Use of mental health urgent care center rises, though so far without decreasing work of ER
The new Community Behavioral Health Center run by Cambridge Health Alliance at Cambridge Hospital performed 1,161 evaluations at its urgent care center and handled 1,048 phone calls during its first three months of operation.
Police department’s online race reporting tool encounters more delays, looks toward summer
The long-awaited Procedural Justice Dashboard that’s supposed to give the public a picture of how Cambridge police treat people of different races and ethnicities still has no hard and fast arrival date. Now police are looking for a consultant to analyze data on traffic stops.
Police oversight board gave investigatory powers to the police it oversees, never formally approved
The Police Review and Advisory Board, which quietly relinquished investigations in 2004, suggests it is moving away from merely examining whether an officer has broken department rules. The new police commissioner is aboard.
Coronavirus emergency ends officially in May, but Sancta Maria suffers 33-person outbreak
As many as 33 residents of Sancta Maria Nursing Facility have tested positive for Covid-19 since last week, according to the city’s health department, one of the largest outbreaks of the pandemic in a local nursing home.
Failure of Silicon Valley Bank won’t affect CHA despite investment in four of its rehab projects
The Cambridge Housing Authority was one of many Massachusetts affordable-housing developers affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which bought a major player in the low-income housing community here, Boston Private Bank & Trust Co., in 2021.
Ruling by court could test council’s civility code affecting public comment and even councillors
A long-standing City Council rule forbidding personal criticism and other types of discourteous comment at meetings may be in jeopardy after the state’s highest court ruled that local governments can’t limit speech just because it’s considered rude.
Program intended for needy populations abroad will fill mental health services void in Cambridge
Adopting a program designed for people in psychological distress abroad who face war, poverty, violence and other serious adversity is unusual, experts say, but needed “given the state of the behavioral health crisis in Massachusetts.”
Decision nears on the future of an artist’s home, with some aspects of origins in the 1980s murky
The death of eccentric artist Peter Valentine, whose mystically decorated house has been proposed as an arts center, has resurrected the tangled history of rent control in Cambridge and exposed conflicting stories about Valentine’s financial resources.
‘Some real return to normal’ seen for Covid, though officials warn pandemic isn’t done
After three years of Covid, Cambridge is hearing a contradictory picture of the situation, with officials suggesting the end to regular updates on the pandemic.
Mid-Cambridge for-profit has most deficiencies in an annual inspection of city’s nursing homes
Health care experts say nursing-home quality has suffered for years and Covid-19 merely worsened and exposed deficiencies that already existed.
