Category: Health
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Home and Healthy for Good Wins Hearst Health Award
The Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance (MHSA) has received the Hearst Health Prize for Excellence in Population Health. The prize recognizes MHSA’s Home & Healthy for Good (HHG) program, which was founded in 2006. The win was announced on Tuesday, March 20 at the 18th annual Population Health Colloquium in Philadelphia. “All of us at…
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Report: Tougher Drug Laws Don’t Reduce Overdose Deaths
A new nationwide study finds that putting more people in jail for drug offenses doesn’t reduce drug use or overdose deaths. On Monday, President Donald Trump called for harsher sentences– including the death penalty for drug traffickers– to combat the opioid epidemic. Jake Horowitz, director of research and policy at Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety…
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Treat Homelessness Like the Health Issue It Is
Last spring a group of students, led by their Professor Dr. Debra Harkins, came up with Bill H.3933, which is based on an idea out of Hawaii that says homelessness should be treated as a medical condition; this could allow doctors to write prescriptions for housing. I know, it sounds far fetched, but when you…
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BAKER’S MASS MEDICAID PURGE
The envelope arrived in my mailbox a couple of weeks before Christmas. It had a green stripe at the top and in big bold letters alerted me that I needed to open it immediately. Inside the envelope, I found a letter letting me know that my health insurance under MassHealth—which is the Massachusetts Medicaid program—would…
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Free From Heroin: A Daily Fight
I have been drug and alcohol free now for almost 15 years. Does the heroin still call to me? To be honest, at times it does. As a matter of fact, after almost four years clean, I relapsed and used heroin for another year and two months. An eternity in hell. How did that happen?…
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Program matching SNAP dollars at farmer’s markets out of money this spring
A program that rewards SNAP recipients for buying fresh produce will be out of funding for a few months this spring. The Department of Transitional Assistance says it can’t fund the Healthy Incentives Program, which provides dollar for dollar matches for SNAP money spent on fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, farm stands and mobile…
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Recovery is Real: Florette Willis and the future of Mental Health Advocacy
On February 2, the mental health advocacy coalition Bringing Back Boston held a ceremony to honor Florette Willis at the Museum of Science. Willis serves as the first Director of Diversity and Inclusivity for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Massachusetts. Willis’ goal is to to expand the accessibility of mental health services in…
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Mass. Housing and Shelter Alliance Selected as Finalist for Hearst Health Prize
The Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) is one of three finalists for the 2018 Hearst Health Prize in Population Management. The Hearst Health Prize, distributed by Hearst in partnership with Jefferson College of Population Health, is a program that recognizes individuals for significantly improving health in the U.S. According to the Jefferson College of…
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Study Says Food Assistance Improves Health
A new report links access to SNAP benefits to improved health and lower health care costs. The paper, published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, compiles studies of the health status of low-income people who receive assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, and those who are eligible…