Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Discrimination Against Young Adults Linked To Higher Risk Of Mental Issues
Young adults who experience discrimination about their bodies, race, age or sex have a greater risk of dealing with mental health problems than those who do not, a new study has found. Encountering discrimination -- especially racism -- has long been associated with negative effects on overall well-being, such as higher levels of stress, poor cognitive function, anxiety, depression and substance use, previous studies have found. Those who faced discrimination frequently -- at least a few times per month -- were around 25% more likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder and twice as likely to develop severe psychological distress than people who didn't experience discrimination or did less often, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. (Rogers, 11/8)
In a first-of-its-kind survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly a quarter of LGBTQ people聽reported losing income during the Covid-19 pandemic, a higher share than non-LGTBQ respondents.聽U.S. unemployment and income statistics don鈥檛 specifically measure聽the LGBTQ experience. This past July, the U.S. Census Bureau聽for the first time collected information about sexual orientation and gender identity of respondents to its Household Pulse Survey. Across four surveys聽about emotional and economic well-being, LGBTQ respondents reported higher levels of food insecurity, anxiety and depression聽than non-LGBTQ people.聽(Silvan, 11/5)
Cold and flu season is coming up, on top of the still ongoing COVID pandemic. The number of cases of flu in the U.S. last year was low because people were still at home and masking up. But this year, cases could go up. And many are asking, how do they avoid getting sick? (Silver, 11/6)
Food makes Thomas Burke nauseous. Burke, an ex-Marine, won鈥檛 eat in front of people because he鈥檚 likely to vomit. He barely gets down meals and never finishes what鈥檚 on his plate. He鈥檚 struggled with anorexia and bulimia at different periods for more than a decade, and like many other veterans with eating disorders, he attributes them to his time in the military. (McCarthy, 11/6)
At first, Tommy Green doesn鈥檛 tell his clients that he was formerly incarcerated. As a Community Health Worker for North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program (NC FIT) in Orange County, he connects people coming out of jails and prisons with health resources, as well as assistance with other needs, like food and transportation. When he first meets clients, he tells them about the program, but it鈥檚 not until he says he also did time that he sees a spark in their eye. (Thompson, 11/8)
Food banks across the country are pursuing major expansion projects driven in part by their experiences during the pandemic, when they faced an explosion of need. 鈥淪o many people who had never had to ask for help found themselves in a position of needing it and not knowing where to go,鈥 said Ginette Bott, president and chief executive of the Utah Food Bank. 鈥淚t was like somebody flipped a switch.鈥 Even though demand for fresh and packaged provisions has dropped from pandemic peaks, the need remains far above pre-pandemic levels. (Thanawala, 11/5)
In obituaries 鈥
Dr. Michael Rutter, a British child psychiatrist whose many transformative studies included one that demonstrated the genetics of autism and another that assessed how poor treatment suffered by Romanian children in orphanages affected them after they were adopted by English families, died on Oct. 23 at his home in Dulwich, a suburb of London. He was 88. The cause was cancer, said Sandra Woodhouse, his personal assistant at King鈥檚 College London. (Sandomir, 11/7)
Stephen Karpiak, whose research into the lives of New Yorkers aging with H.I.V. revealed a scarcity of support networks and high rates of depression, leading to changes in the care of older people living with the virus, died on Oct. 16 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 74. His brother, Michael, said the cause was kidney damage that resulted from an infection. (Vadukul, 11/7)
Also 鈥
KHN: Journalists Follow Leads On Curbing Violence, Improving Psych Care And Crowdsourcing Covid Safety
KHN鈥檚 Peggy Girshman fellow Amanda Michelle Gomez discussed how Washington, D.C., is adopting public health tools to help curb gun violence on Newsy鈥檚 鈥淢orning Rush鈥 on Wednesday. KHN interim Southern bureau editor Andy Miller discussed the shortage of beds at state psychiatric facilities on Newsy on Wednesday. KHN freelancer Morgan Gonzales discussed how vigilantes are crowdsourcing covid safety information about local businesses on Newsy on Tuesday. (11/6)