Podcasts about boston health care

Organizers with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program say providing a safe and fun space makes it more likely women will access care and open up about things for which they might not otherwise seek help.

Expand your practice to include wound care for xylazine-related wounds and learn how to talk to your patients about harm reduction for xylazine. We are joined by Dr. Raagini Jawa (@Raaginizzle, UPMC) and Tehya Johnson, NP (@TehyaRJohnson, Boston Health Care for the Homeless). Claim CME for this episode at curbsiders.vcuhealth.org! By listening to this episode and completing CME, this can be used to count towards the new DEA 8-hr requirement on substance use disorders education. Episodes | Subscribe | Spotify | iTunes | CurbsidersAddictionMed@gmail.com | Free CME! Credits Show notes, infographics, cover art, writer and producer:  Zina Huxley-Reicher, MD  Hosts: Carolyn Chan, MD. MHS, Zina Huxley-Reicher, MD and Shawn Cohen, MD  Reviewer: Payel Jhoom Roy, MD, MSc Showrunner: Carolyn Chan, MD, MHS Technical Production: PodPaste Guests: Raagini Jawa, MD MPH and Tehya Johnson, NP  Show Segments Intro, disclaimer, guest bios - 01:42  Guest one-liners - 03:22 Case from Kashlak - 7:56 Definition of xylazine, overview of xylazine in the drug supply and experience of use - 08:38 Xylazine test strips and other harm reduction strategies - 15:48 Natural history of xylazine wounds - 19:15 Creating a welcoming wound care environment - 21:05 Red flag symptoms indicating need for oral antibiotics and higher levels of care - 26:18 Steps for wound care - 33:27 Frequency of wound care - 46:16 Pain control in the setting of dressing changes - 51:01 Route switching, harm reduction around injecting at the site of the wound - 52:20 When to refer to other wound care specialists/plastic surgery - 55:00 Take home points - 57:05 Outro - 1:00:17 

“As I was getting to know people, I started to write down their stories. I realized what courageous lives they were living -- despite these awful odds,” says Dr. Jim O'Connell, the president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. "They were stories that would inspire all of us, and I wanted to be able to tell them better.”

Ali Velshi is joined by Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair Molly Jong-Fast, Opinion Writer with The Washington PostJennifer Rubin, NBC News Foreign Correspondent Matt Bradley, Editor-at-Large for Jewish Currents Peter Beinart, Host of SiriusXM's ‘The Dean Obeidallah Show' Dean Obeidallah, Editor-at-Large of The 19th* Errin Haines, Professor of History at NYU Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Creator, Executive Producer, and Co-Host of ‘The Circus: Inside The Greatest Political Show on Earth' on Showtime Mark McKinnon, President & CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law Michael Waldman, Civil Rights Attorney Charles Coleman Jr., Co-Chair of the Consumer Advisory Board at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Warren Magee

Health Affairs' Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Michael Mayer of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program on his recent paper that explores the impacts of encampment clearings on the homeless population in Boston and how transitional harm reduction housing provided a unique opportunity for former encampment residents.Order the "Housing and Health" issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcasts free for everyone.

Pooja Bhalla is the CEO of Illumination Foundation - disrupting the vicious cycle of homelessness in Southern California. She serves on the board of National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC). Pooja was the COO of Boston Health Care for Homeless Program. She also is the alum of Northeastern University, and UCLA. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theindustryshow/support

Dan kicked off the show with an examination and exploration of today's top stories with various experts and reporters. Joining the program was Washington Post Features Reporter Herb Scribner, Nurse Practitioner and Co-Director of Harm Reduction Services at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Evan Russell, Director of the Parent Stress Line Kim Wollman, and State Treasurer and Receiver General of Massachusetts Deb Goldberg.

Violence and chaos have so overtaken the area that famed groups such as Boston Health Care for the Homeless have for now pulled out of the neighborhood.

In this edition of the Prioritizing Equity series, we explore the unique health care and social needs of patients experiencing houselessness and discuss the importance of equitable, holistic, cost effective, evidence-based discharge planning.   Panelists Margot Kushel, MD, Professor of Medicine and Division Chief at the Division of Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center – Twitter: @MKushel   Stephen Brown, MSW, LCSW, Director of Preventive Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System Denise De Las Nueces, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program  Yinan Lan, MD, Homeless Health Medical Director, NYC Health + Hospitals   Dez Martinez, Founder of We Are Not Invisible and member of the BHHI Lived Expertise Advisory Board: @weinvisible  Moderator Emily Cleveland Manchanda, MD, MPH, Director of Social Justice Education and Implementation, Center for Health Equity, American Medical Association - Twitter: @EClevelandMD    Subscribe to the Prioritizing Equity podcast: https://www.ama-assn.org/about/publications-newsletters/ama-podcasts#ama-prioritizing-equity Learn more: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/ama-center-health-equity The AMA's Digital Code of Conduct: https://www.ama-assn.org/code-conduct

This episode features Barry Bock, Special Liaison to the CEO at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP). Here, he discusses his 22 years at BHCHP, the program's focus on the opioid crisis & homeless encampments, different ways they had to pivot their focus during the pandemic, and more.

Dr. Jim O'Connell, founder of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and author of the book “Rough Sleepers,” joined us again on NightSide to update us on where we're at with combating homelessness in the city of Boston. We also heard about BHCP's involvement with the ongoing cleanup at Boston's Mass & Cass.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tracy Kidder and Dr. Jim O'Connell of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless program joined to discuss Kidder's new book “Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People.” We opened the lines to get listener reactions on the mass shooting at Michigan State University. Juliette Kayyem discusses what we know about the Michigan State University shooting, recent swatting at multiple school districts in Mass, and her latest column in the Atlantic about the unidentified flying objects. Kayyem is former assistant secretary for homeland security under President Barack Obama, and the faculty chair of the homeland-security program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Jared Bowen discusses the American Heritage Museum's Hanoi Hilton exhibit, August Wilson's Seven Guitars by the Actor's Shakespeare Project, and the Last Dance of Magic Mike. Bowen is GBH's Executive Arts Editor and host of Open Studio. Sy Montgomery discusses new research that finds orca mothers are so drained after raising one male calf that it drastically reduces their chances of having another one. Montgomery is a journalist, naturalist and a BPR contributor. We ended the show by talking to listeners about the toll parenting has.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder, author of "Rough Sleepers," talks about Harvard educated doctor Jim O'Connell and his work with the homeless population of Boston over the past 40 years. Tracy Kidder followed Dr. O'Connell and his colleagues from the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program for five years to get an understanding of their work and an insight into the homelessness crisis in America.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Later this week, the temperature in Boston is supposed to drop to sub-zero temperatures. It could dip as low as 40 degrees below zero in what forecasters say could be the coldest air in Boston in years. How is the city preparing to help the homeless avoid the bitter cold? Dr. Jim O'Connell, founder of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program joined Dan to discuss the critical care being offered for Boston's most endangered citizens.

Guests:Ana Rausch, Vice President of Program Operations at Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris CountyKimberley Richardson, therapistMaggie Sullivan, family nurse practitioner, Boston Health Care for the Homeless and instructor and human rights fellow, FXB Center, Harvard UniversityCredits:Host/producer: Anna Fisher-PinkertThe Better Off team: Kristen Dweck, Elizabeth Gunner, Pamela Reynoso, Stephanie Simon, and Ben WallaceAudio engineering and sound design: Kevin O'ConnellAdditional research: Kate Becker

Our Poetry Month series returns! Every Tuesday in April we invite a Lesley poet to share a poem and speak briefly about their work. This year, we're starting with Robbie Gamble '17, who reads and discusses "Memo to the Border Patrol Agent Who Poured Out the Water We Left in the Desert."Find the transcript on the episode page.About our guestRobbie Gamble '17 holds an MFA in Poetry from Lesley. He is the author of A Can of Pinto Beans, from Lily Poetry Review Press (2022). His poems and essays have appeared in the Atlanta Review, Pangyrus, Poet Lore, RHINO, Rust + Moth, Spillway, Tahoma Literary Review, and The Sun, among other journals. Recipient of the Carve Poetry prize, and a Peter Taylor Fellowship at the Kenyon Summer Writers Workshop, he serves as poetry editor for Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices. Robbie worked for 20 years as a nurse practitioner with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, and he now divides his time between Boston and Vermont.Check out last year's poems:"The Translator" by Kevin Prufer"As for the Heart" by Erin Belieu"We Be Womxn" by U-Meleni Mhlaba-AdeboCowboys and "The Dread" by Lydia Leclerc

The U.S. housing crisis and health care are inextricably linked. Compared to the general population, people experiencing homelessness have higher rates of illness and mortality. These struggles are even more acute for transgender people, who often face discrimination when they seek both housing and health care. On the latest episode of The Dose, Pam Klein, Manager of Transgender Services at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, talks about how to provide health care to transgender people who lack housing. As public acceptance of transgender people grows, and more and more people who openly identify as trans enter the field of health care, there is hope for the future, she says.  Sign up here to get new episodes of The Dose in your inbox.

This month's Connecting Care episode is the second in a two-part series about treatment for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) among people with opioid use disorder. In this second podcast, the Boston Medical Team takes a closer look at some of the challenges and opportunities related to treating HCV among people who inject drugs, and learn from Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which has successfully delivered HCV treatment to patients experiencing homelessness.

WARNING: This podcast references multiple forms of trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), self-harming behavior, and mental health. Heidi Lee recently chose to speak publicly about her mental health journey as a daily survivor of bipolar disorder & complex PTSD. In this episode, she shares her lived experience with mental health challenges and the learning and passions that transpired along her healing journey. Today, she works as a certified peer specialist for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (https://www.bhchp.org). She is also a part-time teacher, a gifted artist, mental health advocate, and mother to a beautiful, neurodivergent six year old. You will be moved by her stories of struggle and hope, encouraged by her resilience, and inspired by her resolve to address mental health and racial equity through advocacy in action. Heidi's Resource Picks: Note: Even while the prevalence of mental health issues continues to rise in our communities, AAPI adults are the racial group least likely to seek mental health services in the U.S. (Mental Health America). - National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - https://www.nami.org/Home - NAMI's Peer-to-Peer course - https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Mental-Health-Education/NAMI-Peer-to-Peer - NAMI's Family-to-Family course - https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Mental-Health-Education/NAMI-Family-to-Family - Kiva Centers (formerly Transformation Center) - https://kivacenters.org - Kiva Centers' Certified Peer Training - https://kivacenters.org/trainings/certified-peer-specialist - Recommended Ted Talk: The Brain-Changing Benefits of Exercise by Wendy Suzuki https://youtu.be/BHY0FxzoKZE MORE About Heidi Lee As a housing navigator for Boston's homeless, Heidi's goal is to bring dignity back to those who have had it taken away from them, which in this season means finding subsidized homes for those who are living on the streets or in shelters. Heidi received a master's degree in education (M.Ed), which suited her well during her 12-year stint as a classroom teacher. Heidi recently became a grad student again at Northeastern University working towards the Masters in Public Administration program (specializing in healthcare management) so that she can do her part to be a voice for the voiceless. She has since discovered her passion in working as a Certified Peer Specialist (CPS). Heidi is also studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Karate and truly enjoys her daily HIIT (high intensity interval training) exercises because they serve as a natural antidepressant. She also paints portraits for friends who are grieving the loss of someone they love and is striving to be a yelp foodie one day. * For More Podcast Episodes, visit Asian Women For Health: https://www.asianwomenforhealth.org/current-podcasts.html DISCLAIMER: The information on this page is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content in this podcast is for general information purposes only.

Elyse Park, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Health Promotion and Resiliency Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Associate Director of Survivorship Research, and Psychosocial Services for the MGH Cancer Center Survivorship Program. Her most recent American Cancer Society grant focuses on developing a health insurance navigation program for childhood survivors. Travis Baggett, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of research at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, and an MGH research scholar. His ACS grant supports research into lung cancer screening navigation for homeless people. Sanja Percac-Lima, MD, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a primary care physician at the MGH Chelsea Community Health Care Center, and physician leader for cancer outreach at MGH Cancer Center. A former ACS grantee, her research focuses on cancer prevention in ethnic and racial minorities. 5:42 – Dr. Park on her research into lung cancer screening, helping smokers quit, and helping survivors cope with stress and enhance their resiliency 8:46 – Dr. Percac-Lima on her research into alleviating disparities in cancer care and screening in vulnerable populations 11:39 – Dr. Baggett on a patient navigation program to help current and former homeless individuals to quit smoking and get lung cancer screening 14:32 –Taking behavioral interventions to the next level 17:14 –Reducing colorectal cancer screening disparities through patient navigation 22:09 –The encouraging progress there has been in the recognition of health equity issues 29:05 – Dr. Park on helping cancer survivors to improve their access and use of health insurance 33:38 – On the benefits of patient navigation during the COVID-19 pandemic 38:09 – On social justice and the work of the homelessness housing and health lab 41:41 – Why Massachusetts General Hospital is such a wonderful research environment 48:32 – The impact of ACS funding on their research 53:05 – A message for cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Meghan Krueger.  Meghan Krueger, RN. Registered Nurse at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program You can follow Meghan on LinkedIn. Read the ...

For Boston Health Care for the Homeless nurse Megan Sonderegger, providing client-centered care means literally meeting her clients where they are."To want to take PrEP, you have to have some hope for your future. If you have no hope and you don't have any idea that you're going to live past the next year, there's no reason to take Truvada. It just doesn't matter." -- Meagan Sonderegger, Healthcare for the HomelessDuring this month's episode of Connecting Care, Drs. Alex Walley, Jessica Taylor, and Sim Kimmel, HIV primary care doctor and addiction specialists, sit down with two clinicians from Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, who share their experiences on the front lines, delivering innovative substance use treatment, HIV prevention, and HIV treatment where patients are.

In this episode of the special series, “Pathways to Pediatrics,” hosts David Hill, MD, FAAP, and Joanna Parga-Belinkie, MD, FAAP, interview Aura Obando, MD, FAAP, Family Team Medical Director for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. Dr. Obando explains how a passion for global health in under-resourced areas led her to her own backyard.

Medical respite care tries to bridge the gap for homeless men and women who are too sick to be on the street or be in the shelter, but not sick enough to need to be in the hospital.Dr. David Munson, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, and Andy McMahon, Vice President, Health and Human Services Policy UnitedHealthcare Community & State, discuss how to implement successful respite programs in this episode of Caring As Communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted shortcomings in our systemic approach to homelessness. Join Dr. Jim O'Connell, Founder of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, and Bobby Watts, MPH, MS, CPH, and CEO, National Health Care for the Homeless Council as they discuss what needs to happen at local, state, and federal levels to better house and care for the health of these vulnerable individuals.

Special guest host Karen Emmons, PhD, faculty lead for our Community Engagement program, interviews Sheila Dillon, chief of Housing and director of Neighborhood Development for the City of Boston, and Jessie Gaeta, chief medical officer for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. Dillon and Gaeta discuss their combined efforts to help protect Boston's homeless population from COVID-19. This episode was produced in partnership with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Initiative on Health and Homelessness.

BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE. Eve Picker: [00:00:17] Hi there, thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing. Eve: [00:00:24] My guest today is Katie Swenson. Katie joined MASS Design in 2020 as a senior principal after having worked for many years on affordable housing with enterprise community partners. There she was, a vice president of Design and Sustainability. Her role at MASS, a design practice that embraces issues of economic and social equity, is to help them to define Mass Version 2.0. Eve: [00:01:06] Katie's career has spanned both arts and design, from comparative literature to modern dance. When she finally decided to attend graduate school, she chose architecture as her discipline. And that's when the magic really started to happen. "It allowed me to become a community-based architect," she says, "one who brings ideas to the local level and works with the city and community to make things happen." Eve: [00:01:37] Be sure to go to evepicker.com to find out more about Katie on the show notes page for this episode. And be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform, Small change. Eve: [00:02:00] So hello, Katie. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. Katie Swenson: [00:02:04] So glad to be here. Thank you, Eve. Eve: [00:02:07] I'm really fascinated. You've built a career around this question: How do we create an equitable, sustainable, affordable city? And I'm just wondering how you would answer that very big question. Katie: [00:02:20] Yes. Thank you for that question. How do we create an equitable, affordable, sustainable city and communities, I would say, as well. Eve: [00:02:30] Yes. Katie: [00:02:30] You know, my work has taken me into communities mostly across the United States, both large cities and small cities, rural communities and tribal communities. And I think at the base of everything that we've been trying to do is to understand how people can create lives for themselves and their families that give them the opportunity to become and be the people that they want to be, to live lives with purpose and dignity and have the resources and abilities to contribute to the world at large and to their families. So I think that has to happen and in all kinds of environments, certainly so much of the focus of both the sort of economic engines as well as a lot of the environmental work has been around densifying cities and creating cities as urban centers where so much of our work and life can happen. But I think it's also important to understand the broad spectrum of communities that we have throughout the United States and understand that we need to address critical issues around housing and jobs and health and education resources for everybody in the country. Eve: [00:04:01] Basically, one one size does not fit all, right? Katie: [00:04:04] You know, America is much more diverse, I think, than we necessarily give it credit. I've had the incredible opportunity over the last dozen years to really travel quite a lot throughout the United States. And last year, I partnered with a photographer named Harry Connolly and the two of us have been working on a book that we called 'Design with Love at Home in America'. And we went and revisited 10 of the communities where we've been working in partnership for many years with local community development corporations. And the experience kind of re-revealed for me how diverse America really is, from border communities to very rural tribal communities. We worked in geographic diverse locations from the Mississippi Delta through Yakima, Washington, which is sort of the breadbasket of America for produce and fruit production, through inner cities in Baltimore and elsewhere. So, I think one size does not fit all in some ways and in other ways, of course, there are so many common themes that unite best efforts throughout the country. Eve: [00:05:33] Yes, I think about one size does not fit all, I immediately think about, you know, the very typical residential project that developers will build, which really seems to be one size for all. And what you're describing is something very much more diverse. Katie: [00:05:53] Yeah, I think that communities need to grow to reflect themselves. That's the essence of place-based attitude towards building MASS Design. We have talked too often about the provenence of a building. You think of, let's say, wine that comes from a certain region and is grown from a certain type of soil. And buildings and communities also have the opportunity to be grown from their place and to be designed, really, in concert with the values and ambitions and aesthetics and goals of the people who both are responsible for creating them and then will live and grow their own communities. So, yes, I think it's really important to understand that diversity is not an abstract goal, but is the result of, sort of, expression of an environment and that of people and community values that create something that's unique and individual to a place. Eve: [00:07:09] Yeah, I love that thought that a building has a provenance. I think that's great. So, the question of the architect's role within community has sort of continued to grow and change in recent years, but I don't think it's fully formed yet. And how would you like to see that role continue to evolve? Katie: [00:07:28] You know, through our work with the Enterprise Rose Fellowship program, we've learned a lot about a role that an architect can play in local communities. So, just to give a little bit of context, I worked for almost 15 years at Enterprise Community Partners. Back in 2001 to 2004 I participated in a program called the Enterprise Rose Fellowship Program and as an aspiring architect, I was partnered with a community-based development corporation. And the goal was to bring an architect or designer on to the development team of a community development group. The Community Development Group could use the resources of a dedicated designer, and the designer would be able to learn the ins and outs of not only affordable housing development, but also community engagement processes and the regulatory processes that contribute to the creation for affordable housing. So, over these past nearly 20 years, Enterprise has partnered 85 Rose Fellows with community-based groups, and it's been an incredible privilege to be able to witness the growth that has happened through these partnerships. Each one has looked very different. In all cases, there are definitely some sort of underlying values. The architects who are attracted to this work and who succeed at it are generally very humble people who approach the work with the desire to uplift, first and foremost, the goals of the community, but also have to be able to be both brave enough and resourceful to bring the best resources from the architectural and design communities to sort of bear in the local work. So, it's been wonderful to watch these relationships and partnerships grow over time, and each one has resulted in very different kinds of outcomes. Eve: [00:09:49] Do you want to give me some examples? What should a community architect be thinking about that's perhaps different than a rock star architect might be thinking about? Katie: [00:09:58] Absolutely, I'd be happy to share a few examples. I think I would start back in the early days, maybe in 2001, when David Flores was partnered with a community group in San Ysidro, California, called Casa Familiar. A local non-profit that is now about 50 years old and has been working as a kind of community organizer in San Ysidro for many years, helping families navigate life on both sides of the border and provide affordable housing and other community development resources in San Ysidro. And David Flores was a member of my class of fellows, so we both started work in 2001. At the beginning, David started building what he called Casitas, small houses along some of the alleys in the historic part of San Ysidro. But I think he quickly started to realize what the larger challenges that families were facing at the border, including, of course, the border itself. And as the San Ysidro land port of entry has expanded and increased its, I guess, militarization of the border process for crossing, it also took up more space and land space in the community, more energy and also, because of the long wait times to cross the border, was creating environmental effects from stalled vehicles. So David, not only has been working as the design director at Casa Familiar, he was there for almost 20 years working to oversee the development of affordable housing in the neighborhood, but he also joined, for a time, he led the Planning Commission efforts and he got involved in the design and planning of the border control station so that it would be more receptive and welcoming to pedestrians and people crossing each way. And he got involved in environmental studies and testing air quality in the region. Katie: [00:12:16] So I think that architects and designers like David show that an architect's job is not only on distinct projects, that, absolutely he's been involved in helping to realize some very beautiful pieces of architecture including a project which just opened recently that Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman designed for Casa Familiar, a longtime project in development. But that these building blocks of housing and libraries and parks also need to be knitted together into a larger point of view and larger ability to help a community, as a whole, feel supported and able to grow a family's life and capabilities in some of the most stressful, you know, environments that we have here in the country. Eve: [00:13:16] That's a lovely story. So, I'd really love to hear about how you came to be such a powerful advocate for equitable cities and communities and where did that passion come from? I think you started life academically in a very different place by the sounds of it. Katie: [00:13:32] Yes, I was asked recently who one of my architectural mentors was and, as a child, and I said my mom and the response was one of surprise, actually, and I thought it was so interesting because my mom was a professional, but she was also a home maker. And I've been thinking about these words, not homemaker, one word, but home maker, maybe two words. And I think in many ways, I grew up with a very strong attachment to home, the idea of home, the physical reality of home, how both the design and feeling of your home as well as the stability and platform that your home kind of provides you is just a critical piece of this formation of who you are. And I think in high school, while I had a very stable and wonderful home, I also had the chance to volunteer for what started as a month engagement and ended up being a little over a year and a half at a homeless shelter in Boston. And I think that in the mid-eighties, when homelessness was starting to, kind of, take hold of America and we had, kind of, a high point in the mid-80s, I realize now that actually has not dissipated much. So for me, as a high school student, sort of understanding this dichotomy, not just the power of my own home and what it meant for me, but what happens when you don't have a home and how slippery a slope it becomes and how quickly life can fall apart without a stable home. So I think that this has guided so much of my passion for my work and while it hasn't necessarily been a linear path in terms of my career, I studied comparative literature as an undergrad and I have spent time as a modern dancer and I've done a lot of different things throughout my life, but some core essence around the importance of home and making homes, making my own home and making homes for others has been something that has driven me as long as I can remember and to this day. Eve: [00:16:12] You also sound like you've had a lot of fun. And, you know, I think people have this idea that your life should be linear. But I think, you know, all of those interesting things that you've done must surely feed into what you do now and the way you look at the world and I love that idea. I wanted to talk a little bit about the pandemic as well. It's taken me a while to get my brain around it, but I'm starting to think about what does it mean? And what does our world look like when and if it comes to an end? And if it wasn't already bad enough, the affordable housing crisis just got a lot worse with the onset of the pandemic and many people losing their jobs. And I don't even know how to begin to think about how the U.S. can tackle this monster problem and I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about that. Katie: [00:17:04] Oh boy. Well, I wish I could say that I was able to get my mind around what this is going to mean for all of us. I think we're still in this period of profound uncertainty. And I am really grateful for the wide-spread activism that I've seen from the housing community, first and foremost, on protecting renters and working to stop evictions and understand that that's one critical base of all of this is, again, I guess, the importance of having a home right now. We talk about stay at home, right? Stay at home. Eve: [00:17:43] If you don't have a home, how do you stay at home, right? Yeah. Katie: [00:17:47] Oh, my goodness. I mean, that means very different things for different people. And the importance of home has maybe never been so, kind of, revealed, right? I heard Governor Cuomo talking about the subways in New York, ridership is down 92 percent and they were going to start to close the subways in the mid-morning hours because many people were in many ways taking up residence on the subways. Eve: [00:18:16] Oh wow. Katie: [00:18:16] So this kind of crisis around home, whether it's becoming increasingly unaffordable because you're out of work, whether it's a place that is not safe, perhaps. I mean, not everybody is living at home in a safe environment or you have no home. So, we think this moment, certainly we all want to, kind of, understand what is the future of, you know, our public transit system, what is the future of our work spaces, what's the future of the restaurant and food industry? There's so many questions, but I think one of the most elemental questions is going to have to be what is the future of our housing policy and are we going to use this moment when it could not be more clear how important it is, both for each of us as individuals and for all of us as a society, to be able to safely house every member of our community? Eve: [00:19:26] Yeah, and more, you know, you can't really say that home is just a roof over your head because there's so much inequity around who has a computer and who has broadband, and if you even have a place to work in your home. And I think all of that, surely, has to come into play as well. If we're really looking at schools being closed, and I know my husband's a teacher and his university is already talking about online classes only in the fall, all of that is going to really matter quickly. I mean, as an architect, I'm grappling with, you know, what does that mean in the way we even design homes and cities? Katie: [00:20:07] You know, in some ways, you're right in that this is sort of exciting time to think about home, right? I think everybody's looking around and going like, oh, my goodness I have to sort of expect so much more of this space. And I hope that that notion of expecting more from our buildings and our spaces is one of the things that will come out of this time. You know, the idea that our buildings need to keep us healthy is an idea that really attracted me originally to MASS Design Group who started during a tuberculosis epidemic and designing hospitals with the goal of having the hospital itself, the building itself, participate in enhancing the health of the staff and patients and visitors who experienced it. That the buildings have such a role to play. Buildings shape us, they shape our experience. They shape our health outcomes. And so, I hope that this will be a moment where we are understanding that we need to ask more of our buildings and participate in a greater spatial awareness and spatial literacy to understand the profound effects that the built environment in general, and the buildings that we occupy in specific, have on our health outcomes and our quality of life and productivity outcomes and that we gain a sort of awareness and capabilities around our ambitions for the built environment. Eve: [00:21:59] Yeah, and that, you know, the buildings shape cities. And I think cities, too, will need to be re-thought in terms of how do you make them safe places for larger groups of people? You know, some cities in other countries are starting to think about changes to their transportation patterns or, in Lithuania they've given over all public spaces to outdoor restaurants so restaurants can operate again. I mean, these are kind of baby steps but in amongst the misery of all of this, it's interesting to watch how creative people can be. That's encouraging, I think. Katie: [00:22:37] It's hard to talk about silver linings at this moment. I mean, I think people are going to be experiencing so much grief of all kinds from lost loved ones to lost, you know, hopes or experiences. So, there's going to be just a wide swath of, kind of, having to recover from this moment but, as you say, there's also a lot of opportunities that are being revealed. Like in New York City, where they're coming up with strategies to re-occupy the city streets in a different way, I think that's so exciting. And I think it's really important, I mean, if home is important, though is. I guess, you know, the old words home and garden, right? Home is as equally reflected in the sort of outdoor space. and I think our ability to kind of get more creative about understanding how we can use our outdoor spaces more effectively is really important. Katie: [00:23:39] I also think that different kinds of projects. We have just been involved in a project in a community in West Baltimore where neighborhood leaders started leading the charge to create a park where there had been three homes which, over time in a disinvested area of Baltimore, had been first made vacant and then started to deteriorate and eventually were taken down and the lots that were left had become a dumping grounds. And one of the local neighbors, so a block leader, a block captain on his block, his name is Donald Quarles, started working with one of our Rose Fellows and his neighborhood group and the Bon Secours Community Development Group to clean up first this lot and now turn it into what has become this incredibly beautiful small pocket park that they call Kirby Lane Park. And the process has taken about two years and we figure that in the end, it's been mostly volunteer labor, but the hard costs have been less than one unit of housing costs to create in that community. And it's provided this outdoor space, a kind of backyard or a front porch, whatever you want to call it, for this community at large. So I think from big ideas to how do we re-occupy city streets and city parks and beaches, to small ideas of how to prioritize and re-integrate smaller outdoor spaces into our day-to-day lives, there are lots of models and ideas that we need to be working on simultaneously at different scales. Eve: [00:25:41] I think what excites me is the people I talk to who are incredibly creative and they're all going to put the brainpower to this. I can't wait to see how they make things better. It's fascinating to me. But, in the meantime, I would just like to ask you one final question, and that is what's next for you? You have a brand, new job with MASS Design Group and where's that going to lead you? Katie: [00:26:06] Oh yes, it is so exciting. I started at MASS Design on February 3rd. I've been a friend and sort of champion and cheerleader to the organization since 2010 when I first met them and then had joined their board. So, I came on full-time in February, thank goodness, really just in time to be able to participate in this moment with this incredible group. Katie: [00:26:34] So, the very first morning that we, sort of were all getting on our first Zoom call with one hundred and twenty five people from around the world at nine a.m. Eastern Time on Monday morning, one of our design directors, Chris Scovel, had gotten a call from one of our partners at Boston Health Care for the Homeless, saying that were going to be putting up some makeshift tents to be able to test and treat people without homes in Boston and would we look at the plans? And so, Chris and a team got on to making really makeshift design recommendations. We're not calling them designs because it's not about designing a tent or creating something ideal in any way, it's about trying to apply our experience and design for infection control that we've learned over many years through, not only tuberculosis, but also Ebola and cholera, and to understand with our medical partners how Covid19 is manifesting itself and what can we do from a spatial guidance to help limit contagion and keep health care workers and patients healthier. So we started in on this immediately and realized that if one group needed it, as one partner needed it, probably so did others. So, we set off on this kind of larger understanding about, how can we use our spatial cues, spatial literacy, to help respond in this crisis? You know, I think that obviously architects are not on the frontlines of this crisis. Health care workers are on the frontlines of this crisis and make no mistake about it, but the rub is that our buildings are on the front lines. And so, we need to be there, showing up to understand how do we need to adapt? What are the retrofits that we need to do? How can we learn from this experience so that our buildings are able to support health care workers, to be able to support our communities, getting back into our lives in so many ways, but to do it safely? Katie: [00:29:04] It's been an incredible process and I feel very, very lucky to work not only with an incredible team at MASS, but also such a robust network of amazing partners both in the medical fields and in all of the sort of social service fields. Eve: [00:29:22] Well, I really can't wait to see what comes next. And thank you very much for spending this time with me today. Katie: [00:29:30] Thank you. Really a pleasure to join you and we'll look forward to having this conversation evolve and thanks for highlighting all the creative efforts. Appreciate it. Eve: [00:29:41] Thank you. Eve: [00:29:56] That was Katie Swenson. I loved that her early professional years meandered through the arts from comparative literature to dance before she landed on architecture. Her trajectory shows that climbing the ladder is not necessarily the path to success. Her career as a community architect started later than most but that didn't stop her from becoming a star in the field. And she brought with her creativity and a human passion for making better places for everyone. Eve: [00:30:27] You can find out more about impact real estate investing and access the show notes for today's episode at my web site, evepicker.com. While you're there, sign up for my newsletter to find out more about how to make money in real estate while building better cities. Eve: [00:30:44] Thank you so much for spending your time with me today and thank you, Katie, for sharing your thoughts. We'll talk again soon but for now, this is EVe Picker signing off to go make some change.

In part one of our episode "Economic Disruptions During COVID-19: Resources for Relief and Recovery," Cecilia Wallace, AmeriCorps member serving as Case Manager with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, walks listeners through applying for unemployment, food assistance and health insurance, and talks about drawing on local and grassroots supports for folks who have been financially impacted by the pandemic.

Note: The technical quality of our remote episodes is a work in progress. Thank you for bearing with us as we adjust to new recording challenges.This episode of Meet The Problem Solvers is centered on the emotional and psychological pressures of the COVID-19 outbreak. Judy talks with social workers Laura Hutson and Brittany Jones. Laura, who works at Boston Health Care for the Homeless, shares ideas and resources that folks dealing with acute or chronic mental health stresses might use, and she and Judy offer up compassionate ways we can offer support to people we are concerned about during these stressful times. Brittany works with justice-involved individuals as part of a Los Angeles County supportive service/re-entry program. She describes challenges her clients have dealt with during the pandemic, including the sudden loss of connection and uneven access to technology, and isolation. She and Judy talk through several “lessons learned” that can strengthen social service systems and their ability to support clients through future crises.

S1 Ep11: Learn about the role community based organizations play in serving patients with high needs and the imperative for these community partners and ACOs to partner to provide care coordination and care management for patients with severe mental illness. Our own, Lisette Roman sits down with Mary Takach from Boston Health Care for the Homeless to learn about their efforts to care for the homeless population in a risk-based environment. Find all of our show podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms. www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

Today our guest is Jessie Gaeta, the Chief Medical Officer of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. She is a leading advocate for supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals, and has led BHCHPs efforts in responding to the opiate use disorder and overdose crisis, which is what we discussed. Dr. Gaeta and her colleagues found themselves confronting the reality of opiate overdose as the leading cause of death among Boston’s homeless individuals day after day on their campus. In reaction to this, Gaeta and her colleagues opened SPOT, or Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment – a space within their building where individuals can come after using to ride out a high while being monitored by a nurse for overdose, and for opiate reversal if necessary.

Monica Bharel, M.D., MPH, is the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, appointed in February of 2015. She is responsible for spearheading the state’s response to the opioid crisis, implementation of health care cost containment legislation, reducing health disparities, finding public health solutions for health care reform, finding innovative solutions using data and evidence-based practices, and other health care quality improvement initiatives. Dr. Monica served as the Chief Medical Officer of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, the largest nonprofit health care organization for homeless individuals in the country. In this episode, Dr. Monica explains the origins of the opium epidemic, as well as the program that is being implemented in Massachusetts after a rapid increase in the number of deaths by overdose. Prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery — the plan to face an addiction that has risen exponentially and needs an integral approach to stop threatening the lives of Americans.   Key Takeaways: [:40] Dr. Monica Bharel career briefing. [1:50] What else does Dr. Monica want to accomplish in healthcare? [2:50] Thoughts only days away from the health care reform. [4:23] Health in all policies. [5:30] The opium epidemic. [6:44] Plan in Massachusett against the opium epidemic: Prevention, Intervention, Treatment, and Recovery. [8:25] The Opium epidemic took everyone by surprise, how did it happen? [9:16] Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more powerful (and deadly) than heroin. [11:33] Recently more attention has been paid to pain. [13:06] Doctors are not been trained to treat addiction properly. [15:50] Pain is subjective and doctors are being trained to help people screen that pain. [17:33] In a society that wants instant gratification, pain is treated the same way. [19:34] The role of interventions. [20:16] The use of methadone. [22:44] Individuals with a non-fatal overdose when treated with methadone, decreased the chances of death by overdose in 50%. [24:47] Opium used disorder is political. [26:05] Highlighted attention to addiction nowadays. [28:26] Recovery and treatment. [28:55] The other crisis: the Me Too Movement. [30:30] Being a woman in healthcare. [32:41] Best advice Dr. Monica received in her career: You can have more than one mentor. [34:15] The artificial division between public health and the traditional medical space. [37:41] Use your strength to help individuals that do not always have a voice.   Mentioned in this episode: Relational Rounds at Primary Care Progress Primary Care Progress on Twitter Elizabeth Metraux on Twitter Massachusetts Department of Public Health Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Twitter.

Host Jeff Olivet visits Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program where they are working to prevent drug overdose and support treatment and recovery. His honest conversations with a person in treatment and a nurse and doctor bring to light some of the real, day-to-day issues of the opioid epidemic. Visit thinkt3.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for more resources to grow your impact. This episode originally released 9/19/17.  More Info Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Principles of Harm Reduction from the Harm Reduction Coalition SPOT, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Medication Assisted Treatment from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Host Jeff Olivet visits Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program where they are working to prevent drug overdose and support treatment and recovery. His honest conversations with a person in treatment and a nurse and doctor bring to light some of the real, day-to-day issues of the opioid epidemic. Visit thinkt3.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for more resources to grow your impact. This episode originally released 9/19/17.  More Info Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Principles of Harm Reduction from the Harm Reduction Coalition SPOT, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Medication Assisted Treatment from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Host Jeff Olivet visits Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program where they are working to prevent drug overdose and support treatment and recovery. His honest conversations with a person in treatment and a nurse and doctor bring to light some of the real, day-to-day issues of the opioid epidemic.

Host Jeff Olivet visits Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program where they are working to prevent drug overdose and support treatment and recovery. His honest conversations with a person in treatment and a nurse and doctor bring to light some of the real, day-to-day issues of the opioid epidemic.

This week: New Hampshire’s largest addiction recovery organization faces allegations of dysfunction and verbal abuse, and Boston considers whether to allow a facility where drug users can inject under medical supervision. Plus, we take a big-picture look at casino gambling in New England, and meet a Connecticut biologist who’s trying to breed a hardier honey bee. Former employees at Hope for New Hampshire Recovery told NHPR that staff did not receive proper training and the organization inflated the numbers of its clients, among other issues. Photo by Paige Sutherland for NHPR Public Health Under the Lens Over the past few years, New Hampshire has been grappling with an opioid crisis. The state estimates that more than 1,600 people have died from opioid overdoses since 2011. Former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (center), State Senator Dan Feltes (left) and the former New Hampshire Drug Czar attended the ribbon cutting at Hope for New Hampshire Recovery’s new Concord center last May. Photo by Paige Sutherland for NHPR Peer-support centers — where people trying to get clean work with counselors with previous experience of addiction — have been key players in New Hampshire's fight against this epidemic. A nonprofit called HOPE for New Hampshire Recovery is the largest such organization. But the non-profit's growth from one modest space in Manchester to seven recovery centers statewide hasn't gone smoothly. Several employees quit, claiming they were mistreated. There are allegations that staffers used, and at times, sold drugs at work. One center has closed. After New Hampshire Public Radio's Paige Sutherland reported these allegations earlier this month, governor Chris Sununu told reporters his administration was investigating allegations against Hope for New Hampshire Recovery. You can follow the evolving story at nhpr.org. In Boston, advocates for people with addiction are asking the city for permission to launch something that sounds radical: a facility where people could inject drugs under medical supervision. The only such supervised injection facility, or SIF, in North America is in Vancouver, Canada, but efforts are underway to legalize them in several states. Screenshot via slide presentation from Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Boston already has a place where drug users can come to ride out a high monitored by nurses, but no actual drug use is permitted at the site. The Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment, or SPOT, opened last year. But if the first public hearing is any indication, supporters of rooms where drug users would inject under medical supervision have a long road ahead of them. WBUR’s Martha Bebinger reports. A representative from Hep C Hope, a campaign from the pharmaceutical company Gilead, gives advice about Hepatitis C testing to passersby. Photo by Casey McDermott for NHPR In its 94th year, the Laconia Motorcycle Week prides itself on being the world's oldest motorcycle rally. As the rally ages, however, so too has its main demographic. But pharmaceutical companies and health organizations are seeing a silver lining in this shift — and are seizing on this new chance to reach aging bikers in their element. New England States Carve Up the Gambling Pie Back in April, in Episode 36, we brought you the story of a cross-border gambling war. Construction was moving along at the site of a $950 million MGM resort casino in Springfield, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, two Native American tribes — both casino operators in Connecticut — were hoping to build a third casino in the state, just 14 miles south of the MGM site, in the town of East Windsor. The Mohegans, who operate Mohegan Sun, and the Mashantucket Pequots, who run Foxwoods, argued that if nothing was done, they would lose customers to MGM. That would hurt not just the tribes, they said, but also the state, which receives 25 percent of the tribes’ gambling revenues. An artist’s rendering of the MGM Springfield resort casino, with hotel rotunda in front view. The original plan included a glass skyscraper, but was modified after pushback from locals. Image courtesy of MGM Springfield MGM sued the state, claiming a deal between the state and tribes would put them at a competitive disadvantage. Earlier this month, Connecticut lawmakers approved that third casino. And on Wednesday, a federal appeals court threw out MGM’s lawsuit, though the company has promised to continue their legal fight. In this week’s show, we revisit Springfield, where the MGM resort casino spans three blocks in the city's downtown. The project's backers say the casino will bring in not only tax dollars, but needed foot traffic. But the story is much bigger than MGM and the Connecticut tribes. The vacant Showcase Cinemas in East Windsor, Connecticut is the site where Connecticut’s Mohengan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes plan to build a casino to compete with MGM Springfield. Photo by Henry Epp for NEPR Casinos have been springing up across the northeast in recent years, a stark contrast to just 15 years ago, when Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods were the only casinos in New England, competing with Atlantic City for New York gamblers. So will there be any winners in this cross-border war? Is our small region nearing gambling over-saturation? Joining us to help answer these questions is Clyde Barrow, a consultant who researches gambling for governments and private industry. Earlier this year, he produced several reports on behalf of MMCT, the joint venture between the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes. Hearty Bees; Healthy Kids Scientists in Connecticut are importing bees with strong genes that may make them more likely to resist pests and disease. Photo by Patrick Skahill for WNPR Scientist Richard Cowles, research assistant Ethan Paine, State Bee Inspector Mark Creighton and research assistant Ellie Clark. The group spent the day “de-queening” hives to prepare them for the arrival of new, specially bred honey bees. Photo by Patrick Skahill for WNPR Honey bees have been having a tough time lately. Pests and disease have plagued many hives, killing off the pollinators. As WNPR's Patrick Skahill reports, one scientist in Connecticut is pinning his hopes on bee genes. Richard Cowles is tracking down honey bee “survivors” in the hopes of spreading their DNA. For many New Englanders, swimming is learned early and central to summer fun. But for children who are new to the United States and still learning English, swimming can be a completely foreign concept. Sandra (right) says she got into the water for the first time in an after-school program. Back in Nepal and India, her family had never set foot in a swimming pool. Photo courtesy of Doug Bishop for the Greater Burlington YMCA Many children who come to Vermont as refugees are from cultures where swimming isn’t practiced. That could be for religious guidelines that necessitate that bodies remain covered, or it could be that open water is simply too dangerous. A water safety program in Burlington teaches New American children how to be safe, and have fun, in the water. VPR’s Kathleen Masterson has more. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Paige Sutherland, Martha Bebinger, Casey McDermott, Patrick Skahill, Kathleen Masterson Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “Let My Baby Ride” by R.L. Burnside, “Stories We Build, Stories We Tell” by Jose Gonzalez, “Down the Line” by Romare Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send critique, suggestions, questions, reflections and videos of your backyard bees to next@wnpr.org. Do you have a question you’d like NEXT to investigate? Tell us about it here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders and Dr. James O'Connell, President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless,discussed key healthcare issues, as well as challenges and opportunities for consumers. WCVB's Emily Riemer mode

“It's a quiet spot, tucked away, where people can just walk in. They don't even have to give us their name,” says Dr. Gaeta.

A map of Cape Cod with ribbons representing those lost to substance abuse at the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. Photo by Ryan Sweikert for the Transom Story Workshop. Across New England, there’s been an epidemic of opioid addiction, overdose, and death. This hour, we dig deep into the causes of this crisis with health reporter Martha Bebinger. We travel to Cape Cod to hear firsthand the stories of those affected. We also look for solutions, including for those most at risk of overdose: inmates getting out of prison.  And we examine the role of New England’s traditional dairy industry in creating the landscape we love, as we remember forgotten farms. An Increasing Death Count The crisis of opioid addiction and overdose has taken hold especially hard in New England. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the rate of overdose deaths nationally nearly tripled between 1999 and 2014. Heroin and prescription opioids now account for nearly two thirds of drug overdose deaths in America. Overdose deaths went up by at least 20 percent between 2014 and 2015 in every New England state, well above the national average. Tommy, a repeat patient at the Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment, at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, says the facility has — and will continue to — save lives. Photo by Jesse Costa for WBUR. Massachusetts saw annual opioid-related deaths more than triple between 2010 and 2015. Data for 2016 is not out yet, but it looks like those rates will be higher still. WBUR health reporter Martha Bebinger joins us to talk about some of the stats, and she takes us to a unique facility in Boston where drug users are being watched over by doctors and nurses — while they are high. We recorded this conversation in October of 2016. As of January 3, 2017, the SPOT clinic has had 2,551 visits and seen 397 individual visitors. In 2015, Barnstable County on Cape Cod was ranked first in Massachusetts in terms of overdose deaths per capita. Part of the response has been increased use of the overdose reversal drug naloxone, or Narcan, by first responders and citizens. Independent producer Ryan Sweikert brings us a story told by family members, police, and EMS workers struggling with the problem. Piecing It Together You may have heard of hackathons for solving computing problems. But can a room full of smart people hack the opioid crisis? That’s what doctors, counselors, current and former addiction patients, coders, and others attempted to do over a weekend in Boston last September. Massachusetts General Hospital and the GE Foundation hosted a hack-a-thon at District Hall to come up with novel ideas and technologies to combat opioid abuse. Photo by Joe Difazio for WBUR. Ideas included sensors on bathroom floors that would send an alert when someone is lying down; a mobile syringe exchange and counseling center; and a Fitbit style blood monitor that could inject naloxone into the wearer if needed. Martha Bebinger covered the story. Watch a video about the hackathon produced by the Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies: Since we first aired Martha's report on the opioid crisis hackathon in October 2016, there have been some developments. The team that came up with the idea for wearable pouches that would contain naloxone and signal that the wearer is an ally has received funding from the GE Foundation.  The group – We Are Allies –  is beta testing the pouches, and has a website where you can sign up to participate. The GE Foundation is still considering other teams for a ten thousand dollar award, and plans to announce the winner at an event at Massachusetts General Hospital later this month. Judges will also consider ideas that weren't presented at the hackathon, like an equine therapy program for drug users. The group that's most at risk for a fatal opioid overdose is ex-prisoners in the first few weeks after being released. Even those who don't overdose are very likely to relapse into drug use within a month of leaving jail or prison. WNPR reporter Lori Mack visited a pilot program underway in New Haven, Connecticut that takes a new approach to addiction treatment. It starts before an inmate gets out from behind bars. Read More reporting on opioid addiction from the New England News Collaborative. When the Milk Runs Dry Dairy farms have been folding at an alarming rate. According to a new documentary film, “Forgotten Farms,” New England has lost 10,000 dairy farms in the last 50 years, and many of the remaining farms are struggling. We speak with Sarah Gardener, producer of the film and Associate Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College. “Forgotten Farms” will be screening around New England in the spring. To find a showing near you, visit the film’s website. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Martha Bebinger and Lori Mack Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “It’s Clearing Now” by Birigid Mae Power, “Harbour Lights” by Miaoux Miaoux,”Draft Daughter’s Blues” by the Be Good Tanyas Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and milk mustache selfies to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In response to opioid overdoses in Boston, Dr. Jessie Gaeta devised a safe space for rehabilitation called SPOT. She is the Chief Medical Officer of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program or BHCHP. SPOT (Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment) was made with the goal of preventing fatal overdoses in mind. Dr. Gaeta talks about how a safe place was missing from BHCHP facilities. She explains how SPOT provides a haven for over-sedated individuals to recuperate, who are mainly poor or homeless. Once they join the program, “they aren’t alone, they aren’t in public, and they aren’t on a street corner with no medical response nearby,” says Dr. Gaeta.

A map of Cape Cod with ribbons representing those lost to substance abuse at the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. (Credit: Ryan Sweikert) Across New England, there’s been an epidemic of opioid addiction, overdose, and death. This hour, we dig deep into the causes of this crisis with health reporter Martha Bebinger. We travel to Cape Cod to hear firsthand the stories of those affected. We also look for solutions, including for those most at risk of overdose: inmates getting out of prison.  And we examine the role of New England’s traditional dairy industry in creating the landscape we love, as we remember forgotten farms. An Increasing Death Count These days, the opioid addiction epidemic makes headlines constantly. Nationally, opioid overdose deaths hit record levels in 2014, the most recent year for which there is data. Of those deaths, 10,574 involved heroin, and 5,500 were caused by prescription opioids. Earlier this week, the DEA announced it would cut back the production of prescription opioid drugs by 25 percent next year. Nearly every New England state has exceeded the national average for overdose deaths, with big spikes in the last few years coming in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. In the Bay State, four to five people die of overdose on an average day. WBUR health reporter Martha Bebinger joins us to talk about some of the latest stats, and she takes us to a unique facility in Boston where drug users are being watched over by doctors and nurses — while they are high. Tommy, a repeat patient at the Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment, at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, says the facility has — and will continue to — save lives. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) Find Martha’s original report here. In 2015, Barnstable County on Cape Cod was ranked first in Massachusetts in terms of overdose deaths per capita. Part of the response has been increased use of the overdose reversal drug naloxone, or Narcan, by first responders and citizens. Independent producer Ryan Sweikert brings us a story told by family members, police, and EMS workers struggling with the problem. Piecing It Together You may have heard of hackathons for solving computing problems. But can a room full of smart people hack the opioid crisis? That’s what doctors, counselors, current and former addiction patients, coders, and others attempted to do over a weekend in Boston last month. Ideas included sensors on bathroom floors that would send an alert when someone is lying down; a mobile syringe exchange and counseling center; and a Fitbit style blood monitor that could inject naloxone into the wearer if needed. WBUR’s Martha Bebinger covered the story. Massachusetts General Hospital and the GE Foundation hosted a hack-a-thon at District Hall to come up with novel ideas and technologies to combat opioid abuse. (Credit: Joe Difazio/WBUR) The group that's most at risk for a fatal opioid overdose is ex-prisoners in the first few weeks after being released. Even those who don't overdose are very likely to relapse into drug use within a month of leaving jail or prison. WNPR reporter Lori Mack visited a pilot program underway in New Haven, Connecticut that takes a new approach to addiction treatment. It starts before an inmate gets out from behind bars. Read Lori Mack’s story. More reporting on opioid addiction from the New England News Collaborative. When the Milk Runs Dry The harvest season in New England will wrap up soon. But for our region's principal agricultural product, dairy, production never stops — until a farm goes out of business. Dairy farms have been folding at an alarming rate. According to a new documentary film, “Forgotten Farms,” New England has lost 10,000 dairy farms in the last 50 years, and many of the remaining farms are struggling. We speak with Sarah Gardener, producer of the film and Associate Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College. “Forgotten Farms” is showing around the region this fall. To find a screening near you, visit the film’s website. About NEXT NEXT is produced at WNPR. Host: John Dankosky Producer: Andrea Muraskin Executive Producer: Catie Talarski Digital Content Manager/Editor: Heather Brandon Contributors to this episode: Martha Bebinger and Lori Mack Music: Todd Merrell, “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon, “It’s Clearing Now” by Birigid Mae Power,” Gold Dayzz” by Ultraista Get all the NEXT episodes. We appreciate your feedback! Send praise, critique, suggestions, questions, story leads, and milk mustache selfies to next@wnpr.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.