But first, after a repeat drunk driver killed her son, Bobby Dewbre, on his 21st birthday in 2023, Beth McBride and her daughter became “bar fairies,” searching their local neighborhoods in Montana’s Flathead Valley for cars left outside bars overnight to thank revelers who chose not to drive under the influence of alcohol. They leave each car with a $5 coffee gift card, alongside a note with Bobby’s photo and the story of his death. Their idea has taken flight since then, inspiring 300 volunteers to join their effort in Montana and sparking similar groups from Salem, Oregon to Washington, D.C. “It was really important to me as a mom that my son did not die in vain,” McBride told the TODAY Show. “We have been told by people who have received cards over and over and over again that that card made them think.” 

Go fish! The power of a prescription for Nature Rx and more

Six years ago, Dave Lyons of Manchester, England won his battle with alcohol addiction: He stopped drinking and began fishing. 

“I started watching these YouTube videos about fishing and joining these Facebook groups,” he says of the early days of his recovery. “Something just came over me — it was the first time my mind felt active again.” 

His daily ritual soon attracted other would-be fishers and then morphed into a charity called Tackling Minds, which partnered with the U.K.’s National Health service to make that country the first place in the world to offer a prescription for fishing. It’s part of a larger movement called “social prescribing” — a practice through which a doctor or another health professional refers a patient to a community activity, one typically involving nature, art, movement or service, to improve their emotional and physical health. Read the first part of journalist and author Julia Hotz’s series on social prescribing here.

‘Fighting government for something you’re entitled to’: Changing Medicaid work rules threaten coverage for millions

When Virginia resident Melanie Stephens opened a letter on Aug. 31 laying out coming changes to Medicaid, she had a panic attack. The letter, reviewed by NBC News, explained the new federal work and reporting requirements for Medicaid recipients that are slated to take effect on January 1, 2027, threatening the healthcare coverage of roughly 10 million Americans. Congress approved the changes last year with the passage of President Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” leaving state governments scrambling to prepare for the most substantial change to the program in decades.

Stephens and her husband, Greg, are full-time caregivers for their 22-year-old daughter, Rachel. Rachel requires intensive, round-the-clock care, including nourishment through a feeding tube and medication facilitation five times per day. “There’s no one that could possibly care for her medically, or emotionally or cognitively,” the pair said, adding: “She would have no will to live.”

Melanie long led these tasks until Rachel’s health declined so drastically during the pandemic that Greg was moved to leave his job as a physician last year to help. With both of them acting as full-time caregivers for their disabled daughter, they will be exempt from the 80-hour-per-month work or community service requirement that will apply to most eligible adults starting next year. But they will still face the added burden of being required to recertify their exemption every six months. 

“Our concern is not so much on our part because we are thorough,” Greg Stephens said. “Once it leaves us and goes to a Medicaid worker to process, that’s where we are concerned they’re going to miss a deadline or fall through the cracks, and we have no control over that.”

The challenges of receiving Medicaid are something he never considered until his family was directly affected, he said, even admitting that, as a physician, he often judged patients who received Medicaid. “We spent months calling other insurance companies and other agents and trying to find another way, and there was no other way,” Melanie Stephens said.

The fact that tens of millions are likely to lose coverage or experience unnecessary disruptions as a result of the bill’s new administrative requirements was at the center of congressional debate last year. The Republican senators and representatives who ultimately passed the bill were unmoved. They argued that the legislation targeted waste, fraud and abuse, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisting at the time that the law “doesn’t cut Medicaid.”

But even if it technically doesn’t cut the program, health care experts say people will lose coverage because of the unnecessarily burdensome red tape alone. It’s “fighting government for something that you’re entitled to,” said Virginia Health Secretary Marvin Figueroa, adding that the pending coverage losses were “a predictable surprise.”

A new, $2 million campaign aims to soften the blow that the changes are going to have. Organized as an independent nonprofit, Keep Your Care was founded by the Service Employees International Union and two health care advocacy groups, Caring Across Generations and the Healthcare Education Project. The organization’s goal is to educate states and Medicaid recipients about changes and how to keep their coverage, including which requirements and exemptions may apply to them, and track reporting deadlines. Its work centers on seven Medicaid expansion states where millions stand to lose care: California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina and Virginia.

In other news…

Brain Stories Connections: To commemorate World Mental Health Day, which was Saturday, October 10th, our friends at the Brain Stories Connections podcast premiered a new episode that’s powered by hope. 

In the episode, host Frank Kosa speaks with Lindsay Mesa of Rosewood Cottage, a peer respite community in Vermont where adults in mental and emotional crisis can stay for up to seven days and be met with empathy and tangible support. Operating 365/24/7, the house is staffed by people who know the challenges guests face because they’ve also experienced and overcome them. Most importantly, their approach is remarkably effective, at least according to early analyses of data examining the program’s impact. 

Towards the end of the episode, Mesa also talked about the necessity and life-saving power of authentically connecting with people in pain, particularly those reckoning with suicide. As she says in the show, we reasonably focus on all the ways to keep a person alive when they mention they want to die. We tell them how much they are wanted and we look for objects that might harm them and take those things away. But suicidality is often only the tip of the iceberg, she explains. Genuinely listening to a person’s pain enables an understanding of what shapes the massive “iceberg” underneath, allowing time and space to navigate an issue that feels huge and insurmountable. Those are the moments that can save a life.