The Atlantic (12/30, Rizga) reports on a program called ASD Nest, which places students with autism “alongside neurotypical students in classrooms led by specially trained teachers.” The program, which “launched in 2003 with four teachers and has since expanded to 54 elementary, middle, and high schools in New York City,” is a “collaboration between the New York City Department of Education and NYU.” Furthermore, the program “places two certified and specially trained teachers in each participating classroom, which allows one of them to provide one-on-one social, emotional, or academic support whenever the need arises, without disrupting the lesson or pulling a student out of the classroom.”

Related Links:

— “What School Could Be If It Were Designed for Kids With Autism, “Kristina Rizga, The Atlantic, December 30, 2019

The Boston Globe (12/30, Martin) reports on a program aiming “to curb problematic pot use” among teenagers. The “Charlestown program – funded by Massachusetts General Hospital’s center for community health improvement – is part of a growing effort around the state to help high schoolers make sound choices about cannabis in an era of marijuana legalization,” focusing more so on “treatment rather than on abstinence and punishment.” The article adds, “The program teaches students to try healthy stress relievers like exercise or meditation, before encouraging them to cut back on pot in a realistic way,” however, it “stops short of one step: demanding they quit altogether.”

Related Links:

— “New approach to curbing marijuana use among teens: ‘just say no’ gives way to ‘just smoke less’, ” Naomi Martin, The Boston Globe, December 30, 2019

In the New York Times (12/30) “Personal Health” column, Jane E. Brody writes that hearing loss “is the largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding that of smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and social isolation.” Brody writes that “new findings on cognitive losses linked to subclinical hearing loss, gleaned from among 6,451 people age 50 or older, suggest that any degree of hearing loss can take a toll.”

Related Links:

— “For Better Brain Health, Preserve Your Hearing, “Jane E. Brody, The New York Times, December 30, 2019

Healio (12/27, Gramigna) reported, “Grandparents who are active in the lives of their grandchildren may have a decreased risk for loneliness and social isolation,” researchers concluded after obtaining and analyzing “cross-sectional survey data from a population-based sample of 3,849 community-dwelling adults in Germany aged 40 years or older.” The findings were published online in BMJ Open.

Related Links:

— “Grandparents who care for grandchildren less likely to feel isolated, lonely, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 27, 2019

The San Francisco Chronicle (12/28, Fagone, Cassidey) reported, “The suicide rate among California prisoners has climbed five years in a row and rose in 2019 to the highest level in at least three decades…according to experts, advocates for prisoners and the state’s top corrections official.” As of Tuesday, 36 people this year had died by suicide inside the state’s prisons, amounting to “a rate of 28.7 suicides per 100,000 prisoners – an increase over last year’s rate of 26.3.” Public officials, judges, and experts “say California’s deaths are the result of a system that for decades has failed to provide proper help to the state’s mentally ill prisoners, a population estimated at more than 30,000.”

Related Links:

— “Exclusive: Suicides rise again in California prisons — 36 this year, despite scrutiny, “Jason Fagone and Megan Cassidy, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 2019