Literature Review

Walgreens’ VillageMD to shutter more clinics in cost-cutting planModern HealthcareDecember 15, 2023Walgreens-backed VillageMD is exiting Indiana. The primary care provider plans to shutter all 12 of its Village Medical practices across the state, effective Jan. 19, a VillageMD spokesperson confirmed Friday. Some of the locations are co-located with Walgreens stores, but the stores are not closing, the spokesperson said. The closures stem from Walgreens’ larger cost-cutting plan announced in October that involves closing 60 VillageMD-operated clinics in five markets. Earlier this month, VillageMD said 10 clinics in the Jacksonville, Florida, area will close in January. Walgreens is seeking $1 billion in savings, most of which will come from pharmacy operations and scaling back capital projects by about $600 million. 

Anderson Cooper’s Newest Assignment—Grief (His Own)New York TimesDecember 17, 2023It took Anderson Cooper more than a year after his mother’s death to begin clearing out her apartment. It was an emotionally draining task, one that he put off—something his mother may have anticipated, because she left him a road map. He began finding notes she had left him, tucked away in drawers and sealed containers. Written in her hand on heavy stationery, they acted as a kind of treasure hunt to their shared grief. Mr. Cooper’s mother, the heiress and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, was one of the most famous women in the world, courted by Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, photographed by Richard Avedon, and a muse to Truman Capote, who is believed to have based the character of Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” partly on her. Just sorting through her personal papers would have been challenging for her son after her death at the age of 95 in 2019. But the apartment was also the final resting place of objects that belonged to Mr. Cooper’s father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, an author and screenwriter who died in 1978 when Anderson was 10, and his older brother, Carter Cooper, who died in 1988, when they were both in their 20s, after jumping from his mother’s balcony.... Mr. Cooper, 56, began keeping voice memos on his phone as he was sorting through his mother’s belongings in 2021. They grew into a podcast on grief, “All There Is With Anderson Cooper,” which began its second season in November. For decades, the longtime anchor of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°” has chronicled other people’s suffering. Now, he has become a correspondent from the land of his own grief.

Carver Middle School students show compassion, support for hospice patientsLaurinburg (NC) ExchangeDecember 15, 2023Laurinburg, NC—December is usually a short month for Scotland County Schools due to the holiday break. However, several students at Carver Middle School have gone above and beyond with their time and efforts. Two school organizations, the Blue Blazers and Students Against Violence Everywhere (S.A.V.E) have embraced the true spirit of the season by supporting Scotland Regional Hospice through their respective community service campaigns. 

Do People Want to Live Longer With Alzheimer’s Disease?By Jason Karlawish, MDWall Street JournalDecember 14, 2023... As Robert, his wife and I talked about these [new] medicines [to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease], something very interesting happened. After objectively weighing the risks and benefits, we began to discuss an intensely personal and subjective question: Does he want to live longer with Alzheimer’s disease? This question is ethically challenging.Editor’s Note: The author is a physician, co-director of the Penn Memory Center, and the author of “The Problem of Alzheimer’s: How Science, Culture and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It.”

Three found guilty of fraud in South Florida nursing-school ‘diploma mill’ trialMiami HeraldDecember 15, 2023Three people charged with playing crucial roles in a South Florida nursing-school “diploma mill” were found guilty by a federal jury Friday, after a three-week trial where prosecutors accused the defendants of corrupting the healthcare field. The defendants, a former registrar for the defunct Palm Beach School of Nursing and two recruiters from the northeast, were accused of selling fake transcripts and degrees to thousands of students for millions of dollars so they could qualify to attain licenses as nurses.

End-of-life doulas are changing conversation around death in Central OregonCentral Oregon Daily (Bend, OR)December 14, 2023Sisters, OR—... Cheryl Adcox has been working as an end-of-life doula in Central Oregon since 2018. That’s when the registered nurse opened Hand-in-Hand End of Life Doula Services. For her, death is “sacred and it’s magical and it’s part of the mystery of life.” It’s a view that few people understand. It’s one these death doulas understand intimately.

Indiana remains ‘an island of prohibition’ as surrounding states legalize marijuana. Some hope that changes.WRTV-TV (Indianapolis, IN)December 14, 2023Indianapolis, IN—... Indiana is one of just 12 states with a total ban on marijuana. As calls for legalization grow, are Indiana lawmakers ready to approve it here? Supporters hope so, but opponents say not so fast. “We’re an island of prohibition in Indiana and it is somewhat embarrassing,” said Keith Johnson, a veteran and proponent of legalization.

New data sheds light on how many people are taking psilocybin in OregonPortland (OR) Business JournalDecember 14, 2023About 600 people have completed psilocybin sessions since Oregon’s program rolled out earlier this year, according to the Healing Advocacy Fund, a nonprofit organization that closely tracks psilocybin legislation and research. At least that many clients have taken psychedelic mushrooms since the first service center opened in May. 

How did I honor my mother’s death? By creating a holiday.By Margo RabbWashington PostDecember 14, 2023... For a long time, I had grappled with how to spend the anniversary [of the death of the author’s mother, Renée]. I had never observed it before—normally, I pretended it wasn’t happening—but a quarter-century seemed too momentous to do nothing. My mother had died when I was still in my teens, nine days after being diagnosed with cancer. 

Phones ‘connected to nothing but love’ donated to Westport LibraryWestport (CT) JournalDecember 13, 2023Westport, CT—Lynda Shannon Bluestein is nearing the end of her life. In January, the 76-year-old will travel to Vermont where, surrounded by family, she will end the suffering she has experienced from three bouts of cancer in a state where aid-in-dying is permitted. Bluestein, however, first had to sue the state of Vermont, winning her case in June, to allow a non-resident to end her life there. On Wednesday, she plans to give the Westport Library a gift that may help others, especially children, express and process grief when they lose a loved one. Bluestein will donate two “wind phones”—rotary-dial phones that are not connected to anything—that people of all ages can use to speak about their loss and memories of a loved one who has passed away. 

Helping hands in hospiceC-Ville (Charlottesville, VA)December 13, 2023Charlottesville, VA—It’s a conversation starter you might throw out with a group of friends hanging out at a winery, or after a large informal family supper: “What would you like to do before you die?” The answers are probably interesting, intriguing, even surprising. The discussion could inspire someone in the group to make those dreams happen. But for Beth Eck, director of end-of-life doula services for Hospice of the Piedmont, the real question is: “Have you said what needs to be said?” 

Letters of Love—Nonprofit provides emotional support for children in hospitalsWCCO-TV (Minneapolis, MN)December 11, 2023Orono, MN—It’s the time of year for giving and a Minnesotan is doing so on a scale so large, it can’t be measured. It’s a mission one woman started after her greatest gift was taken away. Grace Berbig grew up with so much love, but also a lot of pain. When she was 10, her mother was diagnosed with leukemia and eventually lost her battle with the disease. Editor's Note: Click the title to read more of this inspirational story.