Latest news with #PREP
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MaineGeneral Health cutting mental health, disabilities services for children
May 5—MaineGeneral Health confirmed Monday that it is cutting pediatric psychological services in central Maine — a move advocates say will make it more difficult to access care for children with mental health challenges, autism, attention deficit, and other intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nathan Howell, president and CEO of MaineGeneral Health, the parent organization of MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, said in a written statement on Monday that "PREP and psychological services" at the Edmund Ervin Pediatric Center are closing as of May 16. The Pediatric Rapid Evaluation Program, or PREP, provides services to children recently placed in the foster care system, while psychological services are for a broader pediatric patient mix. Howell said the reasons for the cutbacks are financial, as "health care across Maine and the nation is in a crisis." The cuts are because state "reimbursements do not cover the cost of care, excessive insurance denials and increased costs of doing business." The Ervin center is currently operating at a $1 million annual loss, MaineGeneral said. Nancy Cronin, executive director of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council, a quasi-governmental agency funded by federal and state dollars, said the Ervin center shuttering some of its services will make it difficult for some parents — especially those with MaineCare — to obtain a diagnosis for their child. Without a diagnosis, pediatric patients would not qualify for needed services, Cronin said. "We've lost a huge piece of the puzzle," Cronin said. "It's like a bridge has been blown up." Cronin said over time, beginning in the LePage administration, the state reduced financial support under MaineCare for diagnostic services for children with mental, intellectual and developmental disabilities. Cronin said the cuts have never been restored since Janet Mills became governor in 2019, leading to an erosion in these services. While the MaineGeneral cuts will directly affect families who live in central Maine, Cronin said it follows the loss of services in other parts of the state and that access will become a more acute problem. Cronin is hoping to rally support to provide more robust funding for diagnostic services and for PREP, either by the Mills administration tapping into the state's rainy day fund or through legislation. "What we are doing is creating enormous barriers to get children what they need," Cronin said. "This is going to be a nightmare." Cronin said she does not blame MaineGeneral for the cutbacks, but rather considers it a failure by the state to sufficiently fund the programs. Lindsay Hammes, a Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, said in a written statement that the agency "is disappointed to learn of MaineGeneral's decision." "It is a business decision made independently by the hospital," Hammes said. "We are reviewing options to support impacted families within existing services." Howell said in his statement that "while we recognize the impact of these changes, we will continue to offer 95% of our current services through our robust pediatric and outpatient rehabilitation service lines." Those services include speech therapy, physical therapy, counseling and medication management. The Edmund Ervin center name will be retired, with the remaining services falling under the MaineGeneral umbrella. The cutbacks come in the wake of a September 2024 lawsuit against the Mills administration by the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to provide adequate behavioral health services to children in the Medicaid program, which is called MaineCare in the state. That lawsuit was settled in November, with the state agreeing to boost services. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Once-homeless student wins Volusia schools' version of 'Shark Tank' with food-prep concept
DELAND – Healthy, fresh prepped foods for SNAP recipients. Nickel-free jewelry for people with sensitive skin. Kits of items newly independent college students don't yet know they need. Aspiring entrepreneurs from three Volusia County high schools dropped these and other ideas for businesses onto panels of judges with business backgrounds in a "Shark Tank"-like competition Thursday, with at least one – first-place winner Geo Hoffmann, a senior at Spruce Creek High School – qualifying for a similar regional event in Miami next month with the potential to move on to a national pitch competition. Students at Spruce Creek, Mainland and DeLand high schools are in a course aligned with standards established by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Each school had its own competition and 17 made it to the district-wide event at Stetson Baptist Church in DeLand. "This is taught in our high schools to give that entrepreneurial mindset to students," said Vince Roeshink, the career-technical education specialist at Volusia County Schools, "so that they can try to learn how to start a business, what it takes to do that from startup to operating costs, the finance portions of it and there's a pitch deck that has to cover a variety of items." Working through the competition gives students skills – not the least of which is public speaking and networking. School Board member Krista Goodrich, who has started several businesses herself, attended the event and said it's "wildly important" to provide entrepreneurial skill-building in high school. "I think if they start formulating those ideas now, and start learning about the entire process of starting a business, it will give them quite a few steps ahead of kids that aren't learning that," said Goodrich, who was 23 when she started building her first business. "I had no background of how to get a business license, how to start a business, how to get funding. Would I take a loan? Would I do (venture capital) money? How did all of that work?" she said. "We weren't taught this when I was in school. ... I was the first entrepreneur of my friend group." Hoffmann pitched PREP – Prepare Recipies, Expand Possibilities – a meal-prep service aimed at low-income families who rely upon government assistance programs, including SNAP, and can struggle to find fresh, healthy food both because of cost and the phenomenon of food deserts, neighborhoods without grocery stores. A New York native, Hoffmann knows of which he speaks. He said his family has struggled the point of being homeless at times. And his idea also stems from his job at Perrine's Produce in Port Orange. "We ship off meal-prep to families who can't really afford the super-expensive stuff," Hoffmann said. "It would be around $8.50 per meal, so super cost-affordable. "Pretty much the main goal is making sure everybody can afford healthy, nutritious meals," he said. Before learning he had won, Hoffmann said he was most proud of being cool while giving his presentation in front of a bigger audience than a high school classroom. "I wasn't really worried about what anybody else was presenting. I was just worried about me, doing my own thing," he said. "And I'm happy with what I've done today." Hoffmann intends to enroll at Daytona State College and become a certified public accountant, while minoring in firefighting. Asked about having an entrepreneurial mind, he offered a simple response: "I like solving problems." Hoffmann said he's learned the best way to build a business is by networking. "The biggest lesson that you can learn is how to talk to people," he said. Even after presenting, Payton Bonino, a Spruce Creek junior, admitted she felt "so scared, so nervous." Regardless, judges found her concept of affordable hypoallergenic jewelry to be worthy of second place. It wasn't her first idea, she said. She started, vaguely, with wanting to do something with jewelry. She wanted to do something to customize accessories with "detachable pendants," but a recent episode at school got her thinking differently. "I have a severe nickel allergy. I have scars on my finger and on the back of my neck from wearing jewelry that was not nickel-free," she said. "And I literally got sent home from lunch the other day because I wore a necklace that was not nickel-free, and 15 minutes later, I had rashes forming." So she came up with a company she called Bella. "I started realizing there was a much bigger problem that I could address other than just customization," Bonino said. "And I could address a much more toxic point in the jewelry industry, which was the hypoallergenic, where either you have to choose between comfort and spending hundreds of dollars in jewelry." Third-place finisher Payton Garner, a senior at Mainland High School and founder of the EssentialCube, said the transition from high school to college "can be very overwhelming and time consuming," particularly the part about moving into a dorm. "The EssentialCube is a cost effective and family-focused tote that comes with all the essentials that you don't know you need yet," Garner said during one of her pitches. "It also allows for being a dependent upon your parents to becoming independent." She presented the EssentialCube as a curated selection of items for students moving into dorms, including a power strip, a mini tool kit, ice tray, sponge, collapsible laundry basket and other items. One of the judges, Brad Harris, business manager for the Volusia County Division of Economic Development, was taken with Garner's idea. "In this case, I had a personal experience where a family member bought me kind of the essentials for college," he said. "I could relate to that." Harris said the best pitches are a combination of research and personal testimony that solve a real problem. "In my mind, whenever I hear a creative idea like you heard today, I start thinking of opportunities to expand and grow," he said, "and I saw potential in (Garner's pitch) to grow far beyond what I think she's envisioning right now." This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia students pitch business ideas in 'Shark Tank'-like competition
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump administration to audit California sex education curriculum for 'medical accuracy'
The Trump administration is reviewing the curriculum of a sex education program in California for medical accuracy and age appropriateness, a move that has sparked backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates worried about queer and transgender sexual health information being censored. Last week, California was asked to submit all educational materials from its federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program to the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a news release from the administration. HHS provides $75 million in annual funding to PREP programs across the nation. The stated goal of these programs is to prevent adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. "As part of our radical transparency efforts, I will ensure the curriculum students are taught is age-appropriate and medically accurate," said Andrew Gradison, ACF acting assistant secretary, in a statement on the curriculum review. Read more: Trump's rebuke to 'gender ideology' changes federal policy and sets up clash with California Jorge Reyes Salinas, spokesperson for LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Equality California, called Gradison's statement misleading. "This is not about curriculum transparency, it's about censorship, plain and simple," Salinas told The Times. "This investigation of California's PREP program appears to be politically motivated and attempts to undermine the inclusive, medically accurate sex education services that serve our most vulnerable youth." California's PREP program provides sexual health education to youths ages 10 to 19 with a focus on reaching those who are low-income, experiencing homelessness, in foster care, in the juvenile justice system or identify as LGBTQ+, according to the California Department of Public Health. The department says California's PREP curriculum has been shown to influence youth to delay sexual activity, increase condom or contraceptive use for those who are sexually active, and to reduce the number of sexual partners. Salinas said he believes the administration's probe into the curriculum is a thinly veiled attempt to erase mentions of the transgender community, transgender health care and different gender identities and pronouns. "This is all part of their calculated political attack against transgender and nonbinary people," he said. In January, Trump issued an executive order saying that the government would only recognize two genders, male and female, effectively erasing federal recognition of transgender people. His administration has weakened nondiscrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act, giving health care providers and insurers more leeway to deny services to transgender individuals. Trump has also challenged a new California law that prevents school districts from notifying parents if their child asks to use a different name or pronoun in the classroom. Read more: Trump targets California ban on 'forced outing' of students' gender identity to parents Attention was drawn to California's PREP program last week, when the Daily Mail published an article stating that its curriculum discussed role-plays "which present same-gender couples and discuss the use of sexual aids." This article was circulated by Trump Deputy Assistant Alex Pfeiffer, who said in a post on X that California is "using taxpayer money to teach kids about sex toys and role playing." The California Department of Public Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accuracy of this claim. Salinas called the comment "ridiculous," saying that the point of California's PREP program is to provide valuable lessons on abstinence, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and healthy relationships and decision-making. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
03-04-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Trump administration to audit California sex education curriculum for ‘medical accuracy'
The Trump administration is reviewing the curriculum of a sex education program in California for medical accuracy and age appropriateness, a move that has sparked backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates worried about queer and transgender sexual health information being censored. Last week, California was asked to submit all educational materials from its federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program to the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a news release from the administration. HHS provides $75 million in annual funding to PREP programs across the nation. The stated goal of these programs is to prevent adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. 'As part of our radical transparency efforts, I will ensure the curriculum students are taught is age-appropriate and medically accurate,' said Andrew Gradison, ACF acting assistant secretary, in a statement on the curriculum review. Jorge Reyes Salinas, spokesperson for LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Equality California, called Gradison's statement misleading. 'This is not about curriculum transparency, it's about censorship, plain and simple,' Salinas told The Times. 'This investigation of California's PREP program appears to be politically motivated and attempts to undermine the inclusive, medically accurate sex education services that serve our most vulnerable youth.' California's PREP program provides sexual health education to youths ages 10 to 19 with a focus on reaching those who are low-income, experiencing homelessness, in foster care, in the juvenile justice system or identify as LGBTQ+, according to the California Department of Public Health. The department says California's PREP curriculum has been shown to influence youth to delay sexual activity, increase condom or contraceptive use for those who are sexually active, and to reduce the number of sexual partners. Salinas said he believes the administration's probe into the curriculum is a thinly veiled attempt to erase mentions of the transgender community, transgender health care and different gender identities and pronouns. 'This is all part of their calculated political attack against transgender and nonbinary people,' he said. In January, Trump issued an executive order saying that the government would only recognize two genders, male and female, effectively erasing federal recognition of transgender people. His administration has weakened nondiscrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act, giving health care providers and insurers more leeway to deny services to transgender individuals. Trump has also challenged a new California law that prevents school districts from notifying parents if their child asks to use a different name or pronoun in the classroom. Attention was drawn to California's PREP program last week, when the Daily Mail published an article stating that its curriculum discussed role-plays 'which present same-gender couples and discuss the use of sexual aids.' This article was circulated by Trump Deputy Assistant Alex Pfeiffer, who said in a post on X that California is 'using taxpayer money to teach kids about sex toys and role playing.' The California Department of Public Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the accuracy of this claim. Salinas called the comment 'ridiculous,' saying that the point of California's PREP program is to provide valuable lessons on abstinence, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and healthy relationships and decision-making.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump administration probes California's sex education curriculum
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The state of California faced greater oversight from the federal government on Tuesday over how it implements sexual education. The state must now comply with a federal request as part of a medical accuracy review. What they're saying "It seems that everything is under attack that might have anything to do with the LGBTQ+ community," said Gabrielle Antolovich, executive director of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center in San Jose. Local perspective Concerns grew after an action from the Administration for Children and Families, which sent a March 27 letter to the California Department of Public Health requesting "curricula and programmatic materials for its federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program," or PREP. PREP is a $75 million-a-year program that teaches children about contraception and abstinence. Federal officials said their request is permitted under the terms of the PREP grant. "All grant recipients of federally funded PREP money are expected to comply with all statutory requirements of PREP, including ensuring the programs are medically accurate and complete, and the program provides age-appropriate information and activities," Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said. "There has become a movement that opposes sex education. It's an unwise movement. It's inconsistent with what has been the history in the United States," said Dr. Michele Goodwin, a Georgetown University law expert specializing in global health issues. "The narrative or what the thought process is behind constraining curriculum in this way is actually only hurting young Americans." She said the action put the country on a dangerous trajectory. Dig deeper Critics of the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' request said such moves increase pressure on protected groups, similar to when the president signed an executive order in January clarifying that the United States now recognizes only two genders. They argued that such hardline stances marginalize people and cause more social harm than good. "They are looking for practical ways to chip away at our freedom to be who we are," Antolovich said. "The people who are reviewing the curricula have no expertise in that area. So, they don't really know what they're doing. They just want to get rid of it." The California Department of Public Health has not yet responded to KTVU's request for comment. Jesse Gary is a reporter based in the station's South Bay bureau. Follow him on Instagram, @jessegontv and on Facebook, @JesseKTVU. The Source Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center in San Jose, Dr. Michele Goodwin of Georgetown Law
