THE RELATIONSHIP between the state of Massachusetts and its cities and towns is a complicated one. Sometimes, as with liquor licenses, the state is in control, deciding how many licenses […]
Health
Posted inUncategorized
Runner attempts 24-hour run to raise mental health awareness
BILL WELLS has run marathons, ultramarathons, and even a 100-kilometer race. On Saturday, April 23, he will try to achieve a new milestone: he plans to run for 24 hours […]
Posted inOpinion
Public health system at a turning point
FOR NEARLY 25 YEARS, the first full week of April has been designated as National Public Health Week. This year, it comes at a critical turning point for the future of […]
Posted inOpinion
Opioid overdose deaths remain stubbornly high
IT IS MY HOPE that one day this public health crisis will be nothing but a memory. It has sickened and killed far too many, torn families apart, and weakened […]
Posted inEconomy
3 Walgreens in Roxbury, Mattapan closed for sanitary violations
THREE WALGREENS stores located in Roxbury and Mattapan were shut down for six days early in March because of extensive and long-running violations of the state sanitary code, but the […]
Posted inOpinion
MassHealth struggling with autism services
IN MASSACHUSETTS, families supported by MassHealth are experiencing prolonged wait times to access services for children with autism. The state is currently undertaking a process to adjust reimbursement rates paid […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker renews push for primary, behavioral health care
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would require hospitals and insurers to spend more on primary and behavioral health care, an attempt to revamp a medical system […]
Posted inHealth Care
Massachusetts will drop 3,700 from COVID death count
MASSACHUSETTS WILL REVISE its COVID-19 death count downwards by around 3,700 people as the state shifts to using a new definition to count deaths attributed to coronavirus. “We believe […]
Posted inHealth Care
Eating disorders are ravaging young people
AN EATING DISORDER epidemic is growing. Clinicians are seeing eating disorders in children at younger and younger ages, and now, due to the pandemic, eating disorders among teens are at an […]
Posted inHealth Care
Supreme Judicial Court to consider medical aid in dying case
WHEN ROGER KLIGLER was a practicing physician, he had terminally ill patients ask him to end their suffering. “As a physician, I felt I could not do that. I could […]
Posted inOpinion
COVID therapies important step on pathway out of pandemic
MASSACHUSETTS IS THANKFULLY seeing sustained decreases in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was limited testing capability, no specific therapies, and no […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Masks no longer mandated on school buses
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A DAY AFTER K-12 students returned to classrooms with a statewide mask mandate no longer in place, the Baker administration announced that children no longer need […]
Posted inEducation
Children’s mental health must become priority
I’m the father of two pandemic babies, Teddy and Grace. Although one of Teddy’s first words was “mask,” my children are blissfully unaware of COVID. They will, however, grow up […]
Posted inUncategorized
Local-option COVID approach slammed
CARLENE PAVLOS, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, says the Baker administration’s policy of leaving many of the major COVID decisions to local boards of health helps explain […]
Posted inOpinion
Why lifting mask mandates is so divisive
ON FRIDAY, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance for the first time since July—including for schools, where the debate on whether to mandate them […]
Posted inOpinion
Ending mask mandate won’t bring us back to normal
“I FEEL LIKE my throat is closing,” said a 9-year-old boy, between raspy breaths and a barking cough. He was admitted to the hospital with COVID croup, a condition where […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
New link to improve access to SNAP benefits
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AN IMPENDING CHANGE to link MassHealth applicants to a food assistance program will serve as an “important step” toward removing barriers that limit hundreds of thousands […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Fall River to offer free menstrual products in schools
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS FALL RIVER plans to use a state grant to provide free menstrual products in the city’s middle and high schools, bills that similarly look to […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State eases indoor face-mask guidance
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT of Public Health on Tuesday relaxed its face-covering advisory, publishing an updated version that no longer recommends vaccinated individuals mask up in all […]
Posted inUncategorized
Labor appeals board upholds Baker’s vaccine mandate
A STATE APPEALS board has ruled that Gov. Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate for executive branch workers is legal, ending the final avenue of appeals for a challenge by the state police […]
Posted inHealth Care
COVID: Are we ready to learn to live with it?
THREE OF THE STATE’S leading health care executives said on Wednesday that COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are trending in a very positive downward direction, but they were divided on when […]
Posted inEducation
Massachusetts will lift school mask mandate Feb. 28
MASSACHUSETTS WILL LIFT its mask mandate for schools on February 28, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Wednesday. “Given the extremely low risk to young people, the widespread availability and proven effectiveness […]
Posted inBy The Numbers, Health Care
Survey: Widespread need for mental health care during pandemic
MORE THAN ONE-QUARTER of Massachusetts adults say they needed behavioral health care over the first year of the pandemic – but many of them never got it. They couldn’t get […]
Posted inEducation
Baker hints school mask mandate may be nearing end
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE TWO EAST COAST states on Monday attached end dates to their school mask mandates, spelling out timelines that Gov. Charlie Baker described as “pretty consistent” with […]