Tag Archives: #ahcj16

Tips to expand coverage of LGBT health beyond HIV and AIDS

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Photo: Ted Eytan via Flickr

Photo: Ted Eytan via Flickr

For the past several decades, HIV and AIDS have dominated discussions and reporting about LGBT health. While HIV/AIDS continues to be relevant to this population, thorough coverage of health for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be much more comprehensive in examining other challenges they face.

Several takeaways from the Health Journalism 2016 session, “Beyond HIV/AIDS: Reporting on the LGBT Community,” can help reporters go beyond those issues to discover new stories and important trends. Two major themes emerged from the session that offer fertile ground for deeper reporting. Continue reading →

Tara Haelle (@TaraHaelle) is AHCJ's medical studies core topic leader, guiding journalists through the jargon-filled shorthand of science and research and enabling them to translate the evidence into accurate information.

Update on VA response to wait times recalls Shulkin’s #AHCJ16 comments

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David Shulkin, undersecretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, spoke to Health Journalism 2016 attendees.

David Shulkin, undersecretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, spoke to Health Journalism 2016 attendees.

In a conversation with Renee Montagne on Morning Edition last week, David Shulkin, undersecretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, gave an update on the VA two years after a cover-up about long wait times made the news.

Shulkin was a Spotlight Speaker who gave a news briefing at Health Journalism 2016 in Cleveland, where he told journalists that same-day appointments were now available for veterans at some centers and would be available at all of them by the end of this year. Continue reading →

Tara Haelle (@TaraHaelle) is AHCJ's medical studies core topic leader, guiding journalists through the jargon-filled shorthand of science and research and enabling them to translate the evidence into accurate information.

Media can make a difference in veterans’ health, #AHCJ16 panelists say

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Photo: Susan Heavey/AHCJDr. Joseph Calabrese spoke at Health Journalism 2016 about veterans health issues.

Photo: Susan Heavey/AHCJDr. Joseph Calabrese spoke at Health Journalism 2016 about veterans health issues.

The irony was hard not to notice.

For more than an hour, an expert panel addressed a roomful of journalists at AHCJ’s annual Health Journalism 2016 on health barriers for military veterans.

An important one appears to be a reluctance among vets to talk about certain health problems, especially those seen as potentially stigmatizing.

Yet there we were talking about it: trauma. post-traumatic stress disorder, depression. Continue reading →

Susan Heavey, (@susanheavey) a Washington, D.C.-based journalist, is AHCJ’s topic leader on social determinants of health and curates related material at healthjournalism.org. She welcomes questions and suggestions on resources and tip sheets at determinants@healthjournalism.org.

Covering sports concussions: Some takeaways from the #AHCJ16 panel

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Photo: Tara Haelle/AHCJNFL free agent Josh Cribbs captivated attendees with his own experiences, talking about the lengths that players would go to conceal possible concussions and game the tests.

Photo: Tara Haelle/AHCJNFL free agent Josh Cribbs captivated attendees with his own experiences, talking about the lengths that players would go to conceal possible concussions and game the tests.

Conversations about concussions, traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have become more common in recent years as many military veterans return with disabling head injuries and the impact of football injuries on the brain gets more scrutiny in medical research.

The recent movie “Concussion,” starring Will Smith, raised even more awareness of the sports side of the issue. The higher profile in the media about sports head injuries, specifically in football, was the focus of a well-attended panel, “Covering the Concussion Crisis: Research and Real Life,” at the Health Journalism 2016 conference last month. Continue reading →

Tara Haelle (@TaraHaelle) is AHCJ's medical studies core topic leader, guiding journalists through the jargon-filled shorthand of science and research and enabling them to translate the evidence into accurate information.

Mental trauma is everywhere, panelists tell AHCJ members

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Photo: Susan Heavey/AHCJAHCJ members in April attended a packed panel on covering mental trauma, from violence, child sexual abuse and other factors at Health Journalism 2016 in Cleveland. The speakers were Dr. Glenda Wrenn, director of behavioral health at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta; Dr. Ewald Horwath, director of Case Western University’s Psychiatry Department; Kristine Buffington, a trained social worker based in Toledo, Ohio; and Kathleen Hackett, a sexual assault nurse examiner.

Photo: Susan Heavey/AHCJAHCJ members in April attended a packed panel on covering mental trauma at Health Journalism 2016 in Cleveland. The speakers were Dr. Glenda Wrenn, from Morehouse School of Medicine; Dr. Ewald Horwath, of Case Western University; Kristine Buffington, a social worker based in Toledo, Ohio; and Kathleen Hackett, a sexual assault nurse examiner.

A single tear is okay, but don’t cry.

Kathleen Hackett, a sexual assault nurse examiner, recently told AHCJ members that breaking down while listening to stories from victims can retraumatize them or even force them to emotionally shut down so as not to cause any one else pain.

“We have to be careful in our response,” said Hackett, who has more than 30 years of nursing experience and has worked with children in the hospital after their ordeal, adding that she never cries in front of her patients. Continue reading →

Susan Heavey, (@susanheavey) a Washington, D.C.-based journalist, is AHCJ’s topic leader on social determinants of health and curates related material at healthjournalism.org. She welcomes questions and suggestions on resources and tip sheets at determinants@healthjournalism.org.