Latest news with #AlaskaNatives
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CareView Communications announces three-year business agreement with HealthTrust
US-based virtual care solution provider CareView Communications has entered a three-year business agreement with group purchasing organisation (GPO) HealthTrust Purchasing Group. Based in Tennessee, HealthTrust works with 1,800 health systems and hospitals to help their providers manage expenses and enhance performance. The partnership aims to deliver 'immediate and sustainable' savings for these hospitals and health systems. CareView Communications chief operations officer Sandra McRee said: 'Our GPO relationships are a critical part of our business model and allow us to expand our products and services in a streamlined and cost-effective way. 'Through agreements with GPOs like HealthTrust, we can minimise overhead expenses and partner with those hospitals looking to adopt cutting-edge virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions.' The agreement with HealthTrust is expected to build on CareView's virtual nursing solution, which involves reallocating tasks to virtual Registered Nurses (vRNs). This approach is designed to reduce workloads for bedside nurses and optimise the use of resources. CareView has been part of HealthTrust's organisation network since 2017. Based in Texas, the company has provided virtual care solutions for more than 200 hospitals across the US to date. CareView Communications Sales vice-president Patrick Conte said: 'Our GPO channels provide important synergies between CareView and current and prospective customers. 'When prospective customers see alignment with their GPO, they know they are working with a supplier that has been vetted and has demonstrated outcomes in their solution area.' Earlier this year, CareView Communications entered a business agreement with Alaska Native Medical Center in an effort to improve patient safety through the use of virtual care solutions. Alaska Native Medical Center provides services to Alaska Natives and American Indians, including a 182-bed hospital and a medical speciality suite. In December last year, CareView partnered with Confluence Health, a network of healthcare providers in Washington, with the aim to improve patient safety. "CareView Communications announces three-year business agreement with HealthTrust" was originally created and published by Hospital Management, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Axios
6 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
Native American programs protected from Trump's anti-DEI order, agencies say
Some Native American programs are exempt from President Trump's executive order targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, according to at least three federal agencies. Why it matters: The U.S. federal government has several treaties with more than 500 tribal nations, and many involve promises based on race, culture, and equity with Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Driving the news: The U.S. Small Business Administration said Tuesday that the order targeting DEI does not affect its services provided to Indigenous communities, per Tribal Business News. SBA General Counsel Wendell Davis issued a note earlier this month saying that the executive order does not apply to the agency's programs serving Native Americans. "It would be unreasonable to read it as applying to (Native Americans and Alaska Natives) given that Tribes are separate sovereigns," Davis wrote. Context: The note was a clarification to SBA Chief of Staff Wesley Coopersmith, following a request from the Native American Contractors Association, Tribal Business News reports. Zoom in: That note follows a similar notice issued by the Department of Health and Human Services shortly after Trump signed his anti-DEI order in January. HHS said the order does not apply to Indian Health Service programs. The agency then said in February that the executive order didn't affect its other federal programs serving Indigenous populations. The Department of the Interior also said the executive orders do not affect its legal obligations to tribes. State of play: Trump's sweeping executive order, issued as soon as he took office, revoked decades of federal diversity and affirmative action practices. The order called for the "termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government." Yes, but: Various treaties and agreements call for the federal government to provide health care and other services to Indigenous communities. The SBA, for example, oversees numerous programs designed to support Native American entrepreneurs and businesses. The Trump administration has still eliminated other programs for Native Americans.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Attacks Health Agency, Defends Cuts Before Congress
(Bloomberg) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended cutting thousands of staff while attacking the agency's past work in one of his first appearances before Congress since taking office. As Coastline Erodes, One California City Considers 'Retreat Now' A New Central Park Amenity, Tailored to Its East Harlem Neighbors Power-Hungry Data Centers Are Warming Homes in the Nordics How a Highway Became San Francisco's Newest Park In exchanges with lawmakers that at times became tense, Kennedy told the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday that the cuts made progress toward President Donald Trump's goal to shrink federal spending. He also said the focus of the agency had turned to disease prevention rather than treatment, framing past efforts on addressing existing diseases instead of stopping them as evidence of corruption. In particular, he said there has been research on treatments for colorectal cancer at the National Institutes of Health, but not research on why rates are rising in children. 'No research was done on it. The etiology of all these chronic diseases were just buried because they didn't want to offend the large industries who are putting poisons in our food and putting them in our pharmaceutical products,' Kennedy said. Kennedy was pressed on the workforce reductions, which amounted to about 20% of staff with the inclusion of workers who voluntarily left and took buyouts or early retirement packages. In one instance, he doubled down on cuts to employees who ran a heating assistance program for low-income people and said he has the power to reverse firings. While Kennedy characterizes the cuts as a bid to streamline redundancies, the agency has also laid off employees conducting research in food safety labs, running firefighter health programs, working to make infant formula safer and studying childhood lead exposure. In response to questions from House Democrats about whether he is spending money that Congress allocated for specific causes, Kennedy said he will follow the law and spend money if lawmakers designate it for a certain program. The Trump administration is asking for $94 billion for HHS and its sub-agencies — $33 billion less than last year — according to budget documents released earlier this month. The biggest cuts are focused on the NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trump Objectives Kennedy, who will also testify on his agency's 2026 budget request in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday, is planning to use the budget as a tool to pursue his so-called Make America Healthy Again agenda. That means including funding for chronic disease prevention, protection from environmental toxins, nutrition, food and drug safety, and services for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Also included are programs that push what he calls healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments and the effects of new technological habits, according to prepared remarks seen by Bloomberg. Kennedy told the Appropriations Committee new dietary guidelines will be released potentially 'before August' that will focus more on unprocessed foods. In addition to aligning the budget with Trump's goals, Kennedy touted work he'd done to boost US drug manufacturing — one of the president's longtime objectives. Kennedy spoke positively about his relationships with companies that make food and pharmaceuticals, and mentioned he's met repeatedly with Eli Lilly & Co. and other drugmakers about domestic drug manufacturing. He's also gone after topics that frequently draw Trump's ire, like diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 'Americans do not want their tax dollars going to initiatives that espouse radical ideologies,' Kennedy said in his prepared remarks. 'We are committed to restoring a tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science — not one driven by politicized DEI, gender ideology, nor sexual identity.' The topic was the subject of a particularly charged back-and-forth between Kennedy and Democratic Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman. The Congresswoman grilled Kennedy about why the agency was targeting grants with language like 'Black,' 'race,' 'bias' and 'oppression.' Kennedy said Trump is 'deeply concerned' about disproportionately bad outcomes in maternal health for Black mothers and wants a 'color blind' administration. 'I don't need this rhetoric about Donald Trump and the lie that he cares about me or Black people,' she replied. (Updates details throughout.) Cartoon Network's Last Gasp DeepSeek's 'Tech Madman' Founder Is Threatening US Dominance in AI Race Why Obesity Drugs Are Getting Cheaper — and Also More Expensive Trump Has Already Ruined Christmas The Recession Chatter Is Getting Louder. Watch These Metrics ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Fast Company
14-05-2025
- Health
- Fast Company
Why teachers and librarians have lower suicide rates—and what we can learn from them
Where you work affects your risk of dying by suicide. For example, loggers, musicians and workers in the oil and gas industries have much higher rates of suicide than the rest of the population. But on the flip side, some professions have very low rates of suicide. One of them is education. National and state data shows that educators in the U.S., including teachers, professors and librarians, are among the least likely to die by suicide. We're a team of researchers at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at Arizona State University. We manage Arizona's Violent Death Reporting System, part of a surveillance system sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with counterparts in all 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. We collect data on violent deaths, including suicide, thanks to agreements with local medical examiners and law enforcement. When public health researchers like us look at suicide data, we often focus on high-risk populations to learn where intervention and prevention are most needed. But we can learn from low-risk populations such as educators too. Why some professions have higher suicide rates Over the past 25 years, the suicide rate in the U.S. has increased significantly. The age-adjusted rate in 2022 was 14.2 suicides per 100,000 people, up from 10.9 a little over two decades earlier, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Epidemiologists often adjust data for age to allow for a fairer comparison of incidence rates across populations with different age distributions. But not all populations are affected equally. For example, military veterans die by suicide at higher rates than civilians, as do men, older adults and American Indian and Alaska Natives, to name a few demographics. In 2022 the suicide rate for men, for instance, was 23 suicides per 100,000, versus 5.9 for women. The rate of suicide among the working-age population is also growing. Over the past two decades it has increased by 33%, reaching a rate of 32 suicides per 100,000 for men and eight for women in 2021. And workers in certain occupations are at higher risk of dying by suicide than others. The reasons why are complex and diverse. Workers in construction, an industry with some of the highest suicide rates, may face greater stigma getting help for mental health issues, while people in other fields such as law enforcement may be more exposed to traumatic experiences, which can harm their mental health. In short, some explanations are directly tied to one's work, such as having low job security, little autonomy or agency, and an imbalance of work efforts and rewards. Other factors are more indirect, such as an occupation's demographic makeup or the type of personality that chooses a profession. Together, factors like these help explain the rate of suicide across occupations. Teachers, professors and librarians Educators, on the other hand, have relatively little suicide risk. By educators, we mean workers classified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as 'educational instruction and library,' which includes teachers, tutors, professors, librarians and similar occupations. Nationally, about 11 in 100,000 male educators died by suicide in 2021, with the figure for women being about half that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By contrast, the rate for male workers in arts, design, entertainment, sports and media was 44.5 suicides per 100,000, and the rate for male workers in construction and extraction was 65.6. Data from our state of Arizona follows the same pattern. From 2016 through 2023, a total of 117 educators died by suicide, mostly primary and secondary school teachers. This works out to be an incidence rate of 7.3 suicides per 100,000 educators − one-third the rate for all Arizona workers and the lowest among all occupations in the state. Why educators have a low suicide rate So why are educators at such a low risk of suicide? After all, educational professions certainly present their own challenges. For example, many teachers experience high amounts of burnout, which can cause physical and mental health problems such as headaches, fatigue, anxiety and depression. A good place to begin is the profession's demographic composition. A disproportionately high share of educators are women or are married − traits associated with lower suicide rates. Educators also tend to have high educational attainment, which may indirectly protect against suicide by increasing socioeconomic status and employability. Another factor is workplace environment. Workplaces that offer increased access to lethal means such as firearms and medications are associated with higher suicide rates. This helps explain why workers in law enforcement, medical professions and the military tend to show high rates. The comparatively low availability of lethal means in schools may help keep educators' rates low. In addition, educators' workplaces, typically schools and campuses, offer rich opportunities to form strong social relationships, which improve one's overall health and help workers cope with job stress. The unique, meaningful bonds many educators form with their students, administrators and fellow educators may offer support that enhances their mental health. Finally, based on more contextual information in our Arizona database, we found that a lower proportion of educators who died by suicide had an alcohol or drug abuse problem. Alcohol or substance abuse problems can increase suicidal ideation and other work-related risk factors such as job insecurity and work-related injury. In short, educators may live a healthier lifestyle compared with some other workers. Improving worker health So, what can workers and employers in other professions learn from this, and how can we improve worker health? One lesson is to develop skills to cope with job stress. All professions are capable of producing stress, which can negatively affect a person's mental and physical health. Identifying the root cause of job stress and applying coping skills, such as positive thinking, meditation and goal-setting, can have beneficial effects. Developing a social network at the workplace is also key. High-quality social relationships can improve health to a degree on par with quitting smoking. Social relationships provide tangible and intangible support and help establish one's sense of purpose and identity. This applies outside the workplace, too. So promoting work-life balance is one way organizations can help their employees. Organizations can also strive to foster a positive workplace culture. One aspect of such a culture is establishing a sense of meaning or purpose in the work. For educators, this feature may help offset some of the profession's challenges. Other aspects include appreciating employees for their hard work, identifying and magnifying employee strengths, and not creating a toxic workplace. It is worth noting that continued research on occupational health is important. In the context of educators, more research is needed to understand how risk differs between and within specific groups. Despite their overall low risk, no person or demographic is immune to suicide, and every suicide is preventable.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Plans to Defend Health Agency Cuts Before Congress
(Bloomberg) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to defend his decisions to cut thousands of staff and gut whole swaths of the federal health agency in one of his first appearances before Congress since taking office. As Coastline Erodes, One California City Considers 'Retreat Now' A New Central Park Amenity, Tailored to Its East Harlem Neighbors How Finland Is Harvesting Waste Heat From Data Centers Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Policy on Migrant Children Kennedy will testify on his agency's 2026 budget request in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday. He plans to tell members that he's made progress toward President Donald Trump's goal to shrink federal spending through 'significant' workforce reductions and contract savings worth over $13 billion, while promising 'more to come,' according to prepared remarks seen by Bloomberg News. The Trump administration is asking for $94 billion for HHS and its sub-agencies — $33 billion less than last year — according to budget documents released earlier this month. The biggest cuts are focused on the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy will also testify in front of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. Health Agenda It's not just about cutting costs. Kennedy will say to Senate members he plans to use the budget as a tool to pursue his so-called Make America Healthy Again agenda. The means including funding for chronic disease prevention, protection from environmental toxins, nutrition, food and drug safety, services for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Also included are programs that push what he calls healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments and the effects of new technological habits, he said. 'These priorities will be reflected in the reorganization of HHS,' he said in the prepared remarks. It's also notable what the proposed budget cuts out: Kennedy said that the NIH will no longer issue grants 'to promote radical gender ideology to the detriment of America's youth,' or fund so-called gain-of-function research, studies that involve altering pathogens, which became controversial after Covid. 'Americans do not want their tax dollars going to initiatives that espouse radical ideologies,' Kennedy said in his prepared remarks. 'We are committed to restoring a tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science — not one driven by politicized DEI, gender ideology, nor sexual identity.' The hearing is one of the first chances lawmakers have had to question Kennedy over his sweeping changes at HHS. In March, Kennedy announced mass layoffs of 10,000 employees across the department. Total departures, including those who left voluntarily in early retirement or buyout programs, amounted to around 20% of agency staff. He pushed out top health officials that oversaw vaccine approvals, regulated the tobacco industry and ran infectious disease research. At the CDC, the cuts led to the creation of a temporary strike force to help manage the fallout, Bloomberg reported in late April. While Kennedy characterizes the cuts as a bid to streamline redundancies, the agency has also laid off employees conducting research in food safety labs, running firefighter health programs, providing heating assistance to people in need, working to make infant formula safer and studying childhood lead exposure. In late March, Kennedy announced that HHS would consolidate its 28 units into 15, including a new 'Administration for a Healthy America,' or AHA, that will coordinate programs targeted to improve chronic care and disease prevention, he said. Kennedy intends to reduce regional offices from 10 to five by closing offices in high-cost cities. Research institutions within HHS will also be consolidated in NIH to 'maximize effectiveness,' Kennedy said in his remarks. He also wants to shift its 'focus away from foreign interests and reforms its efforts on the core research activities that align with the President's commitment to Make America Healthy Again.' Trafficking Accusations In his remarks, Kennedy also took a shot at the agency's handling of its program that shelters unaccompanied minors who migrate to the US. Part of the massive health department's responsibilities include sheltering children who immigrate to the US without their parents as they await immigration proceedings. The responsibility has long been a highly politicized part of the health secretary's job. HHS in March announced that it would stop placement of children in shelters operated by Southwest Key Programs, Inc. and would move all children to other shelters. The US Department of Justice under the Joe Biden administration sued the company in July 2024, alleging that employees had abused and harassed children in the shelters. The DOJ dismissed its lawsuit. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, issued a report in November 2024 claiming the Biden administration weakened vetting processes for sponsors, outsourcing vetting to contractors and failing to cooperate with congressional inquiries. The report followed media coverage of exploitation of migrant children. A government watchdog report published in February found that HHS failed to provide law enforcement complete addresses for more than 31,000 unaccompanied migrant children, and most of the addresses they do have are wrong. Kennedy described the HHS under Biden as 'a collaborator in child trafficking for sex and slavery. The Biden Administration operated the UAC program like an assembly line, prioritizing the quick release of children to insufficiently vetted sponsors over the children's safety,' according to his remarks. Cartoon Network's Last Gasp DeepSeek's 'Tech Madman' Founder Is Threatening US Dominance in AI Race Why Obesity Drugs Are Getting Cheaper — and Also More Expensive Trump Has Already Ruined Christmas The Recession Chatter Is Getting Louder. Watch These Metrics ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
