Health

Cannabis growing

NH Cannabis Association surveying farmers on future growing opportunities 

BY: - August 30, 2023

As a legislative commission probes the potential for a state-run cannabis sales model, an industry organization is surveying farmers and agricultural professionals to gauge interest in future cultivation opportunities.  New Hampshire has not yet legalized marijuana, but this past legislative session saw more movement than years past. For the first time, Gov. Chris Sununu said […]

Overdose prevention kits

Bystanders as first responders: NH purchases 6,000 overdose prevention kits

BY: - August 24, 2023

The Executive Council this week approved the purchase of 6,000 overdose prevention kits, while also renewing a state contract with the New Hampshire Harm Reduction Coalition. In April, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would deploy 700 “NaloxBoxes” across all 10 counties, thought to be the first large-scale effort of its kind […]

Coming soon to state buildings: Trauma kits and tourniquets

BY: - August 24, 2023

Unintentional injury and the uncontrolled bleeding that often follows are one of the top causes of death in New Hampshire among people 1 to 45. Sen. Suzanne Prentiss wants more people to know that and be able to intervene.  A new law inspired by legislation she sponsored will require trauma kits containing tourniquets to be […]

New law eliminates insurance pre-approval for crisis mental health, substance use care

BY: - August 23, 2023

Insurance companies in New Hampshire can no longer require their members to get prior authorization before getting coverage for emergency mental health or substance use care when it is provided by a mobile crisis team, outside a licensed hospital.  The new law, Senate Bill 85, is intended to make it easier for people to get […]

Child advocates: Damning report on Tennessee youth facility is one worry of many

BY: - August 23, 2023

Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez was intentionally detailed and unsparing in describing what she saw and heard while checking on two boys the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services had sent to a Tennessee treatment facility. Children said staff offered them incentives to assault other children, Sanchez wrote in a 17-page report after visiting […]

Granite VNA monitors patients’ vital signs daily via telehealth

BY: - August 22, 2023

Since it launched a new telemonitoring program, the Granite VNA has helped nearly 50 patients with serious health issues send the organization daily updates on their vital signs, allowing providers to offer more immediate guidance or intervene if health concerns arise.  The program is available to patients who are receiving skilled nursing care or physical […]

What connects smoking, obesity, and social isolation? Each can kill you.

BY: - August 21, 2023

For nearly 30 years, a group of women from Laconia High School’s class of 1952 has met monthly for dinner or lunch. They’ve seen one another through the deaths of husbands, swapped pictures of grandchildren, and reminisced about raiding their mother’s cabinets in the 1940s, in search of metal and tin to support the war […]

Council could get family planning contracts a fifth time

BY: - August 17, 2023

The Department of Health and Human Services anticipates asking the Executive Council this fall to reconsider contracts the Republican majority has rejected four times that would provide low-cost family planning and reproductive health care for nearly 17,000 Granite Staters. Council Republicans have repeatedly rejected the funding, which covers basic health care such as cancer screenings, […]

Mariah Blum standing at the nurses station

New law may help – won’t solve – health facilities’ rising staffing costs 

BY: - August 15, 2023

Hiring has become an emergency-level math dilemma for David Ross and the 120 people waiting for a bed at the Hillsborough County Nursing Home.  Ross, the home’s administrator, can’t recruit enough nurses and LNAs with the hourly wages offered by the county. That’s forced him to rely on staffing agencies, which charge the county more […]

Pot smell and safety concerns ignite disputes over public smoking

BY: - August 11, 2023

Carl Sack is no fan of marijuana. He tried smoking once in high school and hasn’t touched it since. And he doesn’t just dislike the clouds of pot smoke he encounters around Duluth, Minnesota – he hates them. “I can’t stand to be around the stuff,” he said. But he’s still adamantly opposed to local […]

Fentanyl test strips

NH decriminalizes fentanyl and xylazine test strips

BY: - August 7, 2023

With Gov. Chris Sununu’s signature last week, New Hampshire has removed fentanyl and xylazine testing equipment from the definition of “drug paraphernalia” in state law. Several efforts this past legislative session sought to decriminalize what harm reduction advocates call life-saving tools in an increasingly adulterated and contaminated drug market. House Bill 287, which Sununu signed […]

Passing new licensing laws is quick. Creating new licenses isn’t.

BY: - August 4, 2023

Once the pandemic revealed the state’s dire shortage of health care and other workers, state officials moved quickly to ease or quicken the licensing process. Gov. Chris Sununu signed the most sweeping change into law in June, allowing any licensed professional to practice here if their home state’s licensing requirements are “substantially similar” to New […]