Week of October 7–11, 2024

General Mental Health Articles

• With the upcoming presidential election less than a month away, there's a lot of uncertainty in the news. That's leaving many people feeling powerless and anxious. It's understandable; the election is a big event with significant outcomes that will impact policy going forward. According to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association, 73% of Americans said they were anxious about the 2024 U.S. election. Read more here.
• More than 370 million girls and women alive today, or one in every eight worldwide, experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18, the United Nations children's agency said. The number rises to 650 million, or one in five, when taking into account "non-contact" forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse, UNICEF reported, in what it called the first global survey of the problem. Read more here.
• Current and former employees identified at least nine clinical psychologists and psychologists-in-training who have left the Hawaiian correctional system since 2022, an alarming rate of departure that has left facilities short-handed. The department’s mental health branch administrator position also has been vacant since early this year. Read more here.

Youth Mental Health

• With rising rents and evictions, and decreased access to federal public housing, the use of extended-stay hotels as a long-term option is becoming more frequent. Like other forms of homelessness, hotel living can lead to — or exacerbate — physical and mental health problems for children, say advocates for families and researchers who study homelessness. Read more here.
• More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok, saying that the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms their mental health. The lawsuits stem from a national investigation into TikTok, which was launched in March 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from many states, including New York, California, Kentucky, and New Jersey. All of the complaints were filed in state courts. Read more here.
• On Thursday, the CDC released new data showing that almost 15.5 million U.S. adults are living with ADHD. More than half of those individuals received their diagnosis in adulthood. That includes me. The diagnosis came as a relief and validation — a way to understand years of impulsivity, inattention, and struggles with daily life. I was diagnosed at age 36, after first one, then two, and ultimately, four of my five children were also diagnosed with ADHD.  Read more here.

Suicide Prevention

• Nearly all U.S. adults agree that more action can be taken to reduce suicide deaths, with about three-fifths also reporting they have been personally affected by suicide, according to national survey data. Sixty-one percent of adults said they know someone who has considered, attempted, or died by suicide, according to the 2024 Public Perception of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Poll, conducted by The Harris Poll. The biennial survey found that number has consistently risen, from 53% in 2018, to 55% in 2020, and to 59% in 2022. Read more here. 

Climate Change and Mental Health

• Mountain residents have taken to online platforms to describe the mental stress induced by the catastrophic loss of life and property. They report feeling traumatized, shocked, overwhelmed, and alone. Several have posted about waking to imaginary sounds of trees breaking or nightmares. Others said they’re struggling to simply drive down familiar roads. Those who’ve evacuated express varying levels of survivor guilt. While surrounding communities, nonprofits, and local and federal emergency responders rush to rescue people and meet their basic daily needs, mental health providers inside and outside of North Carolina want to help, too. Read more here.

The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues

• Associate Professor of Sociology at Saint Louis University, Liz Chiarello, argues that new drug surveillance programs called Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) blur the lines between law enforcement and health care. In her recently published book, “Policing Patients: Treatment and Surveillance on the Frontlines of the Opioid Crisis,” Chiarello discusses instances of patients being denied care and doctors being prosecuted for overprescribing pain medications. Read more here.
• White House officials say more than 250 companies, universities, labor groups, and other organizations have joined a national effort to reduce drug overdose deaths. They’ve agreed to stock free doses of naloxone, also known as Narcan, that quickly reverses most fentanyl-opioid overdoses. Read more here.

Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ Issues

• A leading national survey finds that 22% of LGBTQ+ women respondents have attempted suicide, and 66% reported seeking treatment for trauma. These findings are included in a report released from the Urvashi Vaid National LGBTQ+ Women’s Community Survey, named after the late lesbian activist. The report comes from analysis of a national survey of 5,000 LGBTQ+ respondents who previously or currently identify as a woman, conducted between June 2021 and June 2022. Read more here.

Mental Health Parity

• The ink had scarcely dried on new federal rules for enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 when U.S. health plans threatened potential legal action to block them. Buoyed by a recent Supreme Court ruling that shifts power away from federal agencies, health plans apparently hope to keep the departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services from making parity a reality, years after Congress passed the law with resounding bipartisan support. Read more here.

Federal Policy

• Kamala Harris, during an appearance on “The View,” is expected to announce a new policy aimed at helping families care for aging seniors. The vice president will propose establishing a home care benefit through Medicare focused on helping families afford the cost of caring for seniors at home instead of in nursing facilities, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to share details of the proposal. Read more here.
• Vice President Harris is putting health care front and center in the campaign with a month to go before the election, looking to repeat past Democratic successes. Abortion has been the primary health issue for much of the campaign, but Harris is reopening Democrats’ 2018 playbook, when they took control of the House in a “blue wave” in large part by elevating threats to Obamacare and painting former President Trump as an existential risk to their economic and health security. Read more here.