closer look
'We take care of our people': How a Wisconsin tribe models harm reduction amid the opioid crisis
Jaida Grey Eagle for STAT
In the opening lines of Lev Facher's story about how the Bad River Tribe in Wisconsin is facing its opioid crisis, the scene is cold and bleak. A small tent city, thawing out from the first snow, is home to people left homeless by addiction to fentanyl and methamphetamine. But the script quickly flips to hope: Workers are revamping a modest shack into sturdier shelter.
"We take care of our people," said Lisa Whitebird (above), a coordinator of a specialized harm-reduction team. "It's not like they woke up one day and decided to be homeless, and a drug addict, and live in tents on the pow-wow grounds." That means instead of pushing immediate abstinence, the team offers sterile syringes and pipes. They distribute naloxone, the overdose-reversal medication, and encourage their clients to use test strips that can detect fentanyl or "tranq." For the moment, they have only one goal: To keep their neighbors alive. Read more.
infectious disease
FDA authorizes at-home tests for two STIs
In a first, the FDA has granted marketing approval to an over-the-counter home test for chlamydia and gonorrhea, the two most common sexually transmitted infections in the U.S. The LetsGetChecked's Simple 2 Test allows people to collect a sample at home that then goes to a laboratory for processing. Results are delivered online, with follow-up care provided when a diagnosis is positive or ambiguous. Before yesterday's authorization, the only approved tests for these two STIs required samples to be collected at medical facilities such as doctors' offices.
Jodie Dionne of the University of Alabama at Birmingham welcomed the news. "If we are going to do a better job of reaching more sexually active people for STI testing as recommended … we need to be creative about how to get them tested and treated in a way that is highly effective and works for them," she told STAT's Helen Branswell. Read more.
health care
Forgoing medical care because of cost is a distinctly American thing
We know people with low or even average income in the U.S. may struggle to pay their medical bills compared to people of similar means who live in other wealthy countries. But a new Commonwealth Fund analysis says that pain extends to some high-income Americans, too, who are more likely to report health care cost challenges than people in other countries with low and average incomes. Looking at Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the researchers found income disparities in most countries (the least in German and the Netherlands), but not as wide as in the U.S.
Other points:
- Nearly half of U.S. adults had a medical bill problem in the past year.
- U.S. adults with lower or average income were more likely to skip mental health care because of cost compared to higher-income Americans.
Correction: Yesterday I gave you a faulty link to Anika Nyak's story on a pilot program testing food as medicine in the form of fresh produce. It's here.
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