Health

Black women in Indiana are 35 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than the white women. A new national education campaign aims to bring that number down. 

Risk factors for the disparity in rates include lifestyle choices, genetics and healthcare access. The new Know Your Girls.org gives black women more information about breast health.

A growing number of groups are creating substance abuse prevention programs in schools, across the country.  Many of the “evidence-based” programs show positive results, reducing the number of children who try heroin, cocaine or become long-term smokers.

In response to Indiana’s opioid epidemic, the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation started research to see how it could make an impact. 

Hepatitis C cases in Marion County are up so much, the public health department in Indianapolis declared an epidemic. A syringe exchange program is part of the county’s answer. 

Marion County Public Health Director Virginia Caine spelled out a proposal for a syringe exchange program Thursday. 

There’s a new Indiana University study that details the cost of the opioid epidemic in Indiana. The report estimates the misuse of opioids has resulted in more than $43 billion in losses over the past 15 years. 

The study outlines an annual average of $3 billion in losses from indirect cost associated with loss of gross state product loss and underemployment due to addiction.  

Bloomington psychologist Dr. Albert Fink’s license was officially revoked Friday morning.

It’s been almost two years since Bloomington psychologist Albert Fink crashed his car in an attempt, he says, to take his own life because of the grief he felt for falsifying mental evaluations.

There is no evidence indicating Fink practiced at all after being charged in 2016 in Vanderburgh County, but his name remained in a state database of licensed mental health professionals.

Three Indiana county prosecutors don’t want to defend the state’s new anti-abortion law against a suit brought by Planned Parenthood.

A new partnership aims to reduce diabetes in three neighborhoods in Indianapolis where the rates of the disease are as high as 17 percent. The effort builds on work Eli Lilly and Company has developed in Mexico, South Africa and India.

Eli Lilly and Company CEO Dave Ricks says the $7 million, five-year effort will focus on three communities in Indianapolis. 

State and health leaders met at an Indianapolis hospital to announce a new project to help pregnant Hoosier mothers who are addicted to opioids, the effort expands a pilot to reduce neonatal abstinence syndrome or NAS.

NAS happens when a baby is exposed to drugs in the womb.  Providers at Community East Hospital addressed this issue in response to the rise in cases that they were seeing says OBGYN Anthony Sanders.