Think Out Loud

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, veterans have a 57% higher risk of suicide than the general population. But little is known about how that risk differs between men and women. In the first study of its kind, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University followed a group of veterans for roughly a year after a nonfatal suicide attempt. They found that the women who were surveyed reported more social rejection and lower levels of self-compassion than men, suggesting a higher risk of another attempt.  Lauren Denneson is a professor of psychiatry at OHSU and associate director of the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care at the VA Portland Health Care System. She is the lead author of the study and joins us with more details. Note: If you’re a veteran in crisis or concerned about one, contact the Veterans Crisis Line to receive 24/7 confidential support. To reach responders, dial 988 then press 1, chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat, or text 838255. If you or someone you know is struggling, you can call or text 988 to reach the suicide and crisis lifeline. Help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Earlier this month, a new journal based in Portland launched online with its first set of published scientific articles. But the Stacks Journal isn’t your typical academic journal, according to its founder, David Green, an ecologist who previously worked at OSU’s Institute for Natural Resources. He says that it removes some of the main obstacles associated with traditional academic publishing by being more affordable and available to anyone online. And it offers an alternative to the traditional model of peer review by having reviewers work together to provide feedback on a scientific paper and vote on whether it should be published. The process can be completed in just a few weeks compared to a year or more for an article to be published in a traditional journal.    Green joins us to share more, along with Phoebe Parker-Shames, a wildlife ecologist at The Presidio Trust in San Francisco who recently authored a study published in Stacks Journal about the impact of cannabis cultivation on wildlife in southern Oregon. 

In late June, it was announced that the city of Bend was awarded one of 21 grants given out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing, also known as PRO Housing initiative. The 21 communities received grants between $1 million and $6.7 million from a pool of $85 million. Bend is the only city in Oregon to receive this grant, which had applicants from over 175 different communities across the country. The PRO Housing grant awardees will use the money to fund programs which identify and remove barriers to affordable housing. Bend received $5 million, half the amount of funding initially asked for, and is in the process of altering the scope of their plan. Mellissa Kamanya, the affordable housing coordinator for the city of Bend, joins us to share more about the grant and next steps.

An exhibit at the Columbia Gorge Museum in Stevenson, Washington, features a collection of quilts made by an enslaved woman and her family, carefully preserved for more than 150 years. The exhibit, titled “Ms. Molly’s Voice: Freedom and Family Spoken in Fabric,” runs through July 31. It’s one of the first times the quilts have been publicly displayed, and one of the first new exhibits the museum has put on in many years.  Jim Tharpe is the caretaker of the quilts, and Louise Palermo is the museum’s executive director. They join us to talk about the significance of this collection and the family history it represents.

Over the last few years, Washington state has funded five “health engagement hubs” to help treat people with fentanyl addictions. The model offers drop-in buprenorphine or methadone at no cost to people suffering from opioid addiction, as well as harm reduction services and other health care. The idea is to make treatment as easy to access as the drugs themselves, says Caleb Banta-Green, a researcher at University of Washington who has championed the model. Washington U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, has recently introduced a bill in Congress that would fund health engagement hubs through Medicaid. Banta-Green joins us to explain the impact the centers are having in Washington. 

In 2016, Nike pledged to cut its global carbon emissions in half. But in the last year, it laid off many of the employees who worked on sustainability. An investigation from ProPublica and the Oregonian found that Nike has managed less than a 2% cut in emissions. We’ll talk to the Rob Davis, investigative reporter at ProPublica, who worked on this story with Matt Kish, reporter at The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Last month, a boys volleyball team from Portland won the 18 and under American division title at the 2024 USA Volleyball Boys Junior National Championship in Dallas, Texas. It’s the second consecutive appearance at the national tournament for the members of the Portland Chaos 18U boys volleyball team who attend high schools in the Portland metro area.  Last year, the Oregon School Activities Association voted to make boys volleyball an “emerging activity,” with roughly 70 high school teams competing in the season that ended this past spring. We hear from Nerisa Laban, the founder, director and coach of the Portland Chaos Volleyball Club and two players on the team: co-captains Given Unwin and Lopaki Laban, who is also Nerisa Laban’s son and winner of the MVP award at the national tournament. 

Because there is no constitutional guarantee, every state in the country has different regulations about who is allowed to vote. But in many states, people with intellectual disabilities are denied the right to vote. Paul Collins, an English professor at Portland State University, wonders why his 25 year-old son with Autism Spectrum Disorder can’t vote … or can he? Collins explores this issue in a new article he wrote  for The Believer magazine. He joins us to talk about who votes and why it matters. 

More than a decade ago, Linn-Benton Community College in Albany took a look at its data for students enrolled in career and technical education programs. What they found was that many students were able to progress through their degree program, but one course in many cases stopped them from completion: math. The school’s math department then began to design courses tailored to specific degree programs. Since 2017, 93% of students in a math course designed for welders have passed the class. Steven Yoder is a freelance journalist who wrote about the trend of more Oregon colleges offering applied math courses. He joins us to share more.

For the past five years, Oregon’s Lines for Life has been running a youth program called Safe Social Spaces. Now an OHSU study published in the journal Psychiatric Services suggests the program may have prevented more than 160 suicide attempts since it began. The program uses social media to find youth struggling with suicidal ideation and provide support through the social media’s direct messaging systems. We hear more from Angie Nielsen, the nonprofit’s YouthLine assistant director of clinical operations who co-authored the study, and gen castle, a social media crisis intervention specialist.  If you or someone you know is struggling, you can call or text 9-8-8 to reach the suicide and crisis lifeline or contact the YouthLine.  Help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.