by | Oct 10, 2023 5:03 pm | Comments (0)
Seven former patients at a Yale fertility clinic have launched a new lawsuit against the university — in the latest turn in a high-profile scandal involving fentanyl theft and excruciatingly painful procedures for patients who were told they were getting painkillers, but wound up being operated on sober.
Continue reading ‘Ex-Patients Sue Yale Over Fentanyl Diversion At Fertility Clinic’
by | Oct 9, 2023 8:55 am | Comments (35)
Yash Roy photo
Beaver Hills Alder Tom Ficklin (right), with city Environmental Health Director Rafael Ramos: New Haven should "not wait for anyone else and instead be a leader" on a menthol ban.
The city’s health director and a Beaver Hills alder are calling for a citywide ban on menthol cigarettes — while small business owners warned that such a prohibition could drive customers to look to other shops in other towns for not just smoking products, but also bread and milk and gas.
by | Oct 5, 2023 12:40 pm | Comments (41)
Thomas Breen photo
CDC Director Mandy Cohen (second from right): Time to get another Covid shot.
The nation’s top public health official swung by Fair Haven Thursday morning with a vaccine-promoting message: Covid is still with us, and so now is the latest shot designed to protect everyone from an ever-changing virus.
Get the shot, she urged, and don’t worry about paying for it, as the costs should be covered by private insurance and the federal government.
by | Oct 2, 2023 5:46 pm | Comments (8)
Laura Glesby Photo
End Hunger Connecticut's Lucy Nolan: A shutdown would be "horrendous" for families in need of food.
If the federal government shuts down, state agencies and local organizations can only do so much to stop children from going hungry, seniors from shivering in the winter, and healthcare centers from shuttering.
by | Oct 2, 2023 12:39 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
Health Equity Fellow Sophie Edelstein and Coordinator of Community Mental Health Initiatives Lorena Mitchell.
Male New Haveners are almost three times more likely to die by suicide — not “commit suicide” — than female city residents.
That’s according to a newly published City of New Haven Suicide Prevention Guide, which through a deep dive into data and a person-focused shift in language seeks to promote better mental health through understanding instead of stigma.
Continue reading ‘Suicide Prevention Guide Lays Grounds For Hope’
by | Oct 2, 2023 8:35 am | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Best friends Monserrat Martinez and Dazani Hough: Ready for gym class.
As a white ball bounced towards Monserrat Martinez, the Roberto Clemente school sixth grader locked eyes with it — and then kicked it with all her might, sending it across the gymnasium and giving her the chance to sprint towards the safety of first base.
Continue reading ‘Kickball, & Push-Ups, & Staying Active In PE’
by | Sep 26, 2023 12:01 pm | Comments (17)
Thomas Breen photo
A newly installed 988 sign on the Ferry Street Bridge.
Three hopeful numbers will be posted atop East Rock Park, in a sign urging those who are considering harming themselves to reach out to a new national suicide-prevention hotline instead.
by | Sep 22, 2023 11:34 am | Comments (30)
Contributed photo; Thomas Breen file photo
Newly city-approved cannabis dispensary operators: Kebra Smith-Bolden and David Salinas.
(Updated) New Haven has officially reached its local cannabis limit, with two new dispensaries now key steps closer to opening their doors and bringing the city to its self-imposed maximum of five formal pot shops.
Continue reading ‘2 More Dispensaries OK'd; Local Pot Shop Cap Reached’
by | Sep 22, 2023 10:09 am | Comments (3)
A 40-year-old New Havener has been arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter after her 10-month-old infant son died from ingesting fentanyl.
Continue reading ‘Mom Arrested After Infant's Fatal Overdose’
by | Sep 15, 2023 8:21 am | Comments (24)
Thomas Breen photo
Tom Goldenberg: "This is quid pro quo politics. This is non-transparency. This is corruption."
The city’s Republican candidate for mayor kicked off his post-Democratic primary general election campaign by lobbing accusations of corruption at the Elicker administration in its dealings with a local methadone clinic — claims that the current mayor dismissed as “fearmongering politics,” “ridiculous,” “unethical,” and coming at the expense of some of New Haven’s most vulnerable populations.
Continue reading ‘Goldenberg Leans Full Tilt Into City-APT Conspiracy Claims’
by | Sep 5, 2023 3:02 pm | Comments (6)
Thomas Breen photo
No more building at 382 Grand.
A Fair Haven-anchoring community health center has finished tearing down a three-story mixed-use building at Grand Avenue and James Street to make way for a larger neighborhood clinic.
Continue reading ‘Pizzeria-Pharmacy-Apartments Torn Down For Healthcare Expansion’
by | Sep 5, 2023 11:58 am | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden photo
Saving a gun shot victim at the Shack during a Yale EMT training program.
Aspiring Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) Andreanna Adkins, Iijonnia White, and Kimah Davis kneeled down to aid a plastic-dummy “gun shot victim” on Elm Street — inside a West Hills community center, as part of their training to save a real life down the line.
by | Sep 1, 2023 3:19 pm | Comments (4)
Nora Grace-Flood photos
"Gypsy" Kathleen McKenzie — with her bag of overdose prevention materials.
“Gypsy” Kathleen McKenzie arrived at the Green for her daily walk with a purse full of nasal Narcan slung over her shoulder as usual — and wound up stocking that bag with Narcotics Anonymous brochures, fentanyl test strips, bracelets with phone numbers for addiction service providers, and more naloxone kits.
She took that stroll just days after another New Havener was found dead at 37-years-old of an overdose downtown and on the same day that the city hosted a parade of providers distributing information and resources for International Overdose Awareness Day.
Continue reading ‘Overdose Awareness Follows Another Life Lost’
by | Sep 1, 2023 9:47 am | Comments (8)
When a friend told me about a conversation sponsored by Community Action Agency of New Haven’s Black Maternal Health Project on Wednesday, I changed my plans for the night, hopped in my pickup truck, and headed to Southern Connecticut State University’s campus. I wanted to see the film Aftershock and hear the panel of Black women health providers talk about it and the stories it tells — true stories of two families that lost their wives, moms, and daughters due to preventable birthing complications.
Continue reading ‘Film Catalyzes Conversations About Black Maternal Health’
by | Aug 29, 2023 7:48 pm | Comments (10)
Covid cases are on the rise — including for Mayor Justin Elicker, who tested positive on Saturday, is still working remotely, and spent the weekend fighting a fever, cough, and stuffy nose.
by | Aug 23, 2023 1:01 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen photo
Juliana Garcia (center) at Fair Haven Health talk: "To what extent can I dream?"
Juliana Garcia can still remember being nine years old, uninsured, and telling her mom that it really was ok for her to pass on a dental surgery that would cost more than $4,000.
That the healthcare operation could wait. That that money needed to be spent instead on rent and food and other essentials.
Continue reading ‘In Fair Haven, Healthcare Expanders Dare To Dream’
by | Aug 22, 2023 10:10 am | Comments (5)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Fiona Firine's Narcan kit, number 13,504 distributed by the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance. They've now passed out more than 30,000 kits.
The first time Kaysie Mire saw someone overdose on opioids, she was alone, scared, and shaking. But she was also ready: She ran to her tent, grabbed a syringe, injected naloxone into her neighbor’s arm, and saved a life.
City officials and social service providers gathered on the Green for National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day to urge more members of the public to learn, like Mire, what to do in the face of mounting emergencies stemming from substance abuse and contamination.
Continue reading ‘Overdose Preventers Seek Fewer Lives Lost’
by | Aug 7, 2023 8:25 am | Comments (1)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Jim LoPresti shakes away the stress with his bamboo leaf rattle.
If asked where one might go in New Haven for a moment or two of meditative stillness, few people would suggest Crown Street, known for its bustling and crowded restaurants and bars as well as a bevy of sounds that would challenge any symphony. But one place offers, among other wellness and restorative practices, a chance to take in an hour of music made specifically to center its participants and give them a chance to remain present and thoughtful in their minds and bodies.
Continue reading ‘Sound Bath Sundays Set Tone For Mindfulness’
by | Aug 1, 2023 2:04 pm | Comments (11)
Asher Joseph photo
Robert Farrow, Jr. and LaKayla Farrow celebrate the new lactation room at Union Station with daughters Harmony and Heaven.
After years of struggling to find a private space to breastfeed her children, LaKayla Farrow can now do so in peace in a newly opened room on the second floor of Union Station.
Continue reading ‘Private Lactation Room Opens At Union Station’
by | Jul 31, 2023 11:48 am | Comments (29)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Ex-social services chief Mehul Dalal: "There's no secret plan."
Loved ones of lives lost to overdoses stepped out of the shadows and into City Hall to express both support and skepticism towards medically supervised injection and drug consumption sites — and to slam a mayoral candidate’s public opposition to such harm reduction centers as politicizing and polarizing opioid addiction.
Continue reading ‘Safe-Use Hearing Shines Light On Overdoses’
by | Jul 25, 2023 3:45 pm | Comments (12)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Hana and Eva Feldman, both ready for college.
Hana Feldman plans to return to school once her firstborn is old enough for daycare — and hopes that two-week-old Eva will have an easier time following in her footsteps with state money newly set aside for college tuition.
by | Jul 24, 2023 6:56 pm | Comments (74)
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Goldenberg: "New Haven should not be an experiment for the state."
The Elicker administration is in the early stages of looking into medically supervised injection and drug consumption sites as a local strategy for combating opioid overdoses — while a mayoral challenger is pushing back against those tentative plans as a tactic for bashing the incumbent.
by | Jul 12, 2023 10:32 am | Comments (5)
Keith Churchwell.
Keith Churchwell plans to step down from his role as the president of Yale New Haven Hospital next month after nearly three years in the top job, and will be replaced in the interim by the regional hospital system’s current chief operating officer, Pamela Sutton-Wallace.
by | Jun 28, 2023 3:51 pm | Comments (14)
Asher Joseph photo
Rosa DeLauro (center) at Wednesday's courthouse-steps presser.
Connecticut has been a sanctuary for decades for those seeking abortions — and will remain a haven for women’s reproductive healthcare, even as the court-toppled Roe v. Wade precedent recedes into recent history.
Continue reading ‘1 Year Later, Abortion Advocates Remember Roe’
by | Jun 26, 2023 4:06 pm | Comments (6)
Laura Glesby Photos
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison cheers on Q House healthcare.
At the newly opened Cornell Scott Hill Health Center at 197 Dixwell.
Gayle Hall, a self-described “lifetime member of the Q House,” celebrated a newfound chance to see her doctor at the newly-revived community center in the neighborhood she calls home.
