Omaha World Herald. April 26, 2019
Problem-solving courts are a sound investment by the state
Nebraska has made sound beginnings in recent years in creating prison alternatives through problem-solving courts - drug courts, a DUI court, veterans treatment courts, re-entry courts.
These sensible alternatives, involving support services and monitoring for appropriately selected offenders, provide a significant cost savings over conventional imprisonment. Supervising someone via a Nebraska problem-solving court has an annual average cost of $2,865. The yearly cost to house someone in a Nebraska prison: $38,627.
These alternative courts have an additional benefit: They’ve proven effective. About 70% of the court participants successfully complete their 12- to 18-month rehabilitation programs, The World-Herald’s Paul Hammel reports. About 91% of graduates remained crime-free after a year and 94% were employed, a 2015 study found.
Nebraska lawmakers are rightly looking to expand use of these courts. The 26 problem-solving courts around the state currently handle about 1,000 offenders, with a savings to the state of about $15 million annually. Current funding is about $3.8 million. Lawmakers are looking to give a boost of $2.4 million to four of the existing courts that could most quickly expand their services.
At the same time, state senators need to be aware that expanded work by the problem-solving courts will add to the workload of district court judges.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard testimony this session about this challenge. Lancaster District Court Judge Robert Otte, for example, said district court judges recognize the importance of the work, but the added caseload can be “demanding.” This is one reason why the Legislature has approved Legislative Bill 309, to give Douglas County District Court, now at 16 judges, an additional judge in two years, given the heavy caseloads.
Still, problem-solving courts clearly bring major benefits, especially as a tool to help alleviate some of the stress on Nebraska’s prison system, now challenging Alabama as the nation’s most overcrowded.
State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, correctly sums up this investment as “money well spent on programs that have proven to be successful.” Lawmakers are right to include this sound investment in the budget bill.
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The Grand Island Independent. April 25, 2019
Dental assistants law change a boost in dental care for Nebraska
Thanks to a bill passed by the Nebraska Legislature in 2017, expanded function dental assistants and hygienists are now able to work at dental clinics in Nebraska.
Grand Island is seeing the results of this change in state law as Pediatric Dental Specialists has expanded and is now employing the expanded function assistants, who are able to perform some of the duties that had previously only been done by dentists.
This is a great update because it allows dental practices to serve more people. A single dentist can only treat a limited number of patients in a day, but having an assistant or hygienist who can take care of some of the more routine tasks will free that dentist up to treat more people with serious dental problems. At a pediatric clinic like the one in Grand Island, it also frees the dentists to treat the children who are more apprehensive about going to the dentist, while the hygienists and assistants can treat children who are more accustomed to dental care.
The new categories of employees are able to help dentists in the same way a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant helps physicians.
Dr. Fritz Craft, the Nebraska state dental director; Dr. Steve Geriermann of the American Dental Association; Scott Litch of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry; and Dr. Jim Nickman of Minneapolis, immediate past president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists, were on hand recently for an open house at the Grand Island clinic showing its expansion. This demonstrates how important Nebraska’s addition of expanded function dental assistants and hygienists is to the dental profession.
The changes help a dental practice be as efficient as possible and they make it possible for a practice to treat more people on Medicaid, ensuring that low-income people get the regular dental care they need to prevent future dental problems.
It’s good to see a Grand Island dental practice taking advantage of this change in our state’s law. With the upcoming Medicaid expansion, it would be beneficial to everyone receiving Medicaid coverage for more dental clinics to employ expanded function assistants and hygienists.
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McCook Daily Gazette. April 25, 2019
Back-to-the-future for bad old disease
Social media helped spread a long-debunked theory linking vaccinations to autism, to the point that the anti-vaxxer message has even reached those who spend no time on the internet.
The U.S. is on track to break a 25-year-old record number of measles cases, with 695 reported so far this year, with eight months to go.
There were 963 cases reported in 1994.
Rather than trust proven science, anti-vaxxers trusted their children’s health to a former Playboy model, bringing measles back from virtual elimination in 2000.
Ironically, most of the newest cases came from two ultra-Orthodox jewish communities in Brooklyn and suburban Rockland County, mostly unvaccinated people.
With recent Passover celebrations, the number of cases is likely to increase, since measles is highly contagious and easily spreads by coughs or sneezes. It can take 10-12 days for symptoms to develop.
Until now, the biggest recent single U.S. measles outbreak was in 2014, when 383 cases were reported in the Amish community in nine Ohio counties.
Granted, measles symptoms are usually minor, involving fever, runny nose, cough and a rash all over the body.
However, a few cases result in pneumonia and swelling of the brain.
Out of every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There have been three measles-related deaths reported in the U.S. since 2000, the last one in 2015. The worst year for measles in modern U.S. history was 1958, with more than 763,000 reported cases and 552 deaths.
If the prospect of a return to those kinds of numbers isn’t bad enough, public health officials worry that the uptick in measles could portend a return of other vaccine-preventable diseases such as rubella, chickenpox and bacterial meningitis.
Before putting faith in something shared on your Facebook or Twitter feed, check with your healthcare providers and follow their recommendation.
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