The effects of the (fentanyl-fueled) drug overdose epidemic on medicolegal death investigation in the United States

The evolving opioid epidemic in the United States, fueled by illicit fentanyl, has greatly increased deaths from illicit drug use. These nonnatural deaths require formal death investigation. The National Association of Medical Examiners states in its Forensic Autopsy Performance Standards that autopsy remains a necessary component for proper investigation of suspected acute overdose deaths. If a death investigation office lacks adequate resources to investigate all deaths under its jurisdiction while meeting expected standards, then that office may be forced to consider altering its protocols for investigation by changing the types of deaths investigated or the extent of its investigations. Drug death investigations take longer to complete because novel illicit drugs and mixtures of drugs complicate toxicological analyses, prolonging a family's wait for completion of a death certificate and autopsy report. Public health agencies must also wait for results, but some agencies have developed mechanisms for rapid notification of preliminary results to allow timely deployment of public health resources. The increased deaths have strained the resources of medicolegal death investigation systems throughout the United States. Given the significant workforce shortage of forensic pathologists, newly trained forensic pathologists are too few to meet the demand. Nevertheless, forensic pathologists (and all pathologists) must make time to present their work and themselves to medical students and pathology trainees to encourage an understanding of the importance of quality medicolegal death investigation and autopsy pathology and to provide a model that can encourage interest in a career in forensic pathology.     

Parent coordinators: Effective interventions in adolescent mental health

The mental health system in the US was not meeting the increasing needs of teens before the pandemic started in 2020. The pandemic served to stress adolescents and their parents while significantly limiting the availability of services. Separated parents may have disputes about whether adolescents have mental health care needs, what services the child needs, where those services will be obtained, and who will be involved. The Parenting Coordinator as a dispute resolution professional can assist families in reaching agreements and meeting their teen's needs for care.     

Understanding deliberate indifference to suicide in corrections facilities: A review of recent legal cases

The US corrections system is the largest provider of mental health care in the country. Suicide is a leading cause of death in corrections facilities with rates of inmate suicide being far higher than the national average. Suicide is an event that can lead to legal action against the facility, staff, and treating health-care providers. Some claims are based on medical malpractice. In this setting, claims may also be brought based on violations of the detainee's constitutional rights. Pretrial detainees and prisoners, alike, have a constitutional right to adequate medical and psychiatric care through the Fourteenth Amendment and Eighth Amendment, respectively. But, there is limited information on constitutional claims made against correctional health-care providers for cases of inmate suicide. To help bridge this gap, the authors conducted a search of federal legal case decisions involving claims against health-care providers for deliberate indifference to a detainee's serious illness or injury in the event of attempted suicide or death by suicide over a 5 year period from 2016 to 2021. Fifteen cases were identified. Five themes emerged from the cases, which could serve as bases for claims against health-care professionals: receiving screening, mental health assessment, treatment, documentation, and attention to facility policies. The cases and their clinical significance are summarized in this article. The materials provide an overview of the problems surrounding correctional suicides and can serve as practice pointers in the corporeal setting.     

倡导以人为本 关注警察心理健康

警察机关作为政府的重要职能部门,拥有国家法律赋予的较大的执法权与执法空间,人民警察肩负打击犯罪、维护社会治安、服务人民群众的重要任务,其特殊的职业属性使他们不同程度地存在着各种各样的心理压力和危机。警察是一个高应激、高对抗性和高风险的职业,警察在履行职责的过程中,很容易出现心理障碍,若不能及时排解、疏导,后果将不堪设想。正视警察个体的心理健康问题,倡导以人为本的健康理念,保持警察身心健康,掌握一些排除心理压力的策略和技巧,优化警察人力资源,提高警务工作效率,提高警察的综合素质,增强公安队伍的战斗力,对进一步做好新时期公安工作具有十分重要的现实意义。     

论高校图书馆在大学生心理健康教育中的功能

目前,在部分高校中,一些大学生的心理状况令人担忧。高校图书馆应主动发挥图书馆的教育功能,充分利用图书馆的资源优势积极参与对大学生的心理健康教育。包括：设置专门阅览室;开设大学生心理素质教育公选课;注重图书馆馆员的心理健康教育;提供数字化的心理咨询服务;聘请心理健康专家开展讲座等。     

论我国“精神卫生法”的称谓

我国2013年5月实施的《精神卫生法》以“精神卫生法”命名,这一称谓无法涵盖该法的全部规范、立法目的,容易将该法的社会法性质误解成行政法,还可能影响法的实施,与其他国家立法称谓的变化趋势相脱节.因此,基于明确立法目的,保护精神障碍者基本权利的社会法性质,顺应当今全体国民的精神健康追求,以及我国加入的国际人权公约等因素,我国现行“精神卫生法”宜正名为“精神健康法”.     

mHealth and data protection – the letter and the spirit of consent legal requirements

In this article, the role of consent is discussed in the framework of fundamental rights and in the context of mobile health technologies (mHealth), such as smart phones, mobile phones or tablet/palm-held computing devices to provide healthcare. The authors surmise how, in practice, although there will be more emphasis on informed consent formally, there will be less space for genuine individual consent. This betrays a focus more on the letter of consent rules in data protection than their spirit. This risks reducing consent to a tick box operation in a manner analogous to consumer transactions, something manifestly unsuitable for consent, even if only in informational terms, during medical procedures.     

Exploring gender differences in constellations of problem behaviors and associated health-related factors during adolescence

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study expands on previous research on adolescent problem behavior by (1) examining gender differences in patterns or ‘subgroups’ of adolescents based on self-reported problem behaviors and (2) identifying differences in health-related factors including service utilization, physical and mental health, and violent victimization across the identified gender-specific subgroups. The data used in this study were taken from Wave 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data and includes respondents under the age of 18 (n?=?10,360). Based on 16 problem behavior items measuring delinquency, substance use, risky sexual practices, and status offending, latent class analyses identified a 4-class model for the male subsample and a 3-class model for the female subsample. Important differences in health-related factors were observed across the latent classes. However, these differences were fairly consistent for boys and girls. Implications for prevention and intervention strategies, specifically focusing on the intersection of juvenile justice and public health services, are discussed.     

基于循证卫生决策的杨浦区卫生监督协管服务范围扩充研究简

本研究基于循证卫生决策,综合多种证据,通过咨询专家、管理者及相关人员意见,结合杨浦区现状,参考其他省市的经验,并对历年相关监管数据进行归纳、分析,将证据有机结合,探讨将卫生监督协管服务范围扩充至公共场所信息排摸等方面的必要性和可行性。     

公共卫生框架下的卫生监督及其法制工作内涵简

卫生监督工作是公共卫生事业的一个组成部分,在实现公共卫生目标的同时,应当具备＂自我进化＂的能力。这种能力是公共卫生事业不断向高水平发展的重要因素,其动力来源在很大程度上依赖于卫生监督法制工作在正确的方向上有效运转。传统视角下对卫生监督法制工作内涵的解读有其局限性,本文在把握卫生监督与公共卫生之间的关系,以及重述、分析卫生监督过程的基础上,从解读立法、审视立法、反馈立法三个新的视角尝试探讨卫生监督法制工作的内涵。