mental health
Involuntary treatment is flawed, biased
A polarizing New York policy to treat people with mental illness is ineffective and racially biased, according to a report released Wednesday from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
The report alleges that, more than 25 years after Kendra's Law was introduced — giving courts the power to mandate treatment if a person has a history of hospitalization or violence — the results have not merited the loss of bodily autonomy. Black and Hispanic populations have been disproportionately enrolled over white people since the program's inception, and it is unclear whether it performs better than peer support or peer-led mental health crisis response teams. Another recent report raised similar concerns.
New York has been a trendsetter with Kendra's Law. Almost every state now has an involuntary commitment policy on its books. New York Governor Kathy Hochul seeks to expand the populations eligible for it, too.
"We all have a right to control our bodies and our health care," said Madison Pinckney, a legal fellow in NYLPI's Disability Justice Program. "You're stripping [people] of those rights."
RESEARCH
In news that's likely to irk the anti-seed oil demographic, a new study suggests that swapping plant-based oils for butter may help people live longer, healthier lives.
That finding might sound intuitive. But it's noteworthy in the context of the Make America Healthy Again movement's suspicions about vegetable oils as a contributor to chronic disease. And previous research on different types of dietary fats had yielded mixed results on the association between butter and mortality, and tended to focus mainly on olive oil in the plant-based oils category.
This study, published Thursday in JAMA Internal Medicine, followed 221,054 adults over more than 30 years, with participants responding to regular questionnaires about which fats they ate and how much. Among the study's most important takeaways: Substituting just 10 grams (less than a tablespoon) of butter a day with plant-based oils like canola oil, soybean oil, and olive oil could lower risk of death by 17%. Read more from me about the study. — Sarah Todd
transparency
Patient advocates urge HHS to preserve public input
It's officially been one week since I noticed RFK Jr. was taking back a little-known waiver, the Richardson Waiver. In doing so, he moved to cut the public out of much of his agency's decisionmaking process. In the days since, I have reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for clarification on the change, but I haven't heard back. Now, patient groups and lawmakers are pushing back on the move, and the private sector is bracing itself for the potential impacts.
A coalition of nearly two dozen patient advocacy groups — including Susan G. Komen, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the National Organization for Rare Disorders, among others — made public a letter asking HHS to revoke its decision. And in the private sector, advisers and attorneys are telling their clients to prepare for a wide spectrum of possibilities under the new policy. Read more in my story. — Isabella Cueto
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