Week of January 15–19, 2024

General Mental Health Issues

• New Jersey mental health professionals can now practice in 31 other states, thanks to a bill Gov. Murphy signed into law Wednesday. Bill S3061 also lets licensed counselors from other states practice in New Jersey through telehealth services, bypassing the need for multiple state licenses. Developed in response to the mental health crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, the law aims to ease the shortage of mental health practitioners, as reports of depression, substance abuse and suicide are on the rise. Read more here.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced the Innovation in Behavioral Health Model, a new approach that is designed to test for improving outcomes for adults with mental health and substance use disorder. Beginning this fall, the model is intended to funnel adults in Medicare and Medicaid to the "physical, behavioral and social supports" they need, according to a press release. The proposal embraces a “no wrong door” approach that allows people to obtain all services they need, regardless of how they first seek out care. Read more here.

Youth Mental Health Issues

• For years, Colorado has fallen behind in providing mental health care for its residents. After hearing public testimony from hundreds of people across the state about the number of barriers to accessing care, the state formed the Behavioral Health Administration. It was tasked with improving the system as a whole but identified an urgent need to improve access for children. "I wouldn't say it's easy to navigate at all," said Blair Skinner, clinical director of the Early Childhood Wellness Place in Broomfield. Read more here.

Veterans and Mental Health

• Nearly 50,000 veterans received free emergency suicide prevention care in 2023, the first year of the program, the Department of Veterans Affairs planned to announce. In January 2023, the Department of Veterans Affairs instituted a new policy allowing eligible veterans and certain former service members in acute suicidal crisis to go to any VA or non-VA health care facility to receive emergency care at no cost. The policy covers emergency room, inpatient, or crisis residential care for up to 30 days and outpatient care for up to 90 days. Read more here.
• Military families may get easier access to mental health outpatient care and counseling under two new provisions in the recently signed defense policy law. The fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act allows Defense Department health officials to waive out-of-pocket costs for the first three outpatient mental health visits each year for active-duty families using Tricare. However, the Defense Department hasn’t yet decided whether to make the cost cuts a reality for the more than 1.5 million active duty family members who could benefit from the new law. Read more here.

Gun Safety

• "If you see something, say something." That's not just a slogan for subway stations and airports. It's also a concept embraced by the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System, started by the non-profit Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. Schools in 23 states have set up an anonymous tip line serving more than five million students in grades 6-12. The idea is to report unusual behaviors or potential acts of gun violence by other students. Read more here.
• In news shared exclusively with The 19th, GIFFORDS, the gun safety advocacy organization founded by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has named veteran campaign manager Emma Brown as its new executive director. The group recently marked its 10-year anniversary, and as the 2024 races shape up, it is looking to connect with purple- and red-state voters around gun safety and gun violence prevention. Read more here.

The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues

• In March 2022, three members of the Sackler family listened as more than two dozen people on Zoom addressed them in a federal bankruptcy court in New York. For over two hours, the speakers talked about their own struggles with opioid use disorder and the loved ones lost to an overdose involving OxyContin. Most of all, they expressed their anger at the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma ("Purdue"), the company that manufactured and marketed OxyContin, for the role they played in driving the opioid overdose epidemic. Read more here.
• A new study has found that there was no association between using cannabis and non-medical opioid use in people receiving pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder. The findings neither confirm that using cannabis leads to opioid use, nor that it’s effective in reducing it. Cannabis has gained popularity, in part due to its widespread legalization, leading to the perception that due to its lower associated risks compared to “harder” drugs, it can be an effective treatment for drug addiction, especially opioids. Read more here.
• An advisory group formed to help Michigan tackle high rates of opioid overdoses in communities of color has been disbanded by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration, leading to hard feelings among some members who say their work is being buried. Read more here.

 Climate Change and Mental Health

• After a hurricane, flood, wildfire, or other disaster strikes, a great tallying commences: the number of people injured and killed, buildings damaged and destroyed, acres of land burned, inundated, or contaminated. Every death is recorded, every insured home assessed, the damage to every road and bridge calculated in dollars lost. When the emergency recedes, the insurance companies settle their claims, the federal government doles out its grants, and communities are expected to rebuild. However, accounting misses a crucial piece of the aftermath: worsening disasters are leaving invisible mental health crises in their wake. Read more here.

988 Hotline

• One of the first lessons Scott Brettell teaches his high school students is the importance of being last. The last person to stay with someone through their last moments — even if only over the phone. Brettell and about a dozen students are pioneering a new emergency telecommunications course in Calhan School District RJ-1 that gives students an entryway into a dispatch job they can pursue immediately after high school. Read more here.

Health Insurance

• New federal rules requiring health insurers to streamline requests to cover treatments are being hailed as a good first step toward addressing a problem that's increasingly aggravated patients and doctors. However, it may not be Washington's last word on so-called prior authorization, as lawmakers look to jumpstart legislation that would further limit the practice. Read more here.
• With more than 4 million enrollees, Florida is again leading the country in the number of people who have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Florida’s total of 4,034,546 is ahead of last year’s count by about 800,000, according to the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. That was the second-largest increase in the nation behind Texas, which recorded 880,000 new plans. National projections show a quarter more Americans signed up for coverage this year compared to last — another record-breaking year when 16.3 million enrolled in the program. Read more here.

Gender-Affirming Care

• The Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling allowing transgender students in Indiana to access school restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. The justices in a brief order denied a request from a central Indiana school district to hear the case, which centers around a now-teenage transgender boy who was barred from using the boys restrooms at his former middle school. Transgender students have filed lawsuits across the country challenging their districts’ policies, contending they violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination. Read more here.
• For the last two years, Koen has routinely self-administered weekly testosterone injections without a second thought. During that time, the trans 17-year-old said his self-image and school and family life has drastically improved. His fear of needles has also faded. At the start of the year, though, a greater worry emerged. A new law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Louisiana took effect, prohibiting puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender-reaffirming surgery. Now, Koen isn’t sure he could continue his hormone treatment. Read more here.
• The Republican-led South Carolina House overwhelmingly approved a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors on Wednesday, while a Missouri legislative committee discussed a slew of like-minded proposals. The consideration in the two GOP strongholds highlights the continued interest among conservative lawmakers in targeting issues that impact LGBTQ+ people after a wave of high-profile bills last year. The South Carolina proposal will soon head to the state Senate, where the chair of the Medical Affairs Committee has said it would have his attention. Read more here.

Federal and State Policy

• Congress sent President Joe Biden a short-term spending bill that would avert a looming partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies into March. The House approved the measure by a vote of 314-108, with opposition coming mostly from the more conservative members of the Republican conference. Shortly before the vote, the House Freedom Caucus announced it “strongly opposes” the measure because it would facilitate more spending than they support. Nevertheless, about half of Republicans joined with Democrats in passing the third stopgap funding measure in recent months. Read more here.
• Washington State lawmakers may be in an abbreviated legislative session, but there’s still enough time for them to pass important legislation that will ultimately save lives. House Bill 1956, and its companion bill, Senate Bill 5923, does just that. By request from Gov. Jay Inslee, the legislation would require all public middle and high schools to educate students on the dangers of opioids, particularly the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Read more here.