that there are resources available to help them. 

The video should be between 30 seconds and 6 minutes in length. The theme of the videos should align with TEAM’s mission and incorporate the tagline: “Speak. Share. Support.” The end slate must contain TEAM’s website URL: teamasianminds.org.

Entry is free and open to any individuals 18 years of age and older who lives in the United States. The Open Call will start on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 6:00 PM ET and end on February, February 3, 2017, 11:59 PM ET.

Read more about this Call for Videos. Read more about TEAM.