General Mental Health Issues
- Roughly two-thirds of Americans with a diagnosed mental health condition were unable to access treatment in 2021, though they had health insurance. And only a third of insured people who visited an emergency department or hospital during a mental health crisis, received follow-up care within a month of being discharged. These are among the findings of a new report by the actuary firm Milliman, released Wednesday. Read more here.
- At this time of year, everywhere around there are full of holiday images of family gatherings, brightly lit trees, lavish gifts and tables laden with rich foods, beverages and desserts. For those whose depression and anxiety is triggered by the holiday season and those who have lost a loved one, a treasured pet, or even a job and are grieving, the holidays can be tough to navigate. Read more here.
- For more than two decades, the Annenberg Public Policy Center has tracked the ways in which news organizations erroneously link the year-end holiday season with suicide, perpetuating the false holiday-suicide myth. But as years of national data show, the winter holiday months usually have low average daily suicide rates, with December the lowest of all. In our new media analysis, we find that of the newspaper stories during the 2022-23 holiday season that explicitly connected the holidays with suicide, 60% correctly debunked the myth while 40% incorrectly supported it. Read more here.
- Sonoma County is expanding its mobile mental health crisis response teams to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will create a dedicated hotline and dispatch center by the end of the year. The expansion is part of a state-mandated change to Medi-Cal, which will require 24/7 crisis response teams as a benefit starting in 2024. Read more here.
- Americans' physical and mental health are suffering more than before the pandemic, new data shows. The big picture: More Americans reported diabetes diagnoses, less regular healthy eating, high cholesterol and lower confidence this year, compared with before the pandemic, according to Gallup survey data released Thursday. Read more here.
- Tucked within Congress’ colossal annual defense bill is a priority a vocal group of Texas conservatives has long pushed: Using psychedelics to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. The U.S. House voted Thursday to pass the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the spending caps and policy priorities for the Defense Department. Included in the bill was U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s Douglas Mike Day Psychedelic Therapy to Save Lives Act, legislation that will direct the Defense Department to create grants for studying psychedelic treatments for active duty service members. Read more here.
Youth Mental Health
- Nearly 1 in 5 teens say they're on YouTube or TikTok "almost constantly," according to a Pew Research Center report. Why it matters: The report paints a picture of a rising generation whose lives are dominated by a handful of social platforms — amid ongoing debate over the possible mental health harms that could result. Read more here.
- Adults know the stress that comes with holiday cheer. Across the country, teens are also feeling a mental health slump as they step away for Christmas break. Students in Denver have a new resource to help them cope, and it's already in the palm of their hands. Caring for Denver is partnering with Crisis Text Line to expand free, 24/7 mental health text support for students. Read more here.
- At Newburgh Free Academy in New York, cell phones are locked away for the entire school day, including lunch. Students like Tyson Hill and Monique May say it is a relief after constantly being on their phones during the COVID-19 lockdown, when screen time among adolescents more than doubled, according to a study last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. Read more here.
Older Adult Mental Health
- Recent data shows suicide among older people has risen precipitously. The U.S. suicide rates reached an 80-year high in 2022 of nearly 50,000 people, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The rate of 14.3 suicides per 100,000 people is the highest it has been since 1941. Deaths among people younger than 25 have declined from 2021, however, and suicides among people older than 35 have risen. Men tend to have higher suicide rates as they age. Read more here.
Gun Violence and Mental Health
- City dwellers have long noticed that gentrifying neighborhoods report more gun violence. Now, a study, published in Jama Surgery earlier this year and conducted by a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School with Brigham and Women’s hospital, shows just how much – and could suggest new ways to combat gun violence. Read more here.
- Children and teens involved in unintentional fatal shootings most commonly found the gun inside or on top of a nightstand, under a mattress or pillow, or on top of a bed, according to a new federal study. Why it matters: The data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which covers nearly 20 years of deadly firearm accidents among America's youth, demonstrates why putting a gun out of sight or out of reach is not "safe storage," federal researchers said. Read more here.
- President Biden and several other Democratic lawmakers pushed for gun reform on the 11th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. “Eleven years ago, the souths of Newtown, Connecticut, and the nation were pierced forever when twenty-six lives were stolen at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a lone shooter,” Biden posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, adding that he and the first lady were praying for the families and survivors. Read more here.
- Aaron, 13, was exhausted, but his performance was night and day from this summer, when simply walking was a challenge. Aaron was shot in the head in June. More kids and teens have been getting injured in Florida in recent years, as gun violence among young people becomes a growing problem nationally. It’s the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., and one of the top in Florida. But even those who survive shootings can face lifelong challenges. Read more here.
The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues
- Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan to be sold over the counter. That means that residents in every state can buy it at their local pharmacy without a prescription — at least in theory. In reality, access remains patchy. As the Mississippi researchers and other studies have found, pharmacies don’t always keep the drug in stock. Read more here.
- Fentanyl has continued to tighten its deadly grip on Los Angeles, with the synthetic opioid causing the majority of fatal overdoses countywide in 2022. For the first time in recent years, fentanyl surpassed methamphetamine as the most common drug listed as a cause of overdose deaths, according to a recent report from the L.A. County Department of Public Health. Fentanyl was blamed in almost 60% of all accidental drug or alcohol overdoses in 2022, the report said, and has continued to disproportionately kill Black Angelenos. Read more here.
Health Insurance and Health Care Spending
- Health care spending growth in the United States may be settling back into pre-pandemic patterns, a new federal analysis of 2022 health expenditures suggests. The big picture: Medicare actuaries said slower spending growth last year stemmed from the end of the federal government's COVID-19 relief payments, which caused health spending to spike in 2020. Read more here.
LGBTQ Issues
- The Ohio Senate passed legislation Wednesday to prevent doctors from administering gender-affirming health care to transgender minors and bar trans student athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Ohio’s House Bill 68 passed the state’s Republican-controlled Senate in a 24-8 vote largely along party lines. One Republican — state Sen. Nathan Manning — voted with all Democrats against the measure, which will need to clear a final House vote before it is sent to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who has so far declined to say whether he will sign it. Read more here.
- Missouri Republican lawmakers have pre-filed more than 20 bills aimed at restricting LGBTQ rights ahead of the 2024 legislative session, which begins next month. For Kale Marie Michael, a 22-year-old transgender woman from Kansas City, it feels like her community is always under attack. Read more here.
- LGBTQ Americans have long experienced discrimination, stigmas, and exclusion in the health care system. In a survey last year, nearly a quarter (24 percent) said that during a doctor's appointment, they were blamed for their own health problems, compared to only 9 percent of non-LGBTQ respondents. And 16 percent said they were denied medical services; less than half as many non-LGBTQ respondents said the same. These negative experiences in the health care system have a dramatic impact on their overall health. LGBTQ Americans are more likely to suffer from even common illnesses and diseases, and to lack the necessary treatment to get better. Read more here.
Medicaid Redetermination
- North Carolina children insured through Medicaid will remain covered for another year as the state works its way through recertifications of everyone on the program. Health experts praise the move, which they say should help protect children from losing coverage over procedural issues when they would otherwise still be eligible during the process known as the “unwinding,” where states have been disenrolling people who gained Medicaid during the pandemic. Read more here.
Federal and State Policy
- After years of working to find solutions and deliver resources to our communities to combat the substance use disorder epidemic, Congress finally made progress in 2018. For the first time, we passed into law a comprehensive, bipartisan legislative package aimed at mitigating the harmful effects of opioids, largely driven by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family's deceptive and aggressive marketing of OxyContin. In the five years since it was signed into law, the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) Act has been a critical guidebook for health care workers, law enforcement personnel, and policymakers to respond to this crisis on the front lines. Read more here.
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