• The Hill: July 1, 2018

    California just banned soda tax — it should set off alarm bells everywhere

    Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that would block California cities and counties from passing new taxes on soda and other sugary drinks until the end of 2030. In an op-ed in The Hill that ran on Sunday, PI Founder Larry Cohen wrote an Op-Ed in the hill using parallels between big soda and big tobacco's legislative tactics to stymie local control to illustrate how this act of preemption is corrosive for communities trying to enact soda taxes, and for public health gains at large, 

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  • Cleveland.com: June 29, 2018

    MetroHealth launches initiative with churches to address community trauma

    Ginger Christ covers the MetroHealth System in Cleveland, OH, a hospital system that has developed a trauma-informed training center. He quotes PI's Ruben Cantu, who defines trauma as " 'the way chronic adversity manifests in a community.' Adversity might be poverty, lack of investment, high rates of violence, etc. 'By changing the environment and factors that impact health and safety, we can start to build resilience. Healing is really important and strategies must begin with healing to move a community that's been harmed to a place where they can address broader, harmful systemic issues...

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  • SLATE: June 28, 2018

    Why Do So Many Men Die by Suicide?

    Gary Barker examines the CDC’s analysis of factors contributing to the high suicide rate among men, who make up 77% of the 45,000 people who kill themselves every year in the U.S. On the list of factors are mental health issues, alcohol or drug use, social problems, and access to firearms- stressors compounded by restrictive understandings of masculinity, and the stigma attached to men seeking help for pain. Barker cites mental health and suicide-prevention efforts like PI's Making Connections Initiative as key to helping men gain access to mental health services and redefining masculinity...

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  • California Healthline: June 28, 2018

    Under Pressure, California Lawmakers Ban Soda Taxes For 12 Years

    In her piece for California Healthline, Samantha Young writes about the last-minute deal between one of the state’s largest labor unions and the American Beverage Association which restricts California from implementing any future local soda taxes until Jan. 1, 2031. This budget trailer was part of a back-room deal where the beverage industry promised to remove a ballot initiative that would have required a 2/3rds majority to raise any local taxes or levies, including school and park bonds. She quote's PI's Juliet Sims: Soda taxes “are one of the most effective tools communities have to...

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  • Capital Public Radio: June 27, 2018

    Business-Labor Deal Would Ban California Cities, Counties From Enacting New Soda Taxes

    PI's Juliet Sims is quoted in Ben Adler's piece on SB 872, which would block California cities and counties from passing new taxes on soda and other sugary drinks. “There’s something very wrong when the soda industry is able to stop California cities and counties from protecting their own community members’ health,” the institute’s Juliet Sims said in a statement. “Local residents are the ones who should decide what’s best for the health and safety of their own communities.”

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  • Houston Chronicle: May 16, 2018

    Texas must confront social, cultural and physical barriers to health [Opinion]

    In her blog in the Houston Chronicle, Valerie Borum Smith explains why social determinants of health should be addressed in medical settings. She discusses how she has drawn inspiration from Prevention Institute’s Community Centered Health Homes model, which calls for community health clinics to expand prevention, change social norms, and promote community-level policies that support health.

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  • Thrive Global: May 4, 2018

    Building mental health and wellbeing for men and boys

    In Thrive Global, Craig Martin, Global Director of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, and Sheila Savannah, director of mental health and wellbeing at PI, write about the important role that strong communities play in promoting mental health. In light of Mental Health Month, the piece highlights the Making Connections initiative, which uses community-level prevention strategies to imbue communities across the US with a sense of hope, trust, safety, belonging, dignity, and agency, and control of destiny.

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  • USA Today: April 18, 2018

    'Thank you for your service:' Surgeon General's uniformed corps battles opioid epidemic

    PI's Dana Fields-Johnson speaks with USA Today's Jayne O'Donnell is this article on the Public Health Service Corps' approach to the opioid epidemic. Dana emphasizes the need to improve the community conditions that increase the risk of opioid addiction—everything from the loss of employment to the fraying social support networks to the lack of educational and economic opportunities. The Corps has the flexibility to do things like bringing together different community institutions to figure out how everyone in the community can play a role in turning the tide of this epidemic.

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  • The Nation’s Health: April 2, 2018

    Tools for preventing sexual assaults

    Prevention Institute’s work on connecting the dots between multiple forms of violence is mentioned in “Connecting the dots to break the chain of violence,” on page three of this special issue of The Nation’s Health. In “Integrating gender norm change in sexual violence prevention” on page eight, PI's Rachel Davis and Lisa Fujie-Parks discuss the role restrictive gender norms play in normalizing and increasing sexual violence, and the need to challenge those norms to prevent sexual violence.

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