Category: Health

We follow local stories of well-being in the Hill Country Observer, from physical and mental health to systems of healthcare and insurance and the challenges of medicine today.

  • Issue:

    Drugged by court order — Patients, advocates seek alternatives to forced psychiatric medication

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    Patients, advocates seek alternatives to forced psychiatric medication By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer   For Sarah Launderville, the idea of forced drugging brings back horrific memories. Launderville, the executive director of the Vermont Center for Independent Living, told a legislative panel earlier this year how she was subjected to years of sexual violence by her stepfather read more

    Drugged by court order — Patients, advocates seek alternatives to forced psychiatric medication
  • Issue:

    Long wait for PCB cleanup

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    EPA offers draft proposal for Housatonic, drawing new criticism By DAVID SCRIBNERContributing writer LENOX, Mass. Woods Pond in Lenox, Mass., is among the stretches of the Housatonic River most heavily contaminated with PCBs. Dredging to remove the pollution wouldn’t be completed until 2029 under a cleanup plan released last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection read more

    Long wait for PCB cleanup
  • Issue:

    County shifts course on nursing home

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    Supervisors explore privatization rather than new facility By JOHN TOWNESContributing writer PHILMONT, N.Y. After several years of pursuing plans to build a new $32 million replacement for the county-owned Pine Haven nursing home, Columbia County supervisors began moving instead in late May to solicit bids from private companies interested in buying the current home. The read more

    County shifts course on nursing home
  • Issue:

    Industrial legacy adds to region’s clean-energy potential

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    Industrial legacy adds to region’s clean-energy potential By ALEX ELVINContributing writer A. Perry Heller photos   NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt. Bill Scully says he had an epiphany while driving home on Christmas Day in 2008, past the historic mills and dams of southern Vermont. “Why,” he recalls wondering, “when there is an energy crisis, am I read more

    Industrial legacy adds to region’s clean-energy potential
  • Issue:

    Taking a stand for unadulterated food

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    May 24 festival is local observance of global anti-GMO event By STACEY MORRISContributing writer   Joan K. Lentini photo   GLENS FALLS, N.Y. When Sue Duncan decided to spearhead this year’s March Against Monsanto in Glens Falls, she decided to fight the infamous corporate agribusiness giant not with a line of protesters, but with good read more

    Taking a stand for unadulterated food
  • Issue:

    Oil pipelines on wheels — Risks increase on region’s rail lines

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    Risks increase on region’s rail lines as traffic through Albany port grows By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer   While environmental groups have made opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline in the Midwest a cause célèbre over the past five years, rolling pipelines of oil have quietly been established in a lot of communities closer to home. read more

    Oil pipelines on wheels — Risks increase on region’s rail lines
  • Issue:

    A new model for saving farmland

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    Investor group plans agricultural center in Columbia County By JOHN TOWNESContributing writer   COPAKE, N.Y.A large tract of open land in the central hamlet of Copake, once the proposed site of a controversial affordable-housing development, has now been earmarked for preservation as working farmland. The 122-acre property, a short distance off Route 22 and just read more

    A new model for saving farmland
  • Issue:

    In lieu of plastic, mushrooms

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    Cambridge mycologist helps company develop fungi-based products By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer   CAMBRIDGE, N.Y.Sue Van Hook is convinced that fungi hold one of the keys to saving the planet from choking on plastic. A professional mycologist and a retired Skidmore College senior teaching associate, Van Hook has embarked on a new career as chief mycologist read more

    In lieu of plastic, mushrooms
  • Issue:

    Health care reform hits home

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    Area navigators describe progress, pitfalls in covering the uninsured By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer The rollout of new state-run health insurance exchanges in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts hasn’t been free of problems, but in the past few months thousands of people in the region have been able to use the new system to shop read more

    Health care reform hits home
  • Issue:

    Mercury threat persists, studies show

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    Health risks linger in region despite cuts in emissions By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer   Despite tougher pollution standards that have led to a sharp reduction nationally in emissions of airborne mercury, several new studies suggest that high concentrations of the toxic heavy metal are persisting in the environment and continuing to pose a health read more

    Mercury threat persists, studies show