Author

Christine Vestal, Stateline

Christine Vestal, Stateline

Christine Vestal covers mental health and drug addiction for Stateline. Before joining Pew she covered health care, the environment, energy, information technology and telecommunications for a variety of news outlets, including McGraw-Hill, the Financial Times and Post-Newsweek Business Information. At Stateline, she has covered the legal and political battles over the Affordable Care Act and expansion of Medicaid to more low-income adults. She has also written about children’s health, Medicaid, mental health, wellness, and a wide variety of public health issues. Currently, Vestal is focusing on the prescription painkiller and heroin epidemic, including efforts to stem overdose deaths by making addiction treatment with medications more widely available.

Privacy, stigma may keep workers from using abortion travel benefits
By: - October 12, 2022

This article originally appeared in Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Several major corporations, from Amazon to Walmart, are promising to pay travel expenses for employees and family members who must leave their home states to receive a legal abortion. But experts who advise those companies say their well-intentioned promises to invest in […]

Health groups urge states to spend Juul settlement dollars on tobacco prevention
By: - October 11, 2022

This article originally appeared in Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Major medical groups are urging states that won a $438.5 million settlement in a case against electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. to use the money for tobacco prevention and cessation programs, particularly those aimed at young people. Selling e-cigarette products to […]

State courts could overturn abortion bans in red states
By: - May 30, 2022

Story originally from Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. If the federal right to abortion is erased by the U.S. Supreme Court in a few weeks as expected, the legal spotlight will shift immediately to state courts, where experts say judges in some conservative states could surprise everyone and uphold the right to […]

As teen mental health worsens, schools learn how to help
By: - April 20, 2022

Story from Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts If you or anyone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you can get help by calling the confidential National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK. Teen mental health already was deteriorating before the coronavirus pandemic. In the two years since, the isolation, […]

COVID harmed kids’ mental health — and schools are feeling it
By: - November 9, 2021

This story originally appeared in Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts After more than 18 months of school closures and social isolation, the nation’s more than 50 million public school children are mostly back at their desks. But two months into the fall semester, teachers and students already are saying they need a break. The […]

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