TASK DEFINITION: Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
PROBLEM: Researchers, who studied about 1,000 teens who said they wanted to quit smoking, wrote in the journal Pediatrics that close to 11 percent of those who got counseling for three months had quit smoking, compared to six percent of those who only received educational pamphlets. “A school nurse-delivered smoking-cessation intervention proved feasible and effective in improving short-term abstinence among adolescent boys and short-term reductions in smoking amount and frequency in both genders,” wrote study author Lori Pbert of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. But a year after the sessions, there was no difference in smoking rates based on what kind of assistance teens had gotten from their nurses. In addition, fewer than one in five teens said they hadn’t smoked recently. “It’s nice that there was some effect at three months, what we really care about is sustained cessation,” said Michael Siegel, who studies tobacco control at the Boston University School of Public health but wasn’t involved in the study. “The overwhelming majority of these kids are not quitting.”   In the 35 Massachusetts schools covered in the study, half the nurses were trained to give their students one-on-one counseling based around goal setting and problem solving, including making a plan to quit and then preventing relapses. The other nurses gave students information pamphlets on quitting smoking and volunteered to answer any questions they had about the process. Both groups of nurses saw their students at four weekly sessions, ranging from 10 to 30 minutes. The counseling intervention appeared to especially help boys in the short run. Those who had made goals and tracked progress with the nurses were three times more likely to say they had stopped smoking than boys in the “control” group. But between 13 and 17 percent of both boys and girls reported they had stopped lighting up a year later, regardless of whether or not they had received counseling. Other smoking cessation experts noted that relapsing into smoking is the biggest hurdle at any age, and that teens were especially likely to do so. But they added that the more options teens had for help, the better. SOURCE: bit.ly/o4z0xc

SOLUTION: Study: can school nurses help teens quit smoking?.

PROBLEM: Alexis Shapiro suffered damage to her pituitary gland, which helps regulate weight, as a result of the brain disease. She has gained about 140 pounds (63.5 kgs) in less than two years because of the problem, her mother said. Her extreme excess of body fat is clinically defined as morbid obesity. “It has been heartbreaking for her and for us. She cannot do the things she used to love,” Jennifer Shapiro, her mother, said on the fundraising site GoFundMe. The mother said she is seeking about $50,000 for life-saving surgery to reduce the size of her daughter’s stomach because the family’s insurance company will not pay for the procedure unless the patient is at least 18 or has achieved full bone growth. Dr. Thomas Inge, a specialist in pediatric obesity at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told NBC News that Alexis could receive the surgery at the hospital where he works within six weeks now that the funding appears to be in place. “Alexis will be seen this week in Cincinnati, and the preparations for surgery will be made at that time,” Inge told Reuters by email.

SOLUTION: Donors pitch in to pay for surgery for extremely obese Texas girl.

PROBLEM: Gee and Kasich say Citizens for Effective Opioid Treatment, a 501(c)4 organization announced Thursday, will educate policymakers and the public about the negative impact the opioid epidemic has had on health care infrastructure and advance health-related research solutions to the crisis. “It’s an educational effort,” Gee said. “We want to help people understand that this is a crisis and that the caregivers — the hospitals, in particular — are really leading the charge in order to be able to both give care and solve the problem.” The duo’s plan is the latest move in a tug-of-war over what to do with the potential billions that could flow from a national opioid settlement with drugmakers and distributors, if one is reached. Some individual settlements with counties and states have already been reached and larger pharmaceutical companies could yet cut deals as the clock ticks toward the first trial, which is set for October. Local governments are asking the Cleveland-based federal judge who is overseeing the majority of more than 2,000 lawsuits over the toll of opioids to let them distribute money among themselves. They say being able to negotiate as a group on behalf of all or most local governments would make it possible to reach a deal with the industry. They argue the crisis has hit local governments especially hard as they’ve needed to spend more on police, jails and other programs. Most state attorneys general oppose that plan, saying the states would be in the best position to dole out money to local governments and to create larger scale prevention and treatment programs. Both Gee and Kasich said their nonprofit isn’t intended as an attack on local governments. But Kasich, who was criticized as governor for cuts to the state’s local government fund, said large sums of undedicated money can tend to migrate. “I’m not here to kind of tell the attorney generals what to do. If they can get a settlement and these communities can be reimbursed, good for them,” he said. “But I don’t want the money to go to fill potholes or to fill a budget gap or something like that. I want the money to go to the people who are on the front lines, because they are right up against the wall.” Gee and Kasich developed a relationship when Kasich was Ohio’s governor, beginning in 2011, and Gee was president of Ohio State University. Gee — himself a prolific fundraiser — said he enlisted Kasich’s help with the nonprofit for his political acumen. Gee called Kasich “a rainmaker and a door opener” who “knows everyone.” Under IRS rules, the new tax-exempt nonprofit — which can raise unlimited amounts and not disclose its donors to the public — must “primarily” engage in social welfare and helping the community, meaning at least half its budget has to go to activities such as education rather than to political lobbying. Gee said a companion entity is planned whose collections can be spent more freely. Hospitals in West Virginia, including one system separately chaired by Gee, sued some of the largest makers of the powerful painkillers in April, seeking monetary damages to cover the costs of the crisis. The epidemic has spread to include street drugs, such as heroin and illegal fentanyl. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says opioids were involved in more than 47,000 deaths in both 2017 and 2018. Gee said hospitals have had to cope with front-line health care costs, the space requirements of patients unable to go home, the associated medical needs of children and newborns and added workload and security costs. He said the nonprofit will solicit private donations to spread its message. Kasich said he will speak out publicly, write op-eds and appear in videos. The idea of having a private foundation handle at least some of any money from an opioid settlement isn’t new. A group of public health groups including the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Boston’s Northeastern University filed papers in court in May calling for such an entity. The group said one of the successes from a 1998 national tobacco settlement was the $1.7 billion that went to such a group and helped reduce youth smoking. But this approach makes some people bristle. Earlier this year, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family, which owns it, agreed to a $270 million settlement with the state of Oklahoma. Much of that money went to a research and treatment center at Oklahoma State University. Some lawmakers complained that they, rather than the state attorney general, should have gotten to decide what to do with the settlement. In July, a group of state lawmakers in West Virginia asked their state’s attorney general for control of a $37 million opioid settlement with the drug distributor McKesson, arguing they were the ones best suited to assure the money went to treatment programs rather than administrative costs. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey responded in a statement that it’s important to “attack the drug epidemic holistically.” ___ Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

SOLUTION:
Kasich, Gee group to push opioid settlement toward hospitals.