Capacity Building
Summer reading — Rough Sleepers
I thought I understood healthcare for the homeless, but I had a lot to learn. Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People describes Boston’s Healthcare for the Homeless Program by following Dr. Jim O’Connell’s career of caring for people who live, and sleep, on the streets. He ended up…
Read MoreGood-ish news: CT is 13th best state for nurses to work in
Wallet Hub finds that Connecticut is a pretty good state for nurses to work. But the researchers found a big difference between Opportunity and Competition for nurses – Connecticut was 34th – and Work Environment – Connecticut was 4th among states. Opportunity and Competition includes ten measures such as salary, demand for nurses, quality of…
Read MoreOHS seeks community input on YNHH purchase of three more hospitals
The Yale-New Haven health system has applied for permission from the state to buy Waterbury, Manchester Memorial, and Rockville General hospitals. The state Office of Health Strategy is seeking community input through a short survey about how this deal could impact healthcare services and costs. These three hospitals are currently owned by Prospect Medical Holdings,…
Read MoreAnalysis: How Brain Shortcuts Undermine Policymaking
Thinking is hard work. Adult brains are only 2% of our body weight, but they use 20% of our body’s energy. To handle the load, we have evolved hard-wired shortcuts called cognitive biases that sometimes backfire. Public policymaking is not immune – it’s riddled with biases that are driving poor decisions. Read more
Read MoreUpdated Advocacy Toolbox: How to make a difference, where to start, and how to get there
Just in time for the legislative session starting today, we’ve updated our CT Health Policy Advocacy Toolbox to help with your advocacy to make healthcare better in Connecticut. (Actually, we update it every month.) Healthcare policymaking in CT can be complex and frustrating. But you’re not alone and there is help. The comprehensive site covers…
Read MoreBook Club — The Data Detective
The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics follows on the Book Club’s obsession with statistics and good data analysis (here, here, here, and here). Good policy rests on good evidence. There are good sources, including the books linked above, that uncover misleading information, with clues to identify them, and that’s important.…
Read MoreAnalysis: New study finds 1 in 5 households has medical debt that averages $21,687
Having health insurance is no longer the protection it used to be. A pair of new studies shine a bright light on inadequate insurance and its consequences – medical debt. Read more
Read MoreBook Club: Making Numbers Count
If your job is to communicate policy and make sense of it, you need Making Numbers Count – The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Health and Karla Starr. Numbers are the bedrock of policy (or they should be) but they are scary to 99.9% of people – including the people you need…
Read MoreCT NJ Op-Ed: We need better, smarter solutions
There’s a lot of news about the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion and the latest mass shootings. Efforts to preserve women’s choices and bring sanity to our gun laws are critically important. But we don’t spend as much time finding upstream solutions to prevent problems, so we won’t need a fix. This blindness is very…
Read MoreYale BIPOC disability group seeking members with lived experience
The Disability Lived Experience Action Network, D-LEAN, is seeking people who identify as BIPOC with disabilities – mental, intellectual, or developmental. D-LEAN is sponsored by the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health and funded by the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities. D-LEAN is looking for leaders or emerging leaders. Members will learn about the…
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