Day: January 14, 2013

Drug OD leading cause of death among homeless adults in Boston

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Drug overdose was the leading cause of death among homeless adults in Boston from 2003 to 2008 and accounted for one-third of deaths among those ages 25 to 44. A study by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program compared rates and causes of death among those served by BHCHP with data from a similar 1997 study and found that, while drug overdose had replaced HIV as the leading cause of death, overall mortality rates had not changed.

The significant drop in deaths from HIV infection was offset by the increase in deaths from overdoses and other substance-abuse-related issues, resulting in no change in the overall mortality rates from the earlier study. Overall mortality was higher in white individuals than in black or Hispanic homeless people, which — the authors write — may be due to a disproportionate burden of substance abuse and mental illness among white homeless individuals as compared to homeless minorities.

“Our results highlight the dire need to expand addiction and mental health services and to better integrate them into primary care systems serving homeless people,” says Travis Baggett, who is also an instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “They also suggest that, while health care services like BHCHP can help improve the health of homeless people, they probably are not enough. Making a major impact on mortality for these patients will also require addressing the social factors that contribute to homelessness in the first place…”

“Our results highlight the dire need to expand addiction and mental health services and to better integrate them into primary care systems serving homeless people,” says Baggett, who is also an instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “They also suggest that, while health care services like BHCHP can help improve the health of homeless people, they probably are not enough. Making a major impact on mortality for these patients will also require addressing the social factors that contribute to homelessness in the first place.”

Somehow, I think the basic premises accepted by the medical staff and volunteers on this project need reordering. The portion of the homeless community they’re dealing with – who are junkies – probably ended up homeless as a result of being junkies not the other way round.

IMHO – and life’s experience on a certain number of very mean streets – social issues include family, friends, peers and most often lousy treatment by a government that doesn’t give a rats’ ass about mentally ill folks without money or insurance. Junkies are a separate category entirely.

iPotty…now with added iPad [sold separately]

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One of the more bizarre products on show at CES, the base of the iPotty looks like a traditional potty with a removable bowl, seat and a pee-guard for the boys. But at the front it all gets a little weird, because there’s a stand designed specifically to hold an iPad.

The iPotty has been designed to help children learn to use the potty by keeping them entertained when nature calls. The idea is that they won’t mind sitting there for longer if they’re watching a favorite cartoon or playing Angry Birds. And we’ve seen enough iPad toy add-ons – from the Mattel Apptivity Play to the iTikes range – to know kids love playing with an iPad…

Currently, there are no specific apps for the iPotty…There are plenty of potty training apps in the Apple App store though, and obviously there’s no shortage of other apps which could be used to distract/entertain children while they sit on the potty.

Maker CTA Digital says there’s also a seat cover which means the iPotty can be used as a traditional seat when your little one is not peeing or pooping. The iPad stand can also be removed completely … which could come in handy if you’ve got guests coming round and you don’t want them to know you’re the sort of parents who would buy an iPad potty.

I believe you will be exempt from patent lawsuits by Samsung.

Japan takes a step forward

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For three years economic policy throughout the advanced world has been paralyzed, despite high unemployment, by a dismal orthodoxy. Every suggestion of action to create jobs has been shot down with warnings of dire consequences. If we spend more, the Very Serious People say, the bond markets will punish us. If we print more money, inflation will soar. Nothing should be done because nothing can be done, except ever harsher austerity, which will someday, somehow, be rewarded.

But now it seems that one major nation is breaking ranks — and that nation is, of all places, Japan.

This isn’t the maverick we were looking for. In Japan governments come and governments go, but nothing ever seems to change — indeed, Shinzo Abe, the new prime minister, has had the job before, and his party’s victory was widely seen as the return of the “dinosaurs” who misruled the country for decades. Furthermore, Japan, with its huge government debt and aging population, was supposed to have even less room for maneuver than other advanced countries.

But Mr. Abe returned to office pledging to end Japan’s long economic stagnation, and he has already taken steps orthodoxy says we mustn’t take. And the early indications are that it’s going pretty well…

…While getting out of a prolonged slump turns out to be very difficult, that’s mainly because it’s hard getting policy makers to accept the need for bold action. That is, the problem is mainly political and intellectual, rather than strictly economic. For the risks of action are much smaller than the Very Serious People want you to believe…

Enter Mr. Abe, who has been pressuring the Bank of Japan into seeking higher inflation — in effect, helping to inflate away part of the government’s debt — and has also just announced a large new program of fiscal stimulus. How have the market gods responded?

The answer is, it’s all good. Market measures of expected inflation, which were negative not long ago — the market was expecting deflation to continue — have now moved well into positive territory. But government borrowing costs have hardly changed at all; given the prospect of moderate inflation, this means that Japan’s fiscal outlook has actually improved sharply…

Whatever his motives, Mr. Abe is breaking with a bad orthodoxy. And if he succeeds, something remarkable may be about to happen: Japan, which pioneered the economics of stagnation, may also end up showing the rest of us the way out.

I’m not familiar enough with the political side of Japan’s culture to understand what inhibited the administration immediately preceding Abe’s from implementing the sort of Keynesian reforms most modern economists understand and endorse. I presume they hadn’t confidence in their authority – perhaps parliamentary opposition was infected with the same demagogue’s disease as our own Congress, e.g., self destructive class loyalties.

Regardless. Change is already perceptible. Both the business community and working class families have a bit more hope. Shinzo Abe’s party is as capable of screwing up reform as any other assembly of conservatives; so, the jury will be out for a while.

The process is worth a wry smile from this side of the Pacific since neither party parked next to the Potomac has sufficient courage or understanding to try the same.