- A nonprofit that helps FDNY and their families with mental health counseling says they're seeing record high numbers when it comes to people reaching out for help. They tell CBS New York's Shosh Bedrosian the culture around mental health in the community continues to improve, but some calls for help can have a long-lasting impact. Read more here.
- Children and adolescents who have been physically assaulted are nearly twice as likely as their peers to develop mental illness after the assault — and the risk is even higher in the first year after an incident, research suggests. The analysis, published in JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, looked at the medical records of 27,435 children in Ontario, Canada, including 5,487 kids who had been at an emergency room or hospital after a physical assault between 2006 and 2014 before age 14. Read more here.
- Three influential groups of pediatricians and emergency medicine providers are pleading for more support and resources as the number of children and teenagers with mental health concerns overwhelm emergency departments nationwide. Saidinejad is the lead author of a joint policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Nurses Association released Wednesday. The groups are calling for local communities to increase access to mental health services before emergency care is needed. Read more here.
- Mental health providers say they hope the opening of four new urgent crisis centers can be the start of a new system of caring for children’s mental health needs. Providers say they hope the centers can offer a quicker, holistic approach as walk-in clinics for kids in crisis with acute mental health needs. Advocates hope this can be a profound shift in providing mental health care. They want kids to be able to gain access to services they need without languishing on waitlists. It’s a system providers refer to as the “warm handoff.” Read more here.
- Bullying in schools has shot up over the past five years, according to an annual survey by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Why it matters: Years of pandemic disruption have caused students to struggle with stress management, problem solving and peer relationships, the survey found. Driving the news: 40% of child and teen respondents said they were bullied on school campuses in the past year, according to the Youth Right Now survey, conducted annually by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Read more here.
- A new trend has emerged on social media: A child stands at a kitchen counter, waiting to watch their parent crack an egg into a bowl as they cook together. At the very last moment, the adult breaks it against the child’s forehead instead. The children’s ages and reactions vary in the TikTok videos. While some older children can be seen laughing along with their parent, many feature younger children who appear stunned or visibly upset as their parent laughs at them. And experts are concerned that the trend could be harmful. Read more here.
- Juan Campos has been working to save at-risk teens from gun violence for 16 years. As a street outreach worker in Oakland, California, he has seen the pull and power of gangs. And he offers teens support when they’ve emerged from the juvenile justice system, advocates for them in school, and, if needed, helps them find housing, mental health services, and treatment for substance abuse. But, he said, he’s never confronted a force as formidable as social media, where small boasts and disputes online can escalate into deadly violence in schoolyards and on street corners. Read more here.
Older Adult and Mental Health Issues
- The pandemic drew a lot of attention to young people's mental health. But older people have suffered, too. Many are struggling with loneliness, anxiety, or substance abuse. Fewer than half of older adults who need mental health care get it, according to the National Council on Aging. "One reason is that professionals are under-trained to treat the mental health needs of older adults," says Regina Koepp, a clinical psychologist based in Vermont, and the founder of the Center for Mental Health and Aging. "Many professionals feel quite incompetent and will say that they just don't treat older adults." Read more here.
Climate Change and Mental Health
- "They've lost family, they've lost their pets. They've lost everything," says south Maui clinical social worker Debbie Scott. She says for some who had to flee the flames, the initial shock is now giving way to wrenching anxiety, nightmares, anxiety, depression and sometimes anger, as the depth of the trauma settles in. Survivors are still dealing with physical challenges like where they'll be living in the coming weeks and months. But size of the emotional and psychological toll here is coming into sharper focus as the need for mental health support is growing. Read more here.
- Before wildfire ravaged the Hawaiian community of Lahaina last week, high school teacher Mike Landes was always the guy arguing that academics come first - before worries about the social and emotional development of the students. But as parents, teachers and students begin trickling back to school after wildfires ravaged the community in the western part of Hawaii's island of Maui, mental health, he now insists, must take priority. Read more here.
- This past spring, three children and three adults were shot and killed at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, in the community I live and work. That was the most challenging day of my career. It began like any other day but ended full of sirens, tears and countless texts from parents, friends and families across our community. I saw the emotional breakdown of my colleagues in a way I had never before. But I also witnessed this turmoil beginning to churn into action. Read more here.
- Gun-related deaths among children in the U.S. reached a distressing peak in 2021, claiming 4,752 young lives and surpassing the record total seen during the first year of the pandemic, a new analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data found. The alarming statistic clearly indicated that America’s gun violence epidemic has gotten worse, experts say. More than 80% of the gun deaths were among males 19 and younger. Black male children were more likely to die from homicide. White males 19 and younger were more likely to kill themselves with guns. Read more here.
The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues
- Young adults are drinking less than in decades before, according to recent findings from Gallup. Just 62 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 say they drink, according to the findings, a drop from 72 percent two decades ago. Adults who are 55 and older, meanwhile, are drinking more. Gallup found 59 percent in this category say they drink, compared to 49 percent two decades ago. People aged 35 to 54 maintain a higher drinking rate, at 69 percent, similar to prior readings of 67 percent for this age group, according to Gallup. Read more here.
Health Insurance and Health Care Costs
- Middle-class Americans are the most likely to be saddled with medical debt, with nearly 1 in 4 — or roughly 17 million people — having unpaid medical bills, according to a report shared first with Axios from center-left think tank Third Way. Driving the news: Middle-income Americans, who earn $50,000-$100,000 a year, are more likely than those with lower incomes to seek care but don't qualify for Medicaid or charity care to help pay for it. People with lower incomes are only slightly less likely to have medical debt, if only because they're delaying or not getting care they worry about affording. Read more here.
- The 2024 Large Employer Health Care Strategy Survey asked employers a series of questions to gauge their perspectives on critical health care topics, such as the role that health and well-being play in overall workforce strategy and critical actions needed to advance health care quality. As in years past, the survey gathered key plan design and health care cost data to create aggregate findings on how employer-sponsored health care will change in the coming year. Read more here.
- Facing a tight labor market and rising health care costs, employers are wrestling with how to afford a new wave of pricey, highly effective treatments without forcing workers to bear too much of the cost. Why it matters: From emerging gene and cell-based therapies in cancer and other conditions to a buzzy class of weight-loss drugs, the landscape for game-changing treatments has never been quite so promising — or expensive for employers. Read more here.
Medicaid Redetermination and Related Policy Issues
- Nearly 68,400 people in North Carolina have lost Medicaid since the state resumed terminations in June, with the vast majority being kicked off the rolls for what are essentially paperwork issues. The purge follows the expiration of the continuous coverage requirement, a federal provision that prevented states from disenrolling Medicaid participants — old and newly qualified recipients — for the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The mandate, which ended in April, allowed beneficiaries to bypass the annual — and sometimes semiannual — renewal process for Medicaid. Read more here.
- Virginia has booted 140,000 residents from Medicaid this year. What's happening: States around the country are returning to normal enrollment practices after the end of the COVID-19 state of emergency. That means resuming checks to make sure patients still meet monthly income limits and other requirements. Yes, but: Many who qualify are still losing coverage, the Virginia Mercury's Meghan McIntyre reports. 43% of enrollees were booted for procedural problems, not because they weren't eligible, per health care nonprofit KFF. Read more here.
- As Missouri and all states begin reassessing the eligibility of every Medicaid participant on their rolls, one major concern is that many are losing coverage due to paperwork issues rather than a lack of eligibility. Missouri’s process of evaluating all 1.5 million Medicaid recipients on its rolls began with renewals due in June and will take a year. Of those who lost coverage in June and July, three-quarters lost it for what are called procedural reasons rather than being determined ineligible. Read more here.
- As Florida continues its Medicaid redetermination process, state data shows more than half of those removed from Medicaid, were terminated for so-called “procedural,” reasons, like not responding to mail, outdated contact information or computer glitches. New data shows that when people reach out to the Department of Children & Families, help is hard to find despite DCF's plans and efforts to contact recipients. Florida has the second-highest amount of terminated recipients in the country, behind Texas. About 55% were terminated for "procedural reasons," such as not responding to DCF inquiries regarding redetermination. Read more here.
- Florida's Medicaid redetermination process is headed to court. Why it matters: A lawsuit filed against Florida health officials Tuesday marks the first legal challenge to how states are dropping some enrollees from program rolls after the end of a pandemic-era policy that protected coverage. Driving the news: Three Floridians, including two children, claim the state illegally cut their Medicaid coverage by not providing adequate information and denying them the opportunity for a pre-termination hearing. They say information from the state about expiring coverage is confusing and that notices don't fully explain whether a person is still eligible. Read more here.
- The Texas Congressional Democratic Delegation says nearly 600,000 Texans have lost their Medicaid coverage over the past four months, and 81% of those individuals were wrongly removed. They’re now demanding the federal government investigate and hold the state accountable for what they call grave failures. This all unfolded after whistleblowers penned a three-page letter to the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Read more here.
- A group that advocates for Medicaid recipients is asking the federal government to intervene and delay the state's unwinding of the Medicaid rolls. Arkansas Community Organizations, a self-described grassroots nonprofit that advocates for social and economic justice, delivered letters to the Little Rock offices of U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton on Tuesday asking them to lobby federal officials to pause Arkansas' unwinding of the Medicaid rolls. The group also visited Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' office at the state Capitol. Read more here.
- Thousands are losing Medicaid coverage as the state redetermines Montanans’ eligibility. Federal officials say the state is trying to move through the process too fast, leading to procedural errors and confusion among enrollees. The state health department says it’s processing cases in a “timely and accurate manner.” But there are real consequences when someone is accidentally booted from the rolls. Kelli Whithorn has spent countless hours trying to get a real person to pick up the phone on Montana’s public assistance helpline. Read more here.
- Of about 97,000 Wisconsin residents asked to renew their Medicaid eligibility in July, about 44,000 lost coverage and another 44,000 retained coverage, the state Department of Health Services said Thursday. More than 8,000 cases are pending. The 44,000 whose coverage ended includes about 14,000 people who initiated the renewal process and were found ineligible, and about 30,000 people who didn’t try to renew. Those who didn’t file renewal paperwork can do so within three months and potentially regain coverage. Read more here.
- Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed paperwork creating a new state health plan for low-income residents to much fanfare at the state Capitol three years ago. But public health experts and advocates say since it launched on July 1, state officials appear to be doing little to promote or enroll people in the nation’s only Medicaid program that makes recipients meet a work requirement. The Georgia Department of Community Health, which has projected up to 100,000 people could eventually benefit from Georgia Pathways to Coverage, had approved just 265 applications by early August. Read more here.
State Bans on Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ Issues
- The number of gender-affirming surgeries in the U.S. nearly tripled from 2016 to 2019 before dropping slightly in 2020, according to a study published Wednesday. The increase likely reflects expanded insurance coverage for transgender care after the Obama administration and some states actively discouraged discrimination based on gender identity, lead author Dr. Jason Wright of Columbia University said. The dip in 2020 can be attributed to the pandemic. About 48,000 patients underwent such surgeries during the five years studied, with about 13,000 procedures done in 2019, the peak year, and 12,800 in 2020. Read more here.
- A U.S. appeals court on Monday revived a Republican-backed Alabama law banning the use of puberty blocking drugs and hormones to treat gender dysphoria in transgender minors, a day after a judge blocked a similar Georgia law. A three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the families and physicians challenging the law "have not presented any authority that supports the existence of a constitutional right" for parents to treat their children with "transitioning medications subject to medically accepted standards." Read more here.
- A federal judge's decision to block part of Georgia's ban on most gender-affirming care for minors is throwing a new legal wrinkle into state efforts to restrict care for transgender youths. Driving the news: U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Geraghty, a Biden appointee, wrote the state's hormone-therapy ban likely violates the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause and carries imminent risks of depression, anxiety, disordered eating, self-harm and suicidal ideation for transgender youths. The order, issued on Sunday, didn't block part of the law banning Georgia physicians from performing gender transition surgery. Read more here.
- Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey and the families of transgender children are in court this week fighting over whether a new law banning minors from receiving gender-affirming health care will take effect as scheduled Monday. Lawyers last month sued to overturn the law on behalf of three families of transgender minors, doctors and two LGBTQ+ organizations. They asked a county judge to temporarily block the law as the court challenge against it plays out. Hearings over pausing the law are taking place this week in Springfield. A judge is expected to rule before Monday. Read more here.
- Insurance companies in New Hampshire can no longer require their members to get prior authorization before getting coverage for emergency mental health or substance use care when it is provided by a mobile crisis team, outside a licensed hospital. The new law, Senate Bill 85, is intended to make it easier for people to get insurance coverage for crisis care immediately, outside the emergency room, without having to wait for an insurance company’s approval. Read more here.
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