Veteran-Owned Small Businesses Will See Expanded Price Preference for State Work, Beginning Oct. 1

Applications are available for a new Connecticut initiative designed to “spur veterans to start a business and to help small veteran-owned businesses to flourish.”  The law, which takes effect on October 1, is the most generous of it’s kind in the nation, and provides veteran-owned businesses with a price preference of up to 15% for certain state Department of Administrative Services open-market orders or contracts. These businesses must have a gross revenue of up to $3 million in the most recently completed fiscal year, and at least 51% of the ownership must be held by one or more veterans. Under existing law, a “veteran” is anyone honorably discharged or released from active service in the U. S. Armed Forces or their reserve components, including the Connecticut National Guard performing duty under Title 32 (such as certain Homeland Security missions).

The legislation, which began as Senate Bill 2 in the 2016 session of the state legislature, was unanimously approved by the Veterans Affairs Committee and Government Administration and Elections Committee, before gaining unanimous approval in the Senate and House and the Governor’s signature.

The National Veteran-Owned Business Association, in testimony before the state legislature in March, said passage of the new law would “make Connecticut the most ‘Vetrepreneur-Friendly”state” in the U.S.  The organization noted that 27 states have programs in place “to create opportunities for veteran-owned businesses, and that New Mexico had recently increased its preference to 10 percent.  At the time, Connecticut’s veterans preference also stood at 10 percent.

Senate leaders Martin Looney (New Haven) and Bob Duff (Norwalk) said the move to 15% was part of a multi-year effort by the legislature to “improve the lives of our vets, and help them earn a living.” State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, testifying in support of the proposal, told the legislature it would “decrease a bit of the burden on those veterans who are doing much more than just getting by.  These veterans have not only re-entered their communities as productive taxpayers, but have taken the risk of starting up their own business to realize their piece of the American dream.”

“We applaud your leadership of the important piece of legislation that will enhance and expand opportunities for the small businesses” owned by veterans, said Matthew Pavelek, Vice President of the national organization, NaVOBA, based in Pittsburgh.

To receive the fifteen per cent price preference, a bidding business must first obtain a Veteran-owned Micro Business certification from the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs. The Certification is valid for six months or until such time as the business is no longer in compliance with the statutory requirements, whichever occurs first.  Applications for the certification are now available from the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

Childcare Costs Continue to Outpace Inflation, Low Income Families Hit Hardest; CT 6th Most Expensive

One of the more notable aspects of the latest data on consumer prices provided this month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is the striking increase in childcare and nursery school prices.  That data, along with statistics that reflect the impact of those increasing costs on families ability to afford such care, highlight the struggles and disparities that continue to exist, in Connecticut and nationwide. Over the past 25 years, childcare and nursery school costs have risen 177 percent, while prices more generally have risen just 77 percent.  Childcare and nursery school costs have been outpacing general inflation for at least 25 years (the data do not go back any further than 1991);  this is putting a significant strain on the budgets of low-income families.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research points to an August 2014 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that found a two-parent, middle-income family (those making between $62,000 and $107,000 per year) will spend an average of $245,000 (in 2013 dollars) on their kids between the ages of zero and 17.

Significantly, due to rising income inequality, poor families are finding it harder to give their children the same opportunities afforded to rich children, the study points out. At present, families in the top fifth of the income distribution spend seven times as much on their children as families in the bottom fifth.

“This inequality can also be observed for paid leave: about 23 percent of workers in the top tenth of the wage distribution have access to paid family leave, compared to just four percent of workers in the bottom tenth,” the findings show.

Child care in Connecticut, the Economic Policy Institute points out, “is expensive.” Connecticut is ranked 6th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care.

• The average annual cost of infant care in Connecticut is $13,880—that’s $1,157 per month.
• Child care for a 4-year-old costs $11,502, or $959 each month.

Childcare is also “unaffordable” for a large percentage of Connecticut famiies.  The Economic Policy Institute indicates that infant care for one child would take up 16 percent of a typical family’s income in Connecticut, noting that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), child care is affordable if it costs no more than 10% of a family’s income. By this standard, only 28.1% of Connecticut families can afford infant care.

A minimum-wage worker in Connecticut would need to work full time for 36 weeks, or from January to September, just to pay for child care for one infant. And a typical child care worker in Connecticut would have to spend 63.6% of her earnings to put her own child in infant care, according to the data.

CEPR points out that other costs for raising children have increased as well, also outpacing the inflation rate. For instance, elementary and high school tuition and fees have risen 3.2 percent over the past year (four times the overall inflation rate of 0.8 percent); college tuition and fees are up 2.7 percent. At the same time, infant care in Connecticut costs $3,752 (37.1%) more per year than in-state tuition for 4-year public college, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), public expenditure on pre-primary education and childcare is just 0.4 percent of GDP in the United States; this is far lower than the rates of spending in Denmark (2.0 percent of GDP) or Iceland and Sweden (1.6 percent). By this measure, the U.S. comes in 33rd out of the 36 countries surveyed by the OECD, according to the CEPR report.

Public expenditure on pre-primary education spending is 0.3 percent of GDP in the U.S. but averages 0.5 percent in the other OECD countries; even more shockingly, public expenditure on childcare is just 0.06 percent of GDP, well short of the 0.4 percent average from the rest of the OECD. Nor do differences in GDP make up for the latter gap.  In 2011, public expenditure on childcare was $794 per child in the U.S., less than one-third of the OECD average. By contrast, public spending on childcare is $7,100 per child in Finland, $6,400 in Norway and Denmark, $5,900 in Sweden, and $5,700 in Iceland — despite the fact that the U.S. is substantially richer than all those countries except Norway.

In a separate survey, the OECD found that just 14 percent of all public spending on children in the U.S. went to children age five and under — dead last among the 32 OECD countries in the sample. In the United States, 14 percent of all public spending on children goes to children ages zero to five; 41 percent goes to children ages six to 11; and 45 percent goes to children ages 12 to 17. For the other 31 countries (data were not available for Canada and Turkey), 26 percent of all public spending on children went to children ages zero to five; 35 percent went to children ages six to 11; and 39 percent went to children ages 12 to 17, the Center for Economic and Policy Research explained.

PERSPECTIVE: Why and How We Should All Be Concerned About College Student Retention

by Victor Neves and David Johnston The degree to which college students are capable of successfully moving from matriculation to graduation, described as “retention” or “persistence,” should be a concern for all of us.  Employers regularly complain that the skills needed for the workplace are lacking.  Policy wonks lament the declining ratio of productive workers to retirees, now about three to one, down drastically from decades ago – an ominous threat to the solvency of the Social Security system, as well as the viability of the economy and the health care system.

All the more reason to maximize proven, but not always followed, ways that can boost college persistence to graduation and through to employment.  The cost of implementing effective practices is one challenge, in light of steadily declining state support for higher education, especially for community colleges and state universities that take in the majority of our high school grads headed toward postsecondary education.

What are these strategies?  Not quite a “top ten” list, but they’re not just catchy, they work:

• Colleges and universities are increasingly collaborating with high schools to both expose high school students to college life -so-called bridge programs – and to help students earn college credits, through early college or dual enrollment programs.

• Community-based agencies in our cities are increasingly practicing “seamless counseling” -- working with high school grads to avoid “summer melt,” to assure these young people make it to campus after earning acceptance to college. In some cases, these programs continue to support these students once they are enrolled.  Currently, in Hartford, about 70 percent of high school grads are accepted into some form of higher education, but only 50 percent matriculate.

• Once on campus, more students, especially those from challenged backgrounds, are enrolled in first-year experience programs and/or learning communities that teach “college survival” – indispensable skills that can be the difference between staying and dropping out. These are required at some schools, but not all.

• More first generation college students are mentored by older students. For students of color, connecting with a mentor who looks like them is also a powerful retention factor.  A national study of “black male college student success,” documented the value of such relationships.  UConn’s recently-announced “black male dorm” arrangements are a step in this direction.

• More campuses are practicing “intrusive advising” that follows the progress of challenged students closely and intervenes quickly when they appear to be struggling academically or otherwise. Too many challenged students have non-academic obstacles that seriously disrupt their progress, and at times end their college careers before they’ve really begun.  Less than half of community college students move on to achieve a degree.

• All students, but especially challenged students, are repeatedly encouraged to get involved on campus – a proven retention factor. Stepping up the “ask” can bring results that make retention more likely.

• At times controversially, colleges are encouraging, and hiring, faculty who use more “student-centric,” interactive teaching styles, with new technologies increasingly integrated into the curriculum. Some veteran faculty resist, others adapt.  Traditional academic content will still be central – as it should be - but teaching, to be truly effective, has to accommodate today’s technology and media-savvy students, and build student-faculty relationships in non-traditional, interactive ways.

• Community college students, including older students, are increasingly being guided more quickly into career paths, ideally related to job growth areas, to reduce the confusion of too many choices and too little direction. Student majors can be changed, but a clear pathway from the get-go works wonders.

• Schools should also provide a platform in which students can showcase their accomplishments – for example, “E-Portfolios” that incorporate student work and achievements from enrollment all the way to graduation, providing students a tangible way of seeing their progress towards reaching their goals.

• Campuses, back-stopped by changing Federal policies, existing and proposed (e.g., free community college), are becoming more creative with financial aid; and lower-income community college and state university students have more access to more adequate financial aid.

These “wrap-around” strategies, and others, are effective.   National research and anecdotal experience in Connecticut point clearly in these directions.  However, they continue to be the exception in Connecticut, with progress towards implementation sporadic at best.

Employers, college administrators and faculty, community leaders, legislators, parents and students need to advocate for such effective creativity. The benefits will accrue not only to students and their families, but the communities and businesses of Connecticut in desperate need of the vitality and vibrancy that a new generation of ready, willing and able college graduates can bring to the state we share.

_____________________________________________________

Victor B. Neves is a graduate of Tunxis Community College who studies Business Administration at CCSU.  He chairs the Student Committee of the Center for Higher Education Retention Excellence (CHERE), based in Hartford, a program partner of the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education.  David Johnston is Executive Director of the Center for Higher Education Retention Excellence. 

PERSPECTIVE commentaries by contributing writers appear each Sunday on Connecticut by the Numbers.

LAST WEEK:  Back to School – Don’t Forget Your Child’s Mental Health

Prompted by Economy, Only Half of Nation's Millennials Plan to Work for Same Company Next Year, Gallup Survey Says

Millennials are entering the workforce in increasing numbers, and are the intense focus both of governments – including Connecticut – and businesses seeking to attract and retain them.  As Connecticut’s economic ranking among the states continues to hover near the bottom, the job choices of millennials become increasingly important to future economic vitality. Even amidst less than favorable comparisons in recent rankings, Connecticut has managed to achieve recent employment figures that show improvement. Last month, the state added some 3,000 jobs in the private sector and wages have also risen slightly in recent reports after a period of stagnation, WNPR reported recently.

Heather Ziegler, managing partner for Deloitte in Stamford, told WNPR that in her view the state is doing some things right, like encouraging high technology industries and fostering entrepreneurship. "But what I think is most effective, and one of the challenges at the same time," she told WNPR, "is getting individuals with the right skill sets interested in staying in the area and staying in Connecticut, versus moving on to the larger metropolitan areas that we are right between."

Millennials are already in a tough situation – they’re better educated, yet earning less than their counterparts in 1990, points out Christine Schilke of Young Energetic Solutions (YES CT), a statewide initiative seeking to empower young people to create a vibrant Connecticut.  She indicates that “while 28% of millennials hold bachelor’s degrees compared to 24% in 1990, only 67% are employed, compared to 74% two decades ago.  Those who are working earn an average $40,849, versus $46,569 by their predecessors.”

“Today’s millennials,” Schilke adds, “are also burdened with college debt, and are less likely to be married, live alone or drive. Adding to these challenges is the fact that Connecticut has some of the highest homeownership and rental costs in the nation (6^th and 8^th most expensive, respectively), creating a tough living environment for today’s young adults.”

Nationwide, according to a recent Gallup poll, six in 10 millennials say they're open to different job opportunities, and only 50% plan to be with their company one year from now. Millennials are cracking under the weight of too much debt, according to Merrill Lynch's 2016 Workplace Benefits Report, which points out that only 24% of millennials surveyed say that they are in control of their finances.

Technology is the primary facilitator of millennials' job research: 81% of millennials indicate that they view the websites of organizations they're interested in, and a majority (62%) report that they conduct a general web search to learn about job opportunities, Gallup reports.

Not surprisingly, “millennials are extremely digitally connected, and smartphones have become a ubiquitous accessory for them.” Gallup found that 91% of millennials owned smartphones in 2013, compared with 83% of those in older generations. And compared with other generations, millennials are:

• almost 40% more likely to say they sent or read email messages "a lot" within the past day
• 2.5 times more likely to say they posted or read messages on Facebook, Instagram or another social media site "a lot" within the past day
• 11 times more likely to say they used Twitter, including posting or reading tweets, "a lot" within the past day
• more than 2.5 times more likely to say they sent or read text messages "a lot" within the past day

To attract the best workers, Gallup suggests, “organizations need brand strategies that account for millennials' motivation and ability to find the best employers -- especially considering that millennials currently make up 38% of the U.S. workforce, and some estimate that they will make up as much as 75% of it by 2025.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkOmyg5lJbQ

Nonprofits, Local Companies See Benefit From Business Arrival in Capital City

The arrival of Blue State Coffee in downtown Hartford has been more than a convenient place to grab a cup of coffee for supporters of a number of nonprofit organizations in the Capitol City.  It has also meant the introduction of a new revenue stream for organizations they care about, at a time when budgets have been particularly tight. Most recently for Our Piece of the Pie, Journey Home, Unified Theater, The iQuilt Plan, Partnership for Strong Communities, Dream Camp at Trinity College, CT ALIVE and Hartford Food System, Blue State Coffee’s policy of sharing two percent of their profits with local organizations suggested by their customers has been most welcome.

Turns out it can make a difference with a retail business with a commitment to social benefit comes to town.

Blue State Coffee, founded in Rhode Island in 2007, provides their customers at each of their store locations to choose four local non-profit organizations twice a year for a six-month period. Each time a customer makes a purchase he or she may vote for one of the four non-profits being supported at that time. They then allocate 2 percent of sales based on the number of votes each organization receives during the six month donation period.

Since their first store opened in July of 2007, the company reports they have donated over $635,000 to more than 250 non-profit organizations. In total, the company operates eight cafes: four cafes in Connecticut, two in Rhode Island, and two in Massachusetts.

Hartford, which opened just under a year ago at 777 Main Street, was the fourth location in Connecticut, following three in New Haven (84 Wall Street opened in January 2009, 276 York Street opened in May 2010, and 320 Congress Avenue opened in September 2012).  There are also two locations in Boston and two in Providence.   In New Haven, nearly 100 nonprofit organizations have received support since the first coffee shop opened in the Elm City.

Blue State is also very much a part of the trend to use local farms, local goods and local vendors.  The Hartford location, for example, features eggs from Bloomfield, milk from Lebanon, bread from Deep River, Bagels from Cheshire, produce from Simsbury and maple syrup from North Grosvenordale. 

As the company website points out, “We will continue to grow, creating community within our stores and demonstrating that business can be a positive force for good.”

Two CT Companies Among Inc. 500 As Fastest Growing Private Businesses; 40 in State Reach List of 5,000

Two companies with Connecticut addresses are among the 500 fastest growing private companies in America, cited in the annual survey published by Inc. magazine in their September edition.  Saatva, which sells “America’s best priced luxury mattress” exclusively on-line, is ranked at #316 and Discover Video, a video hardware and software company that works across multiple industries, is ranked #428. They were the only two companies to earn a slot in the top 500.  An additional 38 Connecticut companies were listed on the Inc. 5000, also announced recently.

Wallingford-based Discover Video provides software and hardware to corporations and educational institutions that seek to improve their communications through the use of video. The company ranks #428 on the Inc. 500, is ranked #5 among America’s fastest growing media companies, and #2 in Connecticut. The company has grown 893 percent in the last three years.

“We are thrilled to be recognized” said Rich Mavrogeanes, Discover Video CEO. “We provide great products, love our customers, and have a fantastic team. Our customers take comfort in our financial stability and long term prospects, and this award certainly demonstrates that.”

Founded in 2009, Discover Video, LLC provides “powerful and affordable video streaming and digital media solutions to organizations of all sizes in three ways: Products, Services and Expertise,” according to the business website. Clients include the Emmy Awards, the National Association of Broadcasters and the White House, according to the company.

Ranked at #316 on the Inc. list, Saatva’s three year growth is 1,220.9 percent.  The company constructs and sells luxury mattresses.  The company’s administrative mailing address is Wright Street, in Westport; another administrative office is located in Austin, TX.  The online Inc. summary indicates they are a Connecticut company; the magazine’s print edition lists the company as based in New York City, where back-office logistics emanate.  The business has 18 factories around the country; the CEO is Ron Ruzdin.

The seven-year-old Saatva was named to Forbes Top 100 "America's Most Promising Companies" last year, and was ranked the 8th fastest growing e-tailer in the Top 500 Guide for 2015 by Internet Retailer.  The company sells exclusively online and does not have showrooms. Saatva provides “nationwide in-home delivery and set-up,” and highlights it’s mattresses’ “individually wrapped coils, edge & lumbar support, steel coil support base, organic cotton cover, and euro pillow top with a memory foam enhancement in the lumbar area.”

Also reaching the Inc. 5000 were Saffron Road Foods, a consumer products and services business (American Halal Company) based in Stamford, at #703; Votto Vines Importing, a food and beverage business in Hamden, at #786, and Continuity, a New Haven software company, at #955, launched in 2008.

Saffron Road is the culmination of Founder and CEO Adnan Durrani’s life’s work.  Right after the turn of the 2000 millennium, the natural food pioneer first envisioned a halal food brand which also embodied ethical consumerism: halal, sustainably farmed, authentic, anti-biotic free, and 100% vegetarian fed, all harvested on family-owned farms, the company’s website explains.

Votto Vines is a family-operated business focusing primarily on the importation and wholesale distribution of fine wines produced by leading boutique vineyards around the world as well as high-profile private label and wine licensing transactions.

Continuity provides a combination of technology, expertise and leadership “designed to make compliance a seamless part of how your institution does business,” providing compliance management solutions.  By combining regulatory expertise and cloud technology, Continuity provides a proven way to reduce regulatory burden and mitigate compliance risk. In addition to its New Haven headquarters, the company has an office in Boston.

Connecticut-based fast growing businesses on the first-half of the list of 5,000 nationwide also include HPC Wireless Services (#1,033), InterMerchant Services (#1,392), Charles IT (#1,631), Northeast Private Client Group (#1,786),eEuroparts.com (#1,912), Clarity Software Solutions (#,2108), Johnson Brunetti (#2,380), Square 9 Softworks (#2,387), and DGDean (#2,436).

The full list of Connecticut companies is at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/list/2016/state/ct/

CT's Economy Among 10 Worst States But Rising, Governor's Approval Rating is Nation's Second-Worst

Connecticut’s economy is among the ten worst states in the nation, but that is an improvement from three years ago, when the state ranked 49^th out of the 50 states.  Now the state ranks 42^nd in a ranking of overall economic performance by Governing magazine, with results that show a connection between a state's economic performance and its governor's approval ratings. The approval ratings for governors of the top 10 states averaged 62.1 percent, according to the publication, while the gubernatorial approval ratings for those in the bottom 10 averaged 50.8 percent. No governor in the top 10 states had an approval rating lower than 54 percent, while six of the governors in the bottom 10 states had approval ratings below 50 percent and one -- Connecticut's Dannel Malloy, a Democrat -- had an approval rating as low as 29 percent, Governing’s analysis showed.

In 2013, Connecticut’s economy ranked 49^th, and Governing said this: “Gov. Dan Malloy is a Democrat in a solidly blue state and has won plaudits for his handling of the Newtown school shooting and for his leadership during several weather emergencies. However, his poll numbers from Quinnipiac University are mediocre -- a 47 percent to 47 percent split in job approval, with only 44 percent of voters saying he deserves re-election, compared to 46 percent who say he does not.”  Malloy was re-elected, but his poll numbers have plummeted in the nearly two years since, as Connecticut has remained mired in the nation’s 10 worst performing economies.

The top-ranked state is Massachusetts, where Republican Governor Charlie Baker has an approval rating of 72 percent.  Also earning a slot in the top 10 are Oregon, Delaware, Colorado, California, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Utah, Virginia and Maryland, where Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has a 71 percent approval rating.

The worst-ranking state economy is in West Virginia, followed by Alaska, and Wyoming – all states where the Governor has an approval rating exceeding 60 percent.  Most others among the bottom 10 states have approval ratings in the 40’s – the lowest by more than 12 points is Malloy’s 29 percent approval rating.

The only Governor in the nation less popular than Malloy is Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, with an approval rate of 26 percent.  Michigan’s Rick Snyder (R) at 32 percent, Kentucky’s Matt Bevin (R) at 33 percent, Illinois’ Bruce Rauner (R) at 34 percent and New Jersey’s Chris Cristie ( R) with a 36 percent approval rating are the others at the low end of the survey, conducted by Morning Consult, weighted using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, and published in Governing.

Louisiana, just behind Connecticut at number 46, like other states on the bottom 10 list has been heavily influenced by a decline in the energy sector. In addition to Louisiana, today's bottom 10 includes such energy-dependent states as Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming. In fact, two of these states -- Alaska and West Virginia -- actually ranked in the top 10 in 2013, before the full force of the energy decline was felt, Governing reported.

Among state economies in the Northeast and New England, Massachusetts, Delaware and New Hampshire ranked in the top 10; New Jersey was number 24, Vermont number 25, Maine number 28 and New York number 29.  Rhode Island was ranked 35^th.

Connecticut’s Anxiety Above National Average, Analysis of Google Searches Shows

High anxiety.  It is apparently as American as apple pie.  At least that is what an analysis of Google searches is showing.  And Connecticut is above average, although less anxious than the rest of New England. In a state-by-state comparison of anxiety levels based on Google searches, topping the list was Maine, 21 percent above the national average.  At the other end of the spectrum was Oregon, 26 percent below the U.S. average. 

The states with the highest percentages of Google searches for “anxious” and related terms include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and North Dakota.  The least anxious:  Oregon, Nevada, Virginia, Kansas, Alaska and Hawaii.

The New York Times reports that Google’s measure of anxiety includes a broad range of searches, including “anxiety help,” “anxious” and “anxiety symptoms.”

“While Google searches may not be a perfect measure of anxiety,” a Times columnist reports, “there is increasing evidence that searches on a health condition highly correlate with the number of people suffering from that condition.” The rates of Google searches for anxiety in a state also correlate with survey measures of anxiety, explained Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, an economist and a contributing opinion writer for the Times.

Nationwide over the past eight years, Google search rates for anxiety have more than doubled. They are higher this year than they have been in any year since Google searches were first tracked in 2004, according to Stephens-Davidowitz.  Anxiety, however, is not uniquely American.  A review of online searches in the United Kingdom in 2014 found that 'What is anxiety?' was one of the top 10 most searched for questions.

Among the leading searches this year in the U.S. are driving anxiety, travel anxiety, separation anxiety, anxiety at work, anxiety at school and anxiety at home. Connecticut is the only New England state where the rate of Google searches for anxiety is not more than 10 percent above the national average.  The analysis indicates that “Americans anxieties are up 150 percent compared with 2004, based on internet searches.”  And still climbing.

The two leading drivers, according to the analysis:

• Poverty, and/or a major recession. States that were more deeply affected by the Great Recession saw bigger increases in anxiety during and after the recession. The estimate is that each percentage point increase in unemployment is associated with a 1.4 percent increase in anxiety. Google searches for anxiety tend to be higher in places with lower levels of education, lower median incomes and a larger part of the population living in rural areas, the analysis discovered.
• High opiate prescription rates — and high search rates for opiate withdrawal — are among the places with the highest search rates for panic attacks. These areas include Appalachia and the South. During years in which many people complained of opiate withdrawal, many people also complained about panic attacks. Searches for opiate withdrawal consistently start high at the beginning of the year. They mostly drop through the year, although they rise in the summer and then surge around Christmas.

Some have raised questions about the inferences in the analysis, wondering if opiate usage, for example, is a cause or effect reflected in the Google searches.  Others have suggested that merely the act of using Google to investigate real or perceived symptoms can make an individual more anxious, and more likely to search Google again, and the pattern could then repeat, leading to more frequent searches.

PERSPECTIVE: Back to School—Don’t Forget Your Child’s Mental Health

by Rachel Papke Back to school time is upon us. Parents are scurrying around shopping for back to school deals for their children—clothes, school supplies, and more. For parents with college-aged students the prep-work is more extensive: purchasing dorm room items and packing boxes to start. There are long “to-do” lists, calendar updates, alerts, reminders—a whirlwind of things to do to ensure that your child is ready for the school year. But what actions are you taking to check-in on your child’s mental health?

First, familiarize yourself with the symptoms of a mental health condition by accessing these mental health screening tools.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 5 young adults has a diagnosable mental health disorder, yet most are not receiving help. If left untreated, the risk for suicide increases. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for persons aged 15-24. With suicide rates at their highest in 30 years, prevention programs like those of the Jordan Porco Foundation need your support more than ever to help save young adult lives.

First-Year College Students

Majority of U.S. first-year college students feel underprepared emotionally for college. 65% said they tended to keep their feelings about the difficulty of college to themselves, 60% of students wish they had gotten more help with emotional preparation for college, and 87% of students said college preparation during high school focused more on academics than emotional readiness.¹ These statistics are striking and we need to fill the gap to combat these statistics.

Connecticut Statistics

During the past 12 months, 26.6% of Connecticut high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing some usual activities. This is suggestive of clinical depression, meaning that more than a quarter of high school students should be receiving treatment for depression or depressive symptoms.

When they feel sad, empty, hopeless, angry, or anxious, 50.4% of students said they only sometimes, rarely, or never get the kind of help they need. Talk your children, listen, and validate their feelings.

18.5% of CT high school students did something to purposely hurt themselves without wanting to die, such as cutting or burning themselves on purpose, within the past year. If your child displays the signs and symptoms of self-injury, you should consult a mental health professional with self-injury expertise. Learn more, here .

13.4% of Connecticut high school students seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months. It’s more common than you think, and it may well be your child or one of their friends. For more information about the warning signs of suicide visit our Nine out of Ten website.

Stay informed and attuned to any changes in behavior. Keep the mission of the Jordan Porco Foundation, the Hartford, CT-based non-profit, at the forefront to help you in your discussions.

The mission of the Jordan Porco Foundation is to prevent suicide, promote mental health, and create a message of hope for young adults.

To accomplish this, they:

Help challenge stigma by talking openly about mental health issues

Offer engaging and uplifting programming, emphasizing peer-to-peer messaging

Promote help seeking behavior, self-care, and coping skills

Educate about the risk factors and warning signs of suicide and other related mental health concerns

They do this in the name and spirit of Jordan Porco, who died by suicide in 2011. They’re in it for life every day. Saving lives is the heart and soul of their cause. Mental health needs a voice: you are that voice; we are that voice.

Work to create a message of hope for your children. Encourage open, honest conversations about mental health. Talk about feelings. Listen to your children and know what mental health resources are available in your area and at school. Educate your children to take care of their mental health, to carry the skills with them as they head off to school. Help them understand that they are not alone—where there is help, there is hope.

_________________________________

Rachel Papke is Communications Coordinator for the Jordan Porco Foundation.  She may be contacted at (860) 904-6041 or rachel@rememberingjordan.org.  Learn more about the Jordan Porco Foundation at www.rememberingjordan.org

PERSPECTIVE commentaries by contributing writers appear each Sunday on Connecticut by the Numbers.

Also of interest: Creating a Message of Hope for Young Adults 

1 – The “First-Year College Experience Survey” was commissioned by the JED Foundation, Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and the Jordan Porco Foundation, and conducted online by the Harris Poll among 1,502 U.S. college freshmen between March 25 and April 17, 2015. Survey respondents were students 17-20 years old in the second term of their first year at college, and attending some classes in person at a 2-year or 4-year college. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, visit www.SettoGo.org.

Travelers Initiative Aims to Predict Chronic Pain from Workplace Injuries

Can chronic pain, often the lingering result of a workplace injury, be predicted? The Travelers Companies, Inc. believes the answer is yes.  The company has developed what it describes as the first predictive model designed to reverse a sharp rise in chronic pain caused by workplace injuries.

The Travelers Early Severity Predictor (patent pending) identifies the likelihood of an injured employee developing chronic pain so that they can avoid it in recovery and reduce the need to use opioids or other painkillers.

“Millions of American workers are injured on the job each year, and the number of cases in which chronic pain interferes with an employee’s recovery has risen from less than 10 percent a decade ago to more than half of all serious injuries today,” said Dr. Adam Seidner, the National Medical Director at Travelers, when the initiative was announced in April.

According to A.M. Best, Travelers is the largest workers compensation carrier in the United States. The company manages more than 250,000 workplace injury claims and 3.5 billion medical treatments per year.

“When someone develops chronic pain, they are prescribed opioids or other painkillers more than 90 percent of the time. Our goal is to work with injured employees and their doctors to eliminate or substantially reduce the need for painkillers that can slow their recovery or lead to devastating long-term addiction.”

The Travelers Early Severity Predictor has been applied in more than 20,000 cases since early 2015. Of those, more than 9,000 injured employees were identified as being at risk of developing chronic pain. These employees received a customized, sports medicine-like regimen of treatment precisely sequenced to aid and accelerate their recovery, the company explained.

Injured employees who participated in the program in the past year have, on average, recovered and returned to work more quickly, the company said. They were also far less likely to receive a prescription for opioids, and when they did, it was typically a lower dosage or only for short-term use. At the same time, medical expenses, which cost American employers an average of nearly $40,000 per injury, were reduced by as much as 50 percent.

In 2014, there were 107.1 cases of nonfatal occupational injuries or illnesses requiring an employee to miss work for every 100,000 full-time American workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the website IPWatchdog reported. Although this represented a decline from 2013’s workplace injury numbers, it still resulted in 1,157,410 days away from work among private, state government and local government employees. BLS statistics show that workplace injury incidence rates were highest in the industries of transportation and warehousing as well as health care and social assistance, according to the website.

Two patent applications published this year by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cover technologies associated with the Early Severity Predictor project, IP Watchdog reported.

The Centers for Disease Control issued a guideline earlier this year, the Insurance Journal reported, for primary care physicians for treating chronic pain. The new CDC guideline aims to lessen opioid use disorder and overdose. When opioids are used, doctors should prescribe lowest possible effective dosage, according to the guideline. The CDC guideline also suggests increasing the use of other effective treatments available for chronic pain, such as non-opioid medications or non-pharmacologic therapies.

According to research into physician dispensing of opioids, the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) noted that three out of four injured workers with pain are prescribed opiods, with the amount per claim varying by state, the Insurance Journal reported.  Nearly 1 in 12 injured workers given narcotics are still on them 3 to 6 months later as few doctors appear to be following recommended treatment guidelines to prevent abuse, according to WCRI research in 2012.

A 2012 study in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine found that when long-acting opioid painkillers are prescribed, workers’ compensation claims are nearly four times more likely to turn into catastrophic claims with costs tallying more than $100,000.

“Helping employees avoid chronic pain and the slippery slope to possible opioid dependency is critical to reversing this disturbing and costly health crisis,” Seidner emphasized.

The Travelers Companies, Inc. is a leading provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business. The company’s main offices are in New York, Hartford and St. Paul.  A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Travelers has approximately 30,000 employees and generated revenues of approximately $27 billion in 2015.