Recent editorials published in Indiana newspapers
The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette. April 24, 2019
Treatments increasing for opioid patients
Lack of training, resources and understanding of its potential have hampered the use of one important strategy in the fight against opioid addiction - medication-assisted treatment. There are signs that is changing.
Indiana's prisons and the Allen County justice system appear to be a bit ahead of the curve in implementing this addiction-fighting tool, though there is much more to be done within our region.
In Massachusetts, a recent law allows prisons to offer addicted inmates medications to relieve the symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Four prisons have begun to dispense buprenorphine, also known as Suboxone, one type of drug that can block pain and cravings. The Massachusetts prison system will eventually make two other medication-assisted treatment drugs - methadone and naltrexone - available along with other types of treatment. National media hailed Massachusetts' law as one of the few progressive state policies on medically assisted treatment in the nation.
But through its Recovery While Incarcerated program, the Indiana Department of Correction has offered "a full continuum of clinical care and medication assisted treatment (MAT) options in all adult correctional facilities" since September 2017, including detox, maintenance and reentry programs, according to Margaux Auxier, the department's communications director.
In response to changes in state law that mean more drug offenders who formerly would have gone to prison remain in local jails, a system has evolved in Allen County to identify those local drug and alcohol offenders who could benefit from medically assisted treatment. "The influx from state facilities and the sheer number of inmates" with substance-abuse problems meant "something had to be done," Sheriff David Gladieux said Tuesday.
A key to identifying inmates who need medically assisted treatment has been Allen County's array of courts that deal with offenders who may have substance-abuse problems, said Tom Allman, vice president of addiction services for Park Center. "Allen County is fortunate to have as many problem-solving courts as we do," he said Tuesday.
Park Center identifies those who need help through liaisons who monitor courts that focus on drug cases, veterans, mental health and DUI offenses, Allman said. Several times a week, center staffers assess inmates, and they arrange to transport those who could be helped to treatment facilities after their release from jail.
Before such transportation arrangements, Gladieux said, "many times they wouldn't even make it to the facility" before relapsing into substance abuse.
Outside of those identified through the justice system, however, it appears many substance abusers who could benefit from those medicines are not getting help. "These people generally aren't coming in unless someone else encourages them to - a family member, a friend, a pastor," Allman said. "They generally aren't coming on their own."
In a recent report, the Regional Mental Health Coalition of Northeast Indiana called for making medically assisted treatment "readily accessible to all patients with OUD (opioid-use disorders)." Those attempting to increase the use of anti-addiction medications are fighting a number of barriers and myths, the coalition reported, including a shortage of prescribers and providers, fear of legal consequences if those drugs aren't properly administered and the continuing reluctance to accept substance-use disorders as brain disorders that are more likely to respond to treatment than to "abstinence-only" programs.
"These barriers are very evident in northeast Indiana," the coalition reported. "In Allen County, less than 3% of those diagnosed with an OUD are treated with medications and in the surrounding nine rural counties of northeast Indiana the rate is only 1.1%." Allman said Park Center, which became part of Parkview Health last year, plans to use a federal grant to address those needs. "We are looking to expand treatment of addicts across our region, to Wabash, Huntington, Adams, Wells, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Noble and Whitley counties," he said. Some addicts don't need medically assisted treatment to recover, Allman said, but many do.
"As things are today, the majority of individuals suffer in silence," he said.
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South Bend Tribune. April 24, 2019
Choosing to go unvaccinated is a public health danger
Nearly 20 years ago the measles was declared eliminated in the United States.
That's not the case any more. From Jan. 1 to March 28 this year, 387 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 15 states, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It is the second-greatest number of cases reported in the United States since measles was virtually eliminated in 2000.
Indiana has not been exempt. There was one confirmed case in 2018 and just recently another case was confirmed in an individual who recently spent time in LaGrange and Steuben counties in northeast Indiana, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
The infected individual also spent some time in Sturgis in St. Joseph County, Michigan, and also in Texas.
In Michigan, the numbers of measles cases this year has climbed to 39. That's the highest number since 65 cases were reported in Michigan in 1991.
Measles outbreaks have people on edge. A local news outlet reported that an internal hospital document indicated a measles case was confirmed in South Bend. However, that suspected case tested negative in the end, according to St. Joseph County Health Officer Luis Galup.
One of the most common reasons parents do not get their children vaccinated is because of religious beliefs or wrong information that the vaccine causes other health issues, such as autism.
A Purdue University professor said earlier this year that vaccine rates started to decline shortly after the 2000 declaration because of a fabricated study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination and autism. Numerous studies have discounted that link.
People make unfounded allegations about the side effects of vaccinations without any supporting medical evidence. The rumors get picked up and spread across the internet, which only adds to the problem.
The CDC says the measles vaccine is very effective. One dose of measles vaccine is about 93 percent effective at preventing measles if exposed to the virus. Two doses are about 97 percent effective.
People believe they are making a personal choice when they decide not to have their kids vaccinated. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When an unvaccinated person is able to spread a deadly disease to others because of an uninformed choice, it becomes a public health issue that goes beyond one person's decision. And when it comes to public health safety, that's unacceptable.
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The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin. April 26, 2019
Solar farm proposal needs careful vetting
Renewable energy. Property values. Rural aesthetics. Agriculture land use. Economic Development.
There's so much at stake in the ongoing debate over a proposed 120-megawatt solar farm in the Elwood area - Pipe Creek and Monroe townships, between county roads 350 West and 600 West and 1000 North and 1300 North.
The solar farm is projected to cost $110 million with completion in 2023.
The Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals on Tuesday tabled a decision on a special exception request from Invenergy, the Chicago company that wants to build the 850-ace Lone Oak Solar Farm. Invenergy is requesting a variance from the setback requirement within the project area.
The board will reconvene at 6 p.m. May 16 at the Madison County Fairgrounds in Alexandria to hear more from the public and Invenergy representatives.
The solar farm has stirred strong feelings among folks who normally go about their business - feeding America - without a lot of fuss.
Citing personal income needs and lamenting the lack of profit from farming, some have already signed agreements to lease their land for the project, which would comprise 411,000 solar panels.
Others are adamantly opposed to the project, saying it would supplant farming and destroy the bucolic beauty of the countryside while driving down property values.
On the other side, polls show that many Hoosiers favor the development of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind to cut down on pollution from coal-powered generating plants.
And, this project would have obvious economic development ramifications for the community. An Invenergy official estimates it would generate $26 million in property taxes, in addition to $34 million in lease payments to landowners.
But even those who support clean energy and economic development might blanch at such a project if it were to crop up next door. In that sense, this is a classic NIMBY - Not in My Back Yard - issue.
Local officials, beginning with the zoning appeals board, have a heady responsibility. They must listen carefully to both sides, weigh costs and rewards, and arrive at a decision that best benefits the community while respecting the views of property owners in the project area.
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