Article

Michigan cracks down on prescription drug overdose with updated monitoring system

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About eighteen thousand people die every year because of prescription drug overdose but with Michigan’s improved way to keep track of patients prescriptions it is predicted for overdose and abuse to decline. “Maps is the collection of controlled medication that patients get  the state collects them in a file  so that a doctor or pharmacist can see how much did they get when they got it,” said pharmacist from Knight Drugs Polly Cove. 

Maps helps to make sure patients aren’t taking too much of one medication, duplicating medications or seeing more than one doctor and having them not know about each other. Drugs that are painkillers like morphine and oxycodone are usually what doctors and pharmacists check for when using the MAPS system. 

“Sometimes as a pharmacist my job ends up being drug police,” said Cove. “I have to be the tattle tale that has to call and let the doctor know that the patient is not being straightforward.” The maps collection system has been around for 10 years, but the new system is much faster. What used to take up to 5 minutes now can be seen in the instant click of a button.

Education

Bill Schuette is pushes for OKAY2SAY to remain in Michigan Schools

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Bullying and Suicide is has become a major problem in schools across the country. Over four thousand kids commit suicide every year and unfortunately Detroit teen Billy Watts Jr. is one of them. “I got a call at work about him and they just said he was missing at first, so i decided to go on his Instagram page,” said friend of Billy Jazlyn Dixon. 

It was on Instagram where Billy posted pictures giving clues that he wanted to take his own life. Friends of Billy describe him as being a deep thinker and for Jazln Dixon she says his suicide could have been prevented if someone would have just listened to him. “It’s something that could have been prevented if we would have took what he said more seriously.”

News

Trump’s budget could result in defunding of Meals on Wheels

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President Trumps 54 million dollar budget proposal cuts large parts of federal government funding which could potentially affect the disabled and senior citizens. In Ingham County alone meals on wheels delivers about five hundred thousand meals a year and has 21 different sites that volunteers work from. “I’m concerned that the seniors who are sitting in there homes and are hearing about the program being cut, how they’re feeling,” said Carl Buonodono Nutrition Director for Meals on Wheels. 

President Trumps budget plan will potentially cut the Older Americans Act and the Development Block Grant which equates to being about half of Meals on Wheels funding. 

This potential cut of funding would lead to there being less sites open which means those who receive food from the program will no longer be able to do so. This budget plan not only affects those who get meals but also those who deliver them. 90 year old Robert Mac-Kinnon who goes by Bob, has been a Meals on Wheels volunteer for 15 year and feels with out Meals on Wheels he wouldn’t get his daily joy of helping others.