Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Opioid addiction inflicts damage on Hoosiers in a number of ways. Abuse of prescription opioids and heroin use can lead to deaths by overdose, and they can cause neonatal abstinence syndrome in children of mothers who misuse opioids. When injected, they can also spread HIV and Hepatitis C through needle-sharing. The recent HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana, where the number of new HIV infections more than quadrupled over the course of a few months, provides the most salient example. But the problem is present whenever individuals are sharing needles. It is estimated that 50 […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. U.S. News & World Report recently issued its latest “Best States” rankings, and Indiana comes in at #33. Of the eight categories measured to calculate this ranking, Indiana’s outcomes in Health Care (#40) and Quality of Life (#48) are the biggest drag on our state’s performance. When it comes to assessing our public health outcomes, Indiana fares worst on the following key metrics: infant mortality (#42), smoking (#41) and obesity (#40). A closer look at the infant mortality rate shows that key drivers of infant mortality – defined as the death of a child under one year […]