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Dole Institute announces Bill Kurtis as 2024 Dole Lecture honoree
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas has announced that Bill Kurtis — KU alumnus, journalist, network news anchor, producer and rancher — will be featured at this spring’s annual Dole Lecture at 7 p.m. April 16. Kurtis will join Dole Institute Director Audrey Coleman for a discussion of his Kansas roots and the news that shaped the nation over the course of his seven decades in journalism.
KU research explores impact of adaptive exercise for people with disabilities in Kansas City region
KU Life Span Institute researcher Lyndsie Koon is leading three pilot projects assessing the effectiveness of HIFT to improve various health outcomes, including fall risk, metabolic health, strength, flexibility, quality of life, psychosocial health and more. “We have almost no empirical evidence on the effects of this type of exercise for people with disabilities, yet people with disabilities are actively engaging in HIFT in communities across the country and worldwide,” Koon said.
Medicaid’s impact on inmate health and recidivism rates explored in new research
A new paper by David Slusky, a professor of economics at the University of Kansas, estimates the causal impact of access to Medicaid on health outcomes and recidivism for those recently released from incarceration. The research finds that reducing barriers in access to Medicaid for vulnerable populations increases enrollment and utilization of health care services, but it does not reduce 1-year or 3-year recidivism. This suggests the effectiveness of such policies is context-dependent.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Maria Fisher, 785-864-4900, [email protected]
Dole Institute announces Bill Kurtis as 2024 Dole Lecture honoree
LAWRENCE — The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas has announced that Bill Kurtis — KU alumnus, journalist, network news anchor, producer and rancher — will be featured at this spring’s annual Dole Lecture at 7 p.m. April 16. Kurtis will join Dole Institute Director Audrey Coleman for a discussion of his Kansas roots and the news that shaped the nation over the course of his seven decades in journalism.
“Before it was history, it was news,” Kurtis said.
The program will take place in-person at the Dole Institute, 2350 Petefish Drive, and be livestreamed on the institute’s website and YouTube channel. Detailed information on the program can be found at doleinstitute.org.
Kurtis began his journalism career at WIBW-TV in Topeka. After his 24-hour coverage of a devastating tornado in 1966, Kurtis was hired by Chicago’s WBBM-TV, where he was a field reporter and later anchor of The Channel Two News.
In 1978, Kurtis’ investigative unit was one of the first to report on the dangerous effects of the Agent Orange chemical on American forces in Vietnam. While covering the story, he returned to Vietnam in 1980 to find the children of American servicemen living in the streets of Saigon with their mothers, who were unable to find work.
Kurtis’ reporting became a cover story in the New York Times Magazine and resulted in legislation that allowed these children immediate access to the United States. Additionally, his reporting launched massive studies into the post-war lives of American servicemen to make exposure to Agent Orange treatable and establishing a new standard of care for veterans that continues today.
In 1982, Kurtis joined the CBS Morning News as a co-anchor alongside Diane Sawyer, later returning to WBBM-TV in 1985 as anchorman through 1996 and from 2010 to 2013 alongside Walter Jacobson.
After a 30-year run with CBS, he established Kurtis Productions, which produces nonfiction programs and documentaries. Additionally, he serves as the official judge and scorekeeper on National Public Radio’s news quiz show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” and has narrated multiple motion pictures, including the “Anchorman” films starring Will Ferrell.
Kurtis was born in Florida and raised in Independence after his father retired from the U.S. Marine Corps. He graduated from KU with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism and from Washburn University School of Law with a Juris Doctor.
In addition to his work in journalism, Kurtis is an active conservationist in Kansas. Kurtis has placed land in the Red Buffalo Ranch, originally 8,000 acres of prairie in Chautauqua County, in conservation easements and has sold much of the land to cattle ranchers and the Delaware Tribe of Indians. His daughter, Mary Kristin Kurtis, now owns the remainder of the ranch and the Red Buffalo Gift Shop in Sedan.
Each spring, the Dole Lecture commemorates the date on which Sen. Bob Dole was critically wounded while serving in Italy during World War II. To honor Dole’s courageous recovery and commitment to serve the nation, the Dole Institute welcomes a guest who embodies the commitments that Dole held throughout his career in public service.
About the Dole Institute
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, a vibrant forum for civil discourse, civic engagement, and idea exchange across the political spectrum, features historical archives, exhibits, and public programs for all ages. Inspired by the public service of native Kansan, veteran, legislator and statesman Sen. Bob Dole and his wife Sen. Elizabeth Dole, visitor galleries feature changing exhibits, the Kansas Veterans Virtual Memory Wall, architectural-scale stained glass American flag and Sept. 11 memorial.
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Contact: Christina Knott, [email protected]
KU research explores impact of adaptive exercise for people with disabilities in Kansas City region
LAWRENCE — Brian McMillan, 65, attends fitness classes four times a week in the Adaptive Athletes in Motion program, which was developed for people with mobility disabilities.
“You need strength to get through life,” he said.
McMillan and each of the other “adaptive athletes,” as they are known, ages 14 to 73, participating in the class have a physical condition that challenges their mobility, from ataxia to multiple sclerosis to spinal cord damage.
Known as high-intensity functional training, or HIFT, the community-based program is akin to CrossFit. It also is the focus of studies undertaken by University of Kansas researcher Lyndsie Koon, associate director of the Research and Training Center on Independent Living at the KU Life Span Institute.
McMillan took a break from using the ski ergometer machine at Brave Enough CrossFit in North Kansas City, Mo., and explained how he depends on exercising his arms and torso to get his heart rate up and stay physically engaged, even without the use of his legs.
“Sitting in this chair for 21 years … we lose our stomach muscles,” he said. “So, if you’re not burning extra calories, you’re just eating.”
People with mobility disabilities are 66% more likely to be overweight or obese than their nondisabled peers, and they are at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, depression and anxiety. Fewer than half of adults with a mobility disability are physically active, despite evidence that exercise improves health and well-being.
Koon said that community-based exercise programs for health interventions are both understudied and overlooked by physicians, who are more likely to suggest surgery or pharmacological treatment than exercise for people with disabilities.
“We have almost no empirical evidence on the effects of this type of exercise (HIFT) for people with disabilities, yet people with disabilities are actively engaging in HIFT in communities across the country and worldwide,” Koon said.
Koon is leading three pilot projects assessing the effectiveness of HIFT to improve various health outcomes, including fall risk, metabolic health, strength, flexibility, quality of life, psychosocial health and more. Her work has been supported internally through a KU Research GO award that concludes in April. Additionally, she has been awarded support through the Kansas Center for Metabolism and Obesity Research, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, and the Landon Center on Aging, both at the KU Medical Center.
“Maintaining functional independence for people with mobility disability, including those aging with long-term disability, is extremely important to me and the entire goal of my work,” she said. “I care that people can get up off the ground if they fall, get down on the ground to play with their children or grandchildren, or carry their groceries into the house independently, and have a community of people supporting them in their health endeavors,”
Despite the benefits of exercise on brain health, helping manage weight, reducing the risk of disease, strengthening bones and muscles and improving the ability to do everyday activities, most community-based facilities are not accessible, or even inclusive, to people with physical disabilities, Koon said.
Moreover, while outpatient physical and occupational therapy can provide temporary benefits for people with disabilities these services are typically prescribed after an injury and are often short-term with limitations on the total number of visits. They are not a long-term strategy for activity engagement.
Developed by Josh Snyder, the HIFT program in KC, known as Adaptive Athletes in Motion (AAIM), offers opportunities to individuals at several area locations, including the Mission Barbell Club in Mission, the Kansas Athletic Club in Overland Park, FITNKC in Kansas City, Mo., and Kaw Valley CrossFit in Lawrence.
“Josh has a knack for this stuff,” Koon said. “He can take any disability type and build a program based on their capabilities and personal goals.”
Trainers work individually with new athletes in onboarding sessions after reviewing health concerns, movement limitations and health goals, Koon said.
After McMillan lost mobility of his legs in a motorcycle accident, he worked with a therapist to learn how to get dressed, move around and take care of himself.
“But that only lasts for so long, and then, after that, you’re just kind of on your own,” McMillan said.
In the AAIM program, he said every day they do something different to keep their muscles, and mind, engaged.
Daniel Bufford, 53, of Merriam, said he gained about 50 pounds after he lost his leg in 2022. Originally from the Dallas area, he moved to get fresh start after a Kansas City-area nonprofit, Steps of Faith, offered to pay a prosthetic limb.
He started with AAIM last spring and now attends several classes a week, sometimes even filling in as volunteer coach. He said if he doesn’t work out, he gets depressed.
“This really changed me,” Bufford said. “Now I’m competitive. I’ve done CrossFit competitions — I’ve done one so far, but I’m signed up to do a bunch right now.”
The added benefit of the fitness class is the community support and connections they make. For Bufford, this has helped give him a sense of purpose as well.
“One of my friends I work out with, he’s a triple amputee,” Bufford said. “He’s just got one arm, and we throw jokes back and forth a lot. And you’ll find that a lot (of us) are like that. Because if we can’t make fun of ourselves, then we’re never going be able to handle it with other people.”
Koon said that HIFT incorporates functional movement to support daily activities such as picking up objects from seated positions, transferring, reaching overhead, getting off the floor, or ambulating without supports. But another benefit of HIFT classes for people with disabilities is that such programs are widespread throughout the country, and internationally, making them within reach of many people who have disabilities.
“The best part is that our research is that participants have the option to stay in the program after the conclusion of the intervention,” she said.
So far, about 60%-70% of the participants opt to stay engaged in the AAIM program.
Koon said research is still in its early stages. However, her work is helping gather empirical evidence on program effects, grow the program in the greater Kansas City and Lawrence areas and increase its reach to new people in the community, as well as increase exposure to other HIFT programs that may be interested in starting their own adaptive classes.
“That’s been incredibly rewarding to see,” she said.
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Contact: Jon Niccum, 785-864-7633, [email protected]
Medicaid’s impact on inmate health and recidivism rates explored in new research
LAWRENCE — Inmates face numerous difficulties upon reentry into society. Public health care services are not always easily accessible to them while making this transition.
“Recidivism is an expensive and tragic societal problem,” said David Slusky, a professor of economics at the University of Kansas. “In addition to designing new policies to help reduce it, policymakers also want to understand what existing policies and programs could help.”
His new paper titled “Accessing the Safety Net: How Medicaid Affects Health and Recidivism” addresses this by estimating the causal impact of access to means-tested public health insurance coverage on health outcomes and recidivism for those recently released from incarceration. It finds that reducing barriers in access to Medicaid for vulnerable populations increases enrollment and utilization of health care services, but it does not reduce 1-year or 3-year recidivism. This suggests the effectiveness of such policies is context-dependent.
The findings appear as a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research.
“The U.S. makes it very difficult for those released from prison to rejoin the formal economy,” said Slusky, who co-wrote the article with Analisa Packham of Vanderbilt University.
“Many mundane tasks for the general population are extremely difficult, if not impossible, including housing, employment and voting. Many individuals see continued criminal activity as their best economic option.”
The U.S. boasts an incarcerated percentage of its population that is much higher than other countries, which also leads to a much higher incidence of recidivism. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly half of those returning to the community are rearrested within one year, and 77% are rearrested within five years.
As noted in “Accessing the Safety Net,” a large proportion of inmates have high rates of chronic medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as severe mental health disorders and substance use issues, which can lead to a higher likelihood of recidivism. But despite the need for timely and continuous access to care, many offenders do not receive necessary medical treatment.
To study these issues, Slusky focused on South Carolina, a non-Medicaid expansion state that implemented a 2016 policy to more easily re-enroll previously incarcerated individuals in the Medicaid program.
“The South Carolina program we studied was relatively limited in its scale and resources,” Slusky said. “Other states. such as Wisconsin, introduced far more expansive pre-release enrollment assistance. And many other states also changed their laws to allow those beginning incarceration who were on Medicaid to suspend their benefits instead of being terminated so they could much more easily and quickly be reactivated upon release.”
In terms of a strategy to combat this issue, some states are now exploring enrolling inmates on Medicaid while they are incarcerated, in the hopes that it will deliver better and more efficient care then and increase continuity of care before and after release.
However, Slusky found no evidence that people with easier access to Medicaid are less likely to commit future violent or property crimes.
So what exactly is the benefit for the community if this doesn’t curb crime?
“Medicaid has been shown in many other cases to improve economic and financial outcomes and make individuals less likely to skip necessary medical care due to cost,” he said. “We also do see increased overall healthcare utilization from the policy change, which is evidence individuals are getting more care — which is the outcome most directly affected by increased insurance rates.”
A KU faculty member since 2015, Slusky specializes in health economics and labor economics. He has conducted research on a wide variety of topics, including the Flint water crisis, COVID-19 restrictions, abortion care and physician birth outcomes. He is currently interim chair of KU’s Department of Speech-Language-Hearing. In 2022, he was named executive director of the American Society of Health Economics.
“There are limits to what can be done in non-Medicaid expansion states as enrollment assistance programs can only help those who are eligible,” Slusky said.
“It’s very difficult to scale up a program like the one in South Carolina. Despite all of the effort and expense, we just don’t see that large an increase in the share of released individuals who end up on Medicaid. There is just only so much that non-expansion states can do to help those in need.”
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