Lafayette’s public health unit struggling to hire
Lafayette Parish government scrapped plans to increase the public health unit’s tax rate, complicating the service’s efforts to fill nursing vacancies.
Lafayette Parish government scrapped plans to increase the public health unit’s tax rate, complicating the service’s efforts to fill nursing vacancies.
As the region’s residents clawed their way out of the unprecedented destruction, scars have become visible, but mental health resources are in short supply.
Compelled by a federal lawsuit, Louisiana set up a mental health crisis response system. After less than a year in operation, its provider for Acadiana shut down.
A new office under the Louisiana Department of Health aims to improve women’s health outcomes across the state, but has been faced challenges and controversy.
Greater access to naloxone appears to be having an impact. At the current rate, the number of overdose deaths projected for this year would decline 30%. Hurdles remain in the supply chain. Those fighting the opioid crisis hope to overcome them.
Following a call from a state legislator in June, the head of the Louisiana Department of Health allegedly asked staff to scrub the agency’s online accounts of all content related to LGBTQ+ Pride month, according to internal emails the Illuminator has obtained.
Source: Louisiana Illuminator
A state program aims to make COVID-19 vaccinations accessible to residents of southwest Louisiana, where vaccine rates are low and people are displaced.
While outbreaks at crawfish production facilities and nursing homes are the primary drivers of new cases in the Acadiana region, spontaneous community spread remains a risk.
African Americans account for 39% of coronavirus deaths in the state’s seven-parish health region but only 27% of the population.
In Louisiana, 60% of the more than 1,000 deaths reported to date were African American. Locally, it’s hard to get a handle on how that trend is playing out.
On March 21 the Louisiana Department of Health directed health care providers to transition all of its visits to telehealth, “when medically appropriate and when the same standard of care can be met as an in-person visit.”
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