Coping With Pandemic: Are You Lonesome Tonight? By Colleen Shaddox It’s important to practice physical distancing – but not social distancing. People need connection and belonging. There are ways to achieve that online through volunteering…
Health
Coping With Pandemic: Parents Just Don’t Understand
By Colleen Shaddox Adolescents want and need to be with peers, so the isolation imposed by the pandemic is especially hard for them. Parents are put in the difficult position of enforcing that isolation. Students…
Coping With Pandemic: Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
By Colleen Shaddox 11 hours ago RecommendTweet EmailPrintMore The pandemic has many parents trying to do their jobs from home, supervise their children’s education and provide 24-7 care. Creating reasonable expectations can keep parents from…
Pushed To The Limit: Community Health Centers Ramp Up Telemedicine While Juggling Declines In Patient Visits, Furloughs And Sick Care Providers
By Lisa Backus Community health centers that provide medical care to 400,000 low-income patients throughout the state are adapting to the coronavirus pandemic by shifting to telemedicine and reconfiguring the way the staff is offering…
Dispatches From Italy: Surviving COVID-19 Through Vigilance
By Carol Leonetti Dannhauser Savo Family Photo. At home in Rome, the Savo family, Paolo, Beniamino, Andrea and Manuela. Joann Rubino brought her cell phone outside to the balcony and swept the camera around for…
Pandemic Brings New Set Of Challenges For Home Health Aides And Clients
By Cara Rosner Social distancing is one way to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but for health care workers who provide care in people’s homes, especially for the elderly, that type of care brings…
As Coronavirus Spreads, Church Leaders Weigh The Needs Of Congregants
By Lisa Backus Melanie Stengel Photo Rev. Robyn Anderson (L) and Rev. Moses Harvill at Cross Center Church in Middletown. They are working together to provide services during this time of social distancing. As an…
Coronavirus Stresses Nursing Home Infection-Control Practices
As coronavirus cases increase, posing heightened risks to the elderly, nursing homes will face growing scrutiny from state health inspectors. This week, DPH ordered that all nursing homes prohibit most visitors from facilities. On Friday,…
Sowing Healthy Habits: Urban Agriculture Tackles Food Insecurity
By Jodie Mozdzer Gil 7 hours ago RecommendTweet EmailPrintMore Melanie Stengel Photo. Georgina Castelon (left) and Juana Rodriguez pick up produce, including cabbage, carrots and kale after an exercise class at John S. Martinez School…
Nursing Homes Fined Following Resident Elopements, Injuries
By Cara Rosner Four nursing homes have been fined by the state Department of Public Health (DPH) for various violations that jeopardized residents’ safety or caused injuries. Western Rehabilitation Care Center in Danbury was fined…
State Board Fines, Disciplines Nurses
By Bonnie Phillips The state Board of Examiners for Nursing last week disciplined three nurses, including issuing a total of $1,500 in fines and placing two nurses’ licenses on probation. The advanced practical registered nurse…
Nursing Homes Fined Following Resident Sexual Assault, Falls, Medication Error
By Cara Rosner Six nursing homes have been fined by the state Department of Public Health (DPH) for violations that endangered or injured residents. Apple Rehab West Haven was fined $6,960 after a resident reported…
Purdue Pharma Payouts Decline As Fewer Clinicians Report Taking Money
By Sujata Srinivasan Purdue Pharma, in bankruptcy and embroiled in thousands of lawsuits for its role in the opioid crisis, paid Connecticut doctors and nurse practitioners $394,662 in 2018, a slight drop of 9% from…
Cases Of Lead-Poisoned Children Drop 17%
By Jenifer Frank A total of 1,665 Connecticut children under age 6 had lead poisoning in 2017, a drop of almost 17% from the year before and the largest one-year decrease in five years, according…
Preventable Cancer Death Rate Falls In Litchfield And Windham Counties; Comprehensive, Accessible Care Cited
By Carol Leonetti Dannhauser “Potentially preventable” cancer deaths plunged in Connecticut over the last decade, according to a federal study, with two rural counties, Litchfield and Windham, experiencing a nearly 49 percent decrease, the best…
Lost Lives: A Mother’s Heart Attack, A Daughter’s Disrupted Adolescence
By Colleen Shaddox Colleen Shaddox Photo. Gail Williams, now 60 and living in New Haven, was 15 when her mother died of a heart attack and she became her family’s caregiver. Gail Williams was 15…
14 Hospitals Penalized For High Infection Rates, Injuries
By Cara Rosner Fourteen Connecticut hospitals are being penalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), losing 1% of their Medicare reimbursements this fiscal year for having high rates of hospital-acquired infections and…
Homelessness Can Traumatize A Young Child For Life; Collaborative Seeks To End The Costly Consequences
By Peggy McCarthy Carl Jordan Castro Photo. For months Tania Rodriguez, 48, and her daughters Charlotte and Caroline were living in shelters. She now has a new home thanks to New Reach, a nonprofit that…
Nearly 40% Of Young Children Missing Out On Vision Screenings
By Cara Rosner Nearly 40% of preschool-aged children nationwide have never had a vision screening, new data suggests, and there are disparities in who has been tested. During 2016 and 2017, only 63.5% of children…
Med Board Disciplines Two Doctors; Fines Weston Doc $7,500
By Lisa Backus The state Medical Examining Board voted Tuesday to discipline two physicians including issuing a $7,500 fine and one-year probation to a Weston doctor who prescribed opioids to six people without discussing pain…