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HEALTH & JUSTICE IN THE NEWS
Date: May 5, 2016
Around the Nation
US Surgeon General: Addiction An Illness, Not A Moral Failing
Healthy News Florida, 4/28/16
Health News Florida recently sat down with Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy at the annual Association of Health Care Journalists conference, and discussed some key issues he says are a focus of his time as Surgeon General: addiction, heroin abuse and HIV infections. Specifically, he said he wants to help change the way people look at addiction. It's a chronic illness, not a moral failing, he said.
A policy conversation about addiction in America (video)
The Washington Post, 5/4/16
Deaths due to prescription opioids and heroin use are at a record high. As the epidemic continues to worsen, efforts to curb its rise have emerged from government agencies, community initiatives and the private sector. On May 4, as part of a Washington Post series on America's opioid crisis, health care experts and advocates discussed the demographics and causes of the opioid epidemic and examined its consequences as well as solutions for prevention and treatment.
Panel: Painkiller training should be required for physicians
The Washington Post | AP, 5/4/16
Doctors who prescribe painkillers should be required to undergo training aimed at reducing misuse and abuse of the medications, according to federal health experts, though they acknowledge the challenge of putting such a mandate in place. The group of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously Wednesday that the agency should change its risk-management programs for opioid painkillers, highly addictive medications at the center of a national epidemic of addiction and abuse.
Patrick Kennedy opens up about addiction, pushes for mental health reform
CNN, 5/2/16
Once a rising star of America's most prominent political family, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy left politics behind to focus on combating his drug and alcohol addiction and bipolar disorder. Now sober, healthy and happy, Kennedy is pushing for changes to mental health care and telling the story of his own high-profile battle.
Boston Opens New Medically Supervised Space for People on Heroin
Join Together | Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, 5/4/16
A new medically supervised space where people can go after they inject heroin has opened in Boston. ABC News reports the room, run by the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, is part of a growing movement to use harm reduction strategies to reduce the risk of overdose.
Around Illinois
Heroin epidemic demands new approach, Springfield-area officials say
The State Journal-Register, 5/4/16
With deaths from drug overdoses surpassing traffic accidents as the No. 1 accidental killer of Americans, a group of community stakeholders Wednesday stressed that a different approach to fighting the problem has to be taken. Springfield Police Chief Kenny Winslow said that the approach needs to be multi-faceted in dealing with the abuse of heroin and other opiates to focus on ensuring that people get access to the care. From the law enforcement perspective, usually the only options for dealing with people with addictions are emergency care or jail, Winslow said. Sangamon County State's Attorney John Milhiser said criminal justice reform with regards to opioid abuse should focus on identifying individuals in the system because of drug addiction and determining what resources can be used to ensure they get adequate treatment, which will reduce recidivism rates. The two were part of a forum at the Sangamon County Complex in Springfield hosted by U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, who summoned together law enforcement officers, medical professionals, treatment providers and local government officials to discuss efforts to stop addictions and deaths from these powerful drugs.
Illinois senator sponsors new effort to improve heroin addiction treatment
ABC 3 | WSIL, 5/2/16
Most doctors, police and politicians in Illinois would agree heroin addiction has reached crisis levels. This is a problem U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois is trying to change. During a trip to the Gateway Foundation Treatment Center Monday, Durbin discussed a proposed law that would expand the number of beds available for Medicaid patients at drug recovery centers throughout the nation.
Public Invited to May Events to Discuss Healthy Chicago 2.0
City of Chicago
Healthy Chicago 2.0 is a plan to improve health and well-being in Chicago. The city is holding public events throughout the month of May to discuss the plan.
Report: Only A Fraction of Juvenile Records Expunged In Illinois
Public News Service, 5/2/16
New research shows only a fraction of a percent of juvenile arrest records in Illinois get expunged, which could be a public safety risk. The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission report shows that for every 1,000 juvenile arrests, only three records are ever destroyed, and that includes arrests that did not lead to a conviction. Carolyn Frazier, a lawyer and assistant professor with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, says those records are also shared with employers and landlords. "This widespread sharing of juvenile records harms individuals with records and jeopardizes the public safety by creating obstacles to employment, housing and education," says Frazier. The report also notes that Illinois lags behind other states, which criminalize the improper sharing of juvenile records.
Mentally ill behind bars
The Chicago Report, 4/27/16
Map shows home zip codes of Cook County Jail detainees who self-identified as living with mental illness on Jan. 29, 2015. Addresses were provided by participants and not verified. Also, many individuals could not be mapped either because they were homeless, refused to give an address or gave an address that did not exist.
Research, Reports, and Studies
More Action Needed Against Drug Abuse: Poll
Kaiser Health News, 5/3/16
The fight against the growing abuse of prescription painkillers and heroin is not robust enough at any level - not federal and state governments' efforts or those of doctors and users themselves, according to most Americans in a new poll out Tuesday. Lack of access to care for those with substance abuse issues is a major problem, said 58 percent of those surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Recidivism Study Offers Lessons for Federal Policy
The Pew Charitable Trusts, 4/29/16
In March, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent judicial agency that sets sentencing policy and conducts original research, released a study of reoffense rates among more than 25,000 individuals who left federal prison or began serving probation terms in 2005.1 The analysis tracked each individual for eight years to determine rates of rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration, whether in a local, state, or federal facility. The study reinforces what state-level data have long shown: Recidivism is common. Beneath the report's discouraging overall findings, however, are other important takeaways that members of Congress and other policymakers should consider as they discuss ways to improve public safety outcomes and reduce the size and cost of the federal prison population after more than three decades of explosive growth.
Getting High or Trying to Manage Withdrawal with This Over-the-Counter Drug Can Be Fatal
NPR, 5/3/16
Some people addicted to oxycodone and other opioids are now turning to widely available diarrhea medications to manage their withdrawal symptoms or get high. The results can be dangerous to the heart - and sometimes fatal - warn toxicologists in a study recently published online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. The researchers describe two case studies where people who were addicted to opioids tried to ease their withdrawal symptoms by taking many times the recommended dose of loperamide, also sold under the brand name Imodium. Both patients died.
Fixing The Broken Criminology-Policy Making Connection
The Crime Report, 5/3/16
The American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences have joined forces to create the Crime and Justice Research Alliance (CJRA), which the groups declare is "a centralized resource of authoritative experts and scholarly studies created to provide policymakers, practitioners and the public direct access to relevant research on crime and criminal justice issues." Last week, the alliance formally launched its website, crimeandjusticeresearchalliance.org which features an "expert directory" of criminologists whose advice is deemed reliable for policy makers, journalists, and others who are interested in accurate information about crime and justice.
Cigna and Addiction Specialists Team Up to Study Which Treatments are Working
Join Together | Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, 5/4/16
The health insurance company Cigna is teaming up with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) to study which substance abuse treatments are effective, Forbes reports. The company will provide two years of medical claims data to ASAM, who will work with health researchers at Brandeis University to test and validate which treatments are working. All patient names have been removed to ensure confidentiality. The results could be used to develop guidelines for Cigna and other health insurers to establish protocols for doctors and other mental health providers, the article notes.
Youth
Today is National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day
SAMHSA, 5/5/16
National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day 2016 is May 5. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is holding a webcast and using the Twitter hashtag #HeroesofHope to discuss young people and mental health.
Mothers at the Gate
Institute for Policy Studies, 5/4/16
Los Angeles Board Votes to End Solitary for Juveniles
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, 5/4/16
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion Tuesday that bans the use of solitary confinement - in all but the most exceptional circumstances - in all the county's juvenile detention facilities. Solitary confinement "doesn't improve behavior," said Board Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. "It doesn't promote rehabilitation. ... And [nationally] 50 percent of our young people who commit suicide were in room confinement at the time of their suicide." Los Angeles County oversees the largest juvenile justice system in the nation, housing approximately 1,200 youth. This decision could potentially have a contagious effect on other counties and their juvenile justice systems, in California and beyond, observers say. The change is to be made by the end of September.
Opinions, Editorials, and Commentary
Kathryn Zenoff: We need to talk about mental health
Rockford Register Star, 5/2/16
The statistics surrounding mental health and addiction are startling. We know that there are 2 million incarcerations of someone with mental illness each year. As chairman of the Illinois Supreme Court Special Advisory Committee on Justice and Mental Health Planning and chair of the Advisory Board for the Illinois Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health and Justice, I have been involved with others in the justice system who are taking a close look at the how and the why and possible solutions. But the truth is, beyond the impact on the justice system, these issues affect all of us. One in four families in Illinois will directly experience a mental health challenge. It's time we all became more comfortable talking about mental health - not just for the sake of those who are incarcerated, but for our own and our family's.
Karol Mason: Justice Dept. agency to alter its terminology
The Washington Post, 5/4/16
In my role as head of the division of the Justice Department that funds and supports hundreds of reentry programs throughout the country, I have come to believe that we have a responsibility to reduce not only the physical but also the psychological barriers to reintegration. The labels we affix to those who have served time can drain their sense of self-worth and perpetuate a cycle of crime, the very thing reentry programs are designed to prevent. In an effort to solidify the principles of individual redemption and second chances that our society stands for, I recently issued an agency-wide policy directing our employees to consider how the language we use affects reentry success. This new policy statement replaces unnecessarily disparaging labels with terms like "person who committed a crime" and "individual who was incarcerated," decoupling past actions from the person being described and anticipating the contributions we expect them to make when they return.
Maia Szalavitz: Does Addiction Treatment Require A Higher Power?
NPR, 5/1/16
I believe that addiction is a medical problem. I view addiction as a developmental disorder, which is a position supported by research. And while I don't have any objection to 12-step programs as self-help, I do think it's impossible to destigmatize addiction while also rendering it the only diagnosis in medicine for which the treatment is explicitly moral. Steps 4 through 10 involve taking a moral inventory and publicly confessing it to someone, asking God to remove your "defects of character," then making amends for harm done. If such steps were demanded of people in treatment for any other condition, they would very likely argue that they were being treated as sinners rather than patients. Let's let treatment be treatment and AA be AA. Think about it in the same way we view cancer care: Your support group isn't your oncologist. Each can play an important role in your well-being and survival, but cancer patients aren't experts in oncology just because they've had the disease. Moreover, to truly get people to see addiction as a medical problem, addiction has to be treated by health professionals whose education needs to go far beyond their own experiences with recovery.
Health & Justice in the News
is a summary of recent news stories relating to criminal justice, mental health, addiction, recovery, and related issues. It is compiled and published by TASC each Monday and Thursday.
Some headlines have been altered by TASC for clarity or emphasis. Opinions in the articles and op-eds do not necessarily express the views of TASC or our staff or partners.
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