Closer Look
Opinion: There's a better safety net than the one being built for the Golden Gate Bridge
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
A new "suicide deterrent net" being built for San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, where about 30 people try to end their lives each year, will likely cost $400 million. As tragic as those deaths are, only 2% of people who die by suicide choose to jump from heights while more than half of deaths by suicide involve a gun. It would make far more sense, psychiatric nurse Sherrie Page Guyer writes in a STAT First Opinion, to use that money to catch people long before they jump.
The most common occupation of people who end their lives at the Golden Gate is student, followed by teacher. And 90% have a diagnosable mental health condition. "A school nurse in every school, trained to screen, assess, and assist in care coordination and delivery, would provide teachers, students, and families with a trusted professional right within arm's reach. You can't say that for a corrosion-resistant net." Read more.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. For TTY users: Use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988.
public health
Half of people in Chicago see gun violence by age 40
Even as mass shootings in the U.S. threaten to numb us by their sheer number, it's still shocking to read this study in JAMA Network Open on growing up with gun violence in Chicago. Two metrics: age when first shot and when first seeing someone get shot. Looking at multiple cohorts of more than 2,400 children starting in the mid-1990s, the researchers found that by age 40, 6.56% of participants had been shot and 50% had seen someone shot.
The average age when first witnessing a shooting was 14 and for being shot was 17. Black and Hispanic people were more than twice as likely as white people to have been exposed, and males were five times more likely than females to experience gun violence by age 40. Shootings peaked in the 1990s but a companion editorial warns "the increase in firearm violence during the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have long-term outcomes."
coronavirus
Experts say 'it's about time' for new approaches to long Covid
It's probably impossible to overstate the impatience people with long Covid live with while waiting for answers, treatments, or just to be believed. The NIH launched its massive, multi-site RECOVER study over two years ago but so far has little to show for it, STAT's Rachel Cohrs has reported. A new NEJM perspective acknowledges the frustration patients and doctors feel about such a substantial effort being devoted to defining the problem, not solving it.
"We believe that over and above this research effort, the country needs additional structures that can provide the capacity for clinicians, patients, caregivers, advocacy groups, employers, and government officials to learn about, adapt, and implement interventions, therapeutics, and other best practices to combat long Covid," authors Janko Nikolich and Clifford Rosen, both of whom lead RECOVER studies, write. That means building on RECOVER sites to coordinate now-fragmented care, reduce health disparities, and address psychosocial needs. "Innovative approaches will be needed to care for patients with long Covid," they say. "It's about time."
In this week's episode of the "First Opinion Podcast," Alex Rosenblat talks to host and editor Torie Bosch about tracking down her medical information and the amorphous harm done by invasions of privacy. Listen here.
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