Week of October 17–21, 2022

Key topics covered during this period focus on general mental health delivery and financing issues, youth mental health, impact of the pandemic, the opioid crisis, workforce and workplace issues, health insurance reports, and policy issues including tele-health.

General Mental Health Articles

• A constant influx of bad news — pandemic, shootings, inflation, natural disasters, political turmoil — can feel, at best, soul-crushing. Now, a new study from Spain confirms the negative toll constantly being plugged into the news cycle can take. The researchers looked at how people were best able to manage feelings of anxiety and depression at the height of the pandemic, finding that one of the most effective methods was to take breaks from the barrage of bad news. Read more here.
• When Dr. Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and author of You Are Not Alone, interviewed 130 people with mental health conditions for his new book, he found a common thread among many of his interviewees: They used hobbies as a way to manage their stress and mental health.  Read more here.

Youth Mental Health

• More than 130 national and state children’s groups are asking the Biden administration to do more to address youth mental health, including by issuing an emergency declaration on the issue — the latest amplification of the seriousness of the youth mental health crisis. The letter came a year after child and adolescent psychiatrists, children's hospitals and pediatricians declared their own state of emergency over the dramatic uptick in children’s mental health concerns. Read more here.
• New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is styling himself as the governor taking on the youth mental health crisis. But while he was celebrating his state’s investments in mental health services this week, parents, educators, lawmakers, and advocates were excoriating his administration for attempting to defund school-based programs they say have saved students’ lives. Read more here.
• As the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, one of the nation's top doctors is warning Ohioans to prepare for a crisis exacerbated by years of social distancing and shuttered schools — youth mental health. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy visited Columbus on Tuesday to meet with leaders and hear from young people at local colleges and hospitals about mental health. In an interview with The Dispatch, he called youth mental health "the defining challenge of our country." Read more here.
• The return to in-person classes this school year has been so exciting for children, teens, educators and families. They’re glad to be back to friends, after-school activities and opportunities for growth. But more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot ignore that students of all ages are dealing with very real burnout, leading to anxiety and depression that affects mental well-being and their abilities to succeed inside and outside of school. Read more here.
• Untold numbers of families like Rachel’s are dealing with myriad challenges finding and paying for mental health care, and then ending up in debt. There are too few therapists and psychologists in the U.S. — and fewer still who accept insurance. That compounds the financial toll on families. Tabulating the impact isn’t easy. Many do what Rachel did: They refinance their houses, drain college savings, or borrow from family. Read more here.

Impact of the Pandemic

• New research from the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that various state restrictions and lockdowns imposed during the first 6 months of the pandemic were not related to worsening mental health. The study is published in Health Psychology. The research was based on data collected from a survey of more than 6,500 participants at the start of the pandemic from March 18 to April 18, 2020, and answers were compared with the same survey given to 5,600 of the same participants about 6 months later: from Sept. 26 to Oct. 16, 2020. Read more here.
• With over 1 million deaths in the US from Covid-19, and close to 100 million cases of infection since the pandemic began, almost everyone in the nation has been touched by the disease in some way. CNN Opinion asked health care and policy experts about their proposed solutions to refine our health care system so that it best serves all Americans. Read more here.

The Opioid Crisis

• Allergy medications like antihistamines can provide relief during autumn, but a new study suggests they may be lethal to victims of the opioid epidemic. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified approximately 92,000 drug overdose deaths in 43 states and Washington, D.C., between 2019 and 2020, and found at least 18% involved or tested positive for antihistamines. More than 71% of those deaths included diphenhydramine, commonly known by its brand name Benadryl.  Read more here.
• Every eight minutes, someone in the US overdoses on opioids. With the current opioid and fentanyl crisis, many people have heard of Naloxone or its brand name Narcan. The medication counteracts overdoses within two to five minutes. Law enforcement officers and even schools have it on hand. Now, pharmacists are urging members of the public to carry it too. Read more here.

Workforce Issues

• Kaiser Permanente and the National Union of Healthcare Workers inked a proposed four-year contract, ending the 10-week standoff between mental health workers and the Oakland-based integrated health system. More than 2,000 therapists, chemical dependency counselors and social workers in Northern California went on strike Aug. 15, claiming that insufficient staffing levels and long wait times jeopardized patients. About 50 mental health care workers at Kaiser Permanente sites in Hawaii joined the strike in late August. Read more here. (A free account is required to read this article.)
• Investing in mental health resources, standardizing technology usage, and supporting diverse recruitment efforts are among the National Academy of Medicine's recommendation to support healthcare workers and address widespread and worsening burnout. The National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being, released Wednesday, details the need for healthcare leaders, insurers, educators, and government agencies to work together to reduce administrative burdens and the strain healthcare workers face on the job. Read more here. (A free account is required to read this article.)  

Health Insurance and Health Care Spending

• As consumers choose a 2023 health insurance plan from employers in coming weeks, many will find rate hikes are modest when compared to everyday living expenses. It’s the first time in over three decades that overall inflation accelerated at a faster rate than medical costs. It might not last long. Just like gas, groceries and used cars, the cost of medical care is rising in the third year of the coronavirus pandemic. Read more here.

Federal and State Policy

• The government announced plans to award millions of dollars in grants to expand all-hours mental health and substance abuse care in more communities around the country. “Today we’re talking about providing to Americans 24/7 support for crisis care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said. “That’s something that’s only been available to some, in some places. But depending on your income and ZIP code, you could be totally out of luck. That’s going to start to change.” Read more here.
• President Biden is calling for new payment and delivery models that will lower drug prices in a new executive order. The order calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to craft a report outlining the payment models that will test how to improve access to innovative drugs and lower costs for those in Medicare and Medicaid. While the order doesn’t grant any new authorities to HHS, it underscores the administration’s next steps in lowering drug prices. Read more here.
• Red tape and restrictions on telemedicine — health care services provided to patients remotely via the internet or telephone — need to be removed to make such care viable, particularly state licensing requirements and insurance reimbursement policies that require in-person visits. During the pandemic, states and insurers overnight did what years of advocacy for telemedicine had failed to accomplish. Read more here.
• One of the most urgent topics in Tennessee right now is criminal justice reform. With 80% of all Tennessee crimes relating to drugs in one way or another, obviously the conversation must include treatment for mental health and substance use disorder.  Fortunately, this seems to be the case.  Shortly after Memphis' crimes hit national media, a legislator tweeted, “We need a comprehensive rebuild of the entire criminal justice system. That means more support for mental health and substance abuse.”  Science backs this statement up. Read more here.