Veteran’s Mental Health
- This might not be what you envision as “mental health” care, let alone “suicide prevention.” However, at the VA, getting older veterans such as McCune together to hit the track is part of a broader push to improve their lives — and possibly even to save them. Older men in the United States have been at growing risk. The starkest statistics were for men past their 75th birthdays, who were dying by suicide at more than twice the rate of men younger than 25. Read more here.
Suicide and Economic Costs
- The economic cost of suicide and nonfatal self-harm averaged $510 billion annually, the majority from life years lost to suicide. Working-aged adults (aged 25–64 years) comprised nearly 75% of the average annual economic cost of suicide, and children and younger adults (aged 10–44 years) comprised nearly 75% of the average annual economic cost of nonfatal self-harm injuries. Read more here.
The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues
- Despite high rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) among people with mental health disorders, only a third of community outpatient mental health treatment facilities in 20 high-burden states offered medications for OUD, a cross-sectional study showed. Read more here.
- House members from both parties are forming a new 7-member group to crack down on China's role in the U.S. fentanyl epidemic as part of a more aggressive push to cut off illicit supply of the lethal drug. The seven-member group will seek to boost sanctions, target money launderers, and explore trade reforms to cut off supply from China, the lawmakers say. Read more here.
Research
- The lifetime risk of mental health disorders is almost 50% and, in any year, about 25% of the population have a psychiatric disorder. Surveys were conducted with a stratified probability sample of patients receiving primary care services in a single state in 2018–2019. Medicaid and privately insured patients were surveyed by mail or telephone, respectively. More than 10% of privately insured respondents and about 20% of Medicaid respondents got or tried to get appointments for mental health care. Read more here.
- For some people with depression, finding the right medication can be a process of trial-and-error lasting for months or even years, which can worsen symptoms. However, what if doctors, when diagnosing someone with depression, could assess exactly how depression is affecting a patient’s brain and prescribe a treatment that gets it right the first time? Scientists may be a step closer to that reality. Read more here.
State Issues
- Missouri is violating federal disability law by unnecessarily institutionalizing thousands of adults with mental illness in nursing homes, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a scathing report. The report, which is based on a year-and-a-half investigation, determined that those suffering with mental illness are “subjected to unnecessary stays in nursing facilities, generally because of a series of systemic failures by the state.” Read more here.
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