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Improving guidance to patients, family caregivers on care facilities
Christina Thielst Healthcare AdministrationFamily caregivers and patients struggle with choosing quality care facilities. This includes both those who have not yet been hospitalized and those who are being discharged to a lower level of care. Unfortunately, sometimes they find their choice isn’t the best fit or safety concerns arise. Delays in choosing a facility increase the risk of discharge for hospitalized patients. Choosing the wrong facility can also strain resources with an unnecessary hospitalization or re-hospitalization. A recent Kaiser Health News article addresses the need for smarter decisions on where to recover after a hospitalization, starting with better guidance from hospitals themselves.
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Despite controversy, HHS releases conscience protection rule for healthcare…
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationThe Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights has released a new final rule designed to protect individuals and healthcare entities in HHS-funded programs from discrimination on the basis of their exercise of conscience. It will take effect in approximately two months. The "conscience rights" rule will allow healthcare workers to refuse care based on religious or moral objections and will grant protections to healthcare workers who refuse to provide services such as abortion or transition care for transgender individuals.
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Australian researchers develop new animal model of schizophrenia
Dorothy L. Tengler Mental HealthcareThe exact cause of schizophrenia remains unknown, but current research suggests that it is a multifactorial disease based in genetics, susceptibilities, and environment. Ultimately, better treatments are urgently needed. Recently, neuroscientists at The University of Queensland's Brain Institute developed a new animal model of schizophrenia where dopamine is specifically elevated at the dorsal striatum — a model that was inspired from animal models of Parkinson's disease where dopamine is deficient.
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How to seamlessly integrate mindfulness into any classroom with tech tools
Angela Cleveland and Stephen Sharp EducationToday’s educators recognize that they are not just teaching a subject; they are teaching life skills to students so they can successfully navigate academic, career, and social-emotional challenges as they arise. Integrating developmentally appropriate mental health and wellness strategies into all content area subjects is increasingly as commonplace as integrating study skills strategies. Did you know that teaching well-being and preparing students for careers have not always been perceived to be mutually exclusive goals? Founding father John Adams said, "There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live."
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5 ways wearable medical devices can boost patient outcomes
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareAs a healthcare professional, you know that wearable medical devices can benefit your patients in extremely valuable ways — if used correctly. Using wrist trackers, smart clothing and attachable sensors, it's possible for patients to determine how much physical activity they get each day, evaluate the impact daily stress has on their lives, and even self-monitor an ongoing medical condition. So how can you help empower your patients to use wearables correctly — and safely? These five science-tested strategies can help you give the correct instructions — and improve your patients' overall health most effectively.
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Study: 70% of adults dying prematurely of natural causes do not seek medical…
Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied HealthcareAbout 70% of adults dying prematurely of natural causes have not sought medical help within the previous 30 days, according to the results of a new study published in the journal PLOS One. Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences (IFS) teamed up to analyze autopsy reports and death investigation records of 1,282 people between the ages of 25 and 59 who died in Harris County in 2013.
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The stroke sign you might ignore — but shouldn’t
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareYour right eye goes blurry out of the blue. You blink, but the blurriness doesn't go away immediately. Ten minutes later, boom — it's gone. No big deal, right? Think again — you could have just had an eye stroke. Eye strokes are brief episodes of blurred vision or vision loss that last from a minute to a half-hour, then clear. You might chalk one up to a smudgy contact lens or just being tired, but any kind of diminished or missing vision should be taken very seriously. Eye strokes can be a sign that you've had a full-blown stroke — or a can be a precursor to one.
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Housing America part 6: Cohousing
Lucy Wallwork Construction & Building MaterialsSpeculative housing development and the single-family home have been the norm for a large part of the last century. It’s all many of us know about housing works. But a new wave of cohousing communities across the U.S. features experimenting with a new model of living that places the emphasis back on shared space and shared prosperity. In this final part in the "Housing America" series of articles, I look at why these communities set up, whether the planning system is equipped to help them thrive, and whether their lessons can be applied more widely to how we build communities.
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Consumers share their top healthcare concerns, but there’s no such…
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareMany Americans say they are worried about the future of the Affordable Care Act for people with preexisting conditions, according to the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health Tracking Poll. Almost 70 percent (68%) of respondents said they want to keep preexisting condition protections, and the KFF report suggests that a majority of respondents (54%) want to keep the healthcare law entirely as is, even if insurance plan costs increase. Those who responded said they’re all for price increases as long as their healthcare provisions are met. But who should pay for the possible increases is another thing altogether.
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10 tips for beginning meditators
Victoria Fann Mental HealthcareThe number of people meditating in the U.S. is growing. A recent National Health Interview Survey found that, between 2012 and 2017, meditation by adults increased from 4.1 percent to 14.2 percent, while meditation by children increased from 0.6 percent to 5.4 percent. In addition to the obvious perks, such as increased calmness and emotional well-being, regular meditation may also reduce numerous physical symptoms such as high blood pressure, digestive issues and other stress-related illness. Given that there are so many different approaches to meditation, here are 10 tips to help you get started.
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