Latest Morning Briefing Stories
A GAO report released this week says that bureaucratic confusion and vacancies in key posts are largely to blame for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ failure to support suicide prevention efforts.
The study’s results are generally consistent with the finding that people who are more highly educated, and whose career paths involved more intellectual challenge, build a “cognitive reserve” that can delay the worst depredations of dementia.
Brandon Nelson’s family blames failures in the state’s mental health system for their son’s suicide.
Child-Friendly Prison Visits Help Moms Stay Connected, Reduce Trauma Of Separation
States are experimenting with programs that allow low-risk, incarcerated mothers to spend quality time with their children. Women are the fastest-growing prison population, in large part due to the national opioid crisis. In other drug news, supervised injection sites are debated in cities.
Nation’s Largest Pharmaceutical Distributor Relocating Its Headquarters To Texas
Kesson Corp. has about 500 jobs in San Francisco, and most of those will move to Irving or another company hub by 2021. Some divisions of the company, such as McKesson Ventures and a tech development team for its U.S. oncology network, will remain in San Francisco.
Advocates Push For System That Takes Care Of Children’s Mental Health Just Like Physical Ills
The California Children’s Trust is calling for a radical shift in how state and local governments finance, administer and run mental health services for young people. Also, the Los Angeles Times looks at a federal judge’s decision to investigate state officials’ report about mental health care in prisons.
Outlets report on a range of public health developments, including the latest on daylight savings time, therapy for pregnant women, dementia, CTE and the intersection of exercise and weight loss.
California’s Prison Inmates Not Getting The Psychiatric Care They Need, Report Finds
The review by the state’s chief prison psychiatrist criticizes the flawed system in a 161-page report to a federal judge. In other public health news: the search for a better flu vaccine; the campaign for mind-altering drugs as a PTSD treatment; fish oil pills; and the family of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell sues his doctor over drug prescriptions.
Laying Off Marijuana Improves Teens’ Learning, Study Finds
New research shows that when adolescents cease using pot — even for one week — their verbal learning and memory improve. And in other news on teen health: Juul reportedly offers schools money to offer a vaping curriculum.
Push To Register San Francisco’s Homeless People Ahead Of Schedule
The city has enrolled 3,452 homeless adults in its tracking program, One System, since August. News on health concerns for California’s homeless population is also reported out of Modesto and Glendale.