HPH Weekly: Affordable housing is key to end cycles of homeless hospitalization

This edition of Harvard Public Health Weekly was sent to our subscribers on June 21, 2024. If you don’t already receive the newsletter, subscribe here. To see more past newsletters, visit our archives.

Affordable housing is key to end cycles of homeless hospitalization

Tending to the health problems of people experiencing homelessness is not enough, writes Jeremy Cygler, a medical resident in Toronto. He argues health care systems should play a role in addressing an important factor in health for people experiencing homelessness: access to affordable housing. A few providers are already doing just that, showcasing models that could be adopted across the country.

“Madness” reminds readers that mental health inequities remain present, and political

Antonia Hylton’s Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum looks at the era of segregation in mental health treatment—and how that history remains rooted in the health disparities of today. “For me, [the book] only affirmed the worst of what I knew to be true,” writes Marissa Evans in her review. “Anything created out of White panic is often deadly for generations of Black people.”

Empathy should guide responses to reported vaccine injuries

Writing for STAT, Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire argues public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the concerns of people who believe they’ve been hurt by vaccines. “People who speak out about how they feel after getting a vaccine should not be . . . assumed to be anti-vaxxers,” she says. “They deserve empathy.”

Snapshot: Housing insecurity has physical effects over time

Approximately 1.6 billion people worldwide lived in inadequate housing in 2022, according to a UN estimate. Many were children—and yet housing insecurity during key periods of development places children at increased risk of poor mental and physical health outcomes.

What we’re reading this week

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic →
Reuters

Canceled documentary screening raises questions about Farm Bureau ties to North Carolina’s largest health insurer →
Barn Raiser

There’s good news about Colorado youth mental health in a new survey →
Chalkbeat

Back from vacation and still burned out →
The New York Times

Japan reports record spike in potentially deadly bacterial infection →
CNN