Welcome to our media digest for the week of October 14, 2016! Below you’ll find summaries of news coverage on the issues of preventing violence, trauma, nutrition, health equity, mental health, and more. The views expressed in these articles do not reflect those of Prevention Institute.
Health Equity
Denver and Phoenix joined at least 26 other American cities this year by scrapping Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous People's Day. This article, authored by an Inuit/Haitian/Taino writer and a first-generation academic and advocate who grew up on Treaty Six Cree/Métis Territory in Saskatchewan, notes, “Problematizing Columbus foregrounds how Indigenous peoples must not be relegated to the sidelines when devising decolonial strategies for social change in the US, but rather placed at the center.”
The Society Pages urges readers to reflect on how the traumatic past of Native Americans has led to lasting health effects. According to the Indian Health Service (IHS), Native Americans and Alaskan Natives have a lower life expectancy than any other US racial group and are more likely to die from heart disease, cirrhosis, and suicide.
According to a new report from Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, 1.25 million arrests were made last year in the U.S. for drug possession –and nearly half of those were for marijuana possession. This number alone exceeds the total number of arrests for all violent crimes: 505,681 for murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and assault. The report’s author notes, “Criminalizing personal drug use is a colossal waste of lives and resources," Borden said. "If governments are serious about addressing problematic drug use, they need to end the current revolving door of drug possession arrests, and focus on effective health strategies instead."
A federal appeals court lifted the injunction halting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline Sunday evening. Construction can be allowed to resume on the section of pipeline that runs through the sacred area of land that contains Standing Rock Sioux burial grounds and artifacts. The decision to resume drilling, according to the agencies, could still be weeks away.
According to new research reported by Vox, the criminal justice system will prevent more than 6.1 million people from voting in 2016. In Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, more than 20 percent of the voting-age black population will be legally banned from voting this November. That estimate comes from a new report by the Sentencing Project, which looked at the effect of felony disenfranchisement laws on Americans’ voting rights.
The Atlantic reports on a recent study from Northwestern University suggesting that the stress of racial discrimination may partly explain the persistent gaps in academic performance between some nonwhite students, mainly black and Latino youth, and their white counterparts.
Chris Hedges writes about the ongoing prisoner revolt that began on Sept. 9, and has since seen over 20,000 inmates in about 30 prisons refuse to work. Hedges notes, “The 2.3 million human beings, most of them poor people of color, who are locked in cages across the country provide billions in salaries and other revenues for depressed rural towns with large prisons. They provide billions more in profits to phone card companies, money transfer companies, food service companies, merchandise vendors, construction companies, laundry services, uniform companies, prison equipment vendors and the manufacturers of pepper spray, body armor and the many other medieval instruments used for the physical restraint of prisoners.”
The New York Times covers a new report showing roughly one out of every 13 children in the New York City public school system is homeless, and many of the programs intended to help them are underfunded, insufficient or poorly executed. As BMSG notes from the article, “The biggest challenge for children living in shelters is getting to school-- shelters where families are placed are usually in different boroughs from the school, leading to hours wasted commuting.”
Violence Prevention and Unintentional Injury
A new report, analyzing data from the U.S. Department of Education, shows that a shocking level of corporal punishment — where school personnel physically strike a child — is still being carried out in public schools. The Society for Research in Child Development reported that more than 160,000 children were subject to corporal punishment in one year, in the 19 states which have not banned the practice. The report represents “the first-ever effort to describe the prevalence of and disparities in the use of school corporal punishment at the school and school-district levels.” In many states, children with disabilities were 50% more likely to receive corporal punishment than non-disabled children. In Alabama and Mississippi, black children were 51% more likely to be physically punished than white children in more than half of school districts. “While the senseless brutality against children in public schools goes on, the federal government remains virtually silent. Even though it collects the data showing up in the report, corporal punishment is almost never mentioned in reports from the Department of Education,” the study concludes.
A new report by the Center for American Progress looks at the connection between the strength of gun laws and the rate of gun violence in all 50 states found that the 10 states with the weakest gun laws collectively have three times more gun violence than the 10 states with the strongest gun laws. This interactive map illustrates how each state compares.
Health Systems Transformation
As reported in The Hill, and according to a study published in Health Affairs, newly insured individuals who obtained coverage under the ACA in 2014 saw improved access to care when compared with those who remained uninsured.
Healthcare IT News covers Charlotte's rapidly growing Hispanic immigrant population, and how its lead to an increase in preventable emergency room visits in the city. To address this issue, Dr. Michael Dulin created a Big Data analysis model to study where immigrants are settling and how to create preventative health measures in their communities to improve overall health. Community environments.
Community Environments
Childhood obesity disproportionately affects communities of color, due largely to poverty, food insecurity, and lack of safe recreational options. A new program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Communities Creating Healthy Environments (CCHE) seeks to address this issue by training community residents to advocate for neighborhood changes that will improve children's access to healthy foods and safe places for physical activity. (via BMSG)
This blog post was co-authored by Claire Fitch and Carolyn Hricko. The authors discuss a symposium they went to on Urban Agriculture in the Next Farm Bill held at George Washington University. The authors note, “Once the glow of growing food in urban spaces fades, big, complex questions arise: What are the goals? Who is it serving? Who is, and will be, the face of urban agriculture?”
One-third of toxins released into the air in 2014 came from just 100 facilities out of the more than 20,000 that report to the Environmental Protection Agency, found a new investigation from the Center for Public Integrity, The Weather Channel and USA Today Network. Doug O'Malley, executive director of Environment New Jersey, says, "While they may have a permit to pollute, these facilities create a real environmental justice impact on the communities where they're located." (Thanks to BMSG for this item).
The New York Time published its annual food issue on Sunday, this one with the theme, “Can Big Food Change?” In one article, Marion Nestle asks “Do we have a food movement.” She notes, “This movement, fragmented in issues and groups as it most definitely is, may not have clout in Washington, DC, but it is having an enormous effect on supermarkets, food product manufacturers, fast food chains, the producers of meat, eggs, and poultry, and young people in this country.”
Mother Jones reports, “Soda companies give big bucks to groups that promote public health—while at the same time lobbying against laws that are trying to do the same.” According to a new study published Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups like the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, and Save the Children from 2011-2015. The two companies, represented by American Beverage Association, also spent millions lobbying to defeat legislation aimed at reducing soda consumption across the country. Coke gave the National Institutes of health nearly $2 million in recent years while also spending $6 million each year from 2011 to 2015 to fight efforts on implementing a soda tax in cities like Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the U.N. health agency stated this week that countries should use the soda tax to fight obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. The 36-page report notes that tax policies that lead to a 20 percent increase in prices would result in a reciprocal decrease in consumption
As NBC reports, according to a new survey, big cities are healthier overall than smaller communities because of sidewalks, parks and good public transport. Residents in five surveyed cities--- Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.-- have lower rates of smoking, obesity, diabetes, and depression compared to smaller cities. Coverage from NBC highlights the role of urban planning and the built environment in advancing overall public health. (Via BMSG)
Time reports on a new study that suggests heavy consumption of fructose, a type of sugar, can spur diabetes. As BMSG notes however, the article focuses on individual responsibility to consume less sugar, and misses the opportunity to discuss the role of the sugar industry in perpetuating high fructose consumption.
California
This Examiner article by a public health advocate details ways the soda industry is funding supervisor Jane Kim’s campaign. Meanwhile, the American Beverage Association recently ramped up spending against Oakland's soda tax to $3.8 million, and $10 million in San Francisco.
LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik argues that that tobacco industry's "No on 56" campaign is using the same tricks it has used in the past to beat down cigarette taxes. The tobacco industry's two main arguments are that the tax increase does not fund smoking prevention efforts, and health practitioners would profit the most from tax revenue.
Berkeley city officials asked homeless residents of a small tent city to move last Friday, but advocates argue that until affordable housing services improve, they will not move. Lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area has led to a rise in homelessness, food insecurity, and other public health problems. (Thanks to BMSG for this item)
Yolo county officials voted to eliminate the sale of flavored tobacco products in unincorporated areas and to limit the number of licensed tobacco retailers already there. Research shows that tobacco use among young people leads to use of illicit drugs.
Mental Health
A new $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education will support more mental health services at 10 high schools on the South and West sides of Chicago. The grant comes at a time when gun violence in the city is hitting record highs, and research shows that students who are exposed to violence but receive no treatment for trauma are more likely to have lower grades, poor school attendance and higher suspension rates.
“Middle-aged Americans die by suicide more than any other demographic. Yet, federal policies and programs aimed at reducing the skyrocketing number of suicides in the U.S. - 40,000 deaths last year - have largely ignored this population.” CDC explains that the reason programs have not focused on this group is that the increase in this age group is relatively recent.
The New York Times reports that in an effort to increase opportunities for peaceful resolutions, San Francisco Police are teaming with Public Health to dispatch clinicians with police on calls when mental health issues or drug use is suspected.
The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, observed on 10 October, covers “psychological first aid”. Efforts in support of the day will focus on basic pragmatic psychological support by people who find themselves in a helping role whether they be health staff, teachers, firemen, community workers, or police officers.
The Harford Courant covers community efforts to address the opiate crisis: “The panel, called "Stop the Pain," will also address how to talk about opioid addiction and what stigmas still surround mental health and addiction.”
In a column in PBS, Monnica Williams, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, writes that the viral spread of police shooting videos conveys “a small portion of the trauma experienced being by black in America.” She writes: “If you are a white person, try this simple empathy experiment: Imagine every one of those police killings you’ve seen in the last several years, but change the images. Make the man getting shot look like you, your brother or your son. Make the girlfriend or wife look like your wife, your sister, your daughter. Imagine that these videos unpredictably show up in your Facebook stream, or assault you on the evening news, without warning, week after week.”