Throughout the past year, there has been a steady rise in interest in artificial intelligence (AI). The overall onset of AI technology has provided remarkable innovations in computation, completing a large variety of tasks at speeds that were once deemed impossible. With the recent explosion of AI technologies revolutionizing so many different industries at once,...
Continuing the search for an HIV vaccine
May 18th marks National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day annually. This is a day to revisit the milestones in HIV vaccine development, to honor volunteers, to think about recent research results, and to create a pathway for success. It is also a call to action! For more than 40 years, some of the most brilliant minds...
State budget moving quickly through the Senate
The budget is moving quickly through the Senate process, and we wanted to offer an update on where things stand. The budget bill, now formally Amended Substitute House Bill 33 (hereafter referred to as HB33) was officially referred to the Senate Finance committee on May 3. Now the informal hearings that have already been occurring...
Why is mental health care so hard to find with private insurance?
The Center for Community Solutions recently partnered with the Community Counseling Center of Ashtabula County to examine the behavioral health needs in Ashtabula County. One thing that came up in nearly every conversation we had with community members and stakeholders was the difficulty of finding behavioral health providers who accepted private insurance. Our community survey...
State budget process: health and human services and the House sub bill
It’s been a busy few weeks (months…years….?) in the Ohio legislature. Last we checked in, the Governor’s version of the state budget—House Bill (HB) 33—was making its way through the House of Representatives. The House Finance Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, along with the other issue area subcommittees, heard testimony from a diverse set...
A Conversation with Dr. Roderick Harris, the new Health Commissioner for Cuyahoga County
During the height of the pandemic, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH) played a pivotal role in community information, education, and vaccine distribution. At the time, it was led by Terry Allan, who recently retired as the Health Commissioner for the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. Allan’s successor is Dr. Roderick Harris, who previously...
Origins of self-care and why activists and advocates need to practice it
We live in a highly stressed society in the United States. According to a survey conducted by The Harris Poll, adults mainly cited violence and crime (75 percent), inflation (83 percent) and the political climate (66 percent) as major sources of stress. Another significant source of stress is the current racial climate (62 percent). This...
Leadership District Fact Sheets: Examining Stephens’ House District 93 and Huffman’s Senate District 12
The Center for Community Solutions recently released profiles for Ohio’s state legislative districts. We do this as a public service and make the profiles widely available. They include demographic, economic, education, and other data. While we caution against comparing one district against another (sample sizes can be small and lead to large margins of...
Racism in Medical Journals: An Interview with Dr. Faye Gary
My colleague, Taneisha Fair, recently opened a conversation on racism in medical journals. As a follow-up, I spoke with an expert in publishing on psychiatric nursing and vulnerable populations. Dr. Faye Gary, an expert in psychiatric nursing, has built her career on advocating for vulnerable populations, including Black women. As a Black woman herself, she...
Cleveland’s proposed menthol ban: adding barriers to smoking will work
Depending on who you ask, anywhere from about one in four to one in three Clevelanders are smokers. This ranks Cleveland as one of the unhealthiest cities in the United States by percentage of residents who smoke. For context, theoretically, you are more likely to randomly meet a Clevelander who smokes than you are to...