General Mental Health Articles
- Americans spend more time living with diseases than people from other countries, according to a new study. The American Medical Association published its latest findings, revealing that Americans live with diseases for an average of 12.4 years. Mental and substance-use disorders, as well as musculoskeletal diseases, are main contributors to the years lived with disability in the U.S., per the study. Read more here.
- Today, anyone with a computer or smartphone can use digital mental health interventions (DMHIs), such as Calm, for insomnia, PTSD Coach for post-traumatic stress, and Sesame Street’s Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame for anxious kids. Read more here.
- It is common for individuals and communities as a whole to experience grief responses and anger about community violence, such as mass violence events. Grief is the natural response to pain, sadness, longing, and confusion that comes from losing someone or something important to you. Most people will experience grief after the death of a loved one, but grief and anger can be the result of other types of losses. Read more here.
- A federal judge has again given the state more time to end its practice of holding mental health patients in emergency departments for prolonged periods. For over a decade, people held involuntarily for mental health treatment have faced lengthy waits in the emergency room – often days or longer – before they’re transferred to an appropriate inpatient facility, because the state has too few psychiatric beds. Read more here.
- The federal government has sued South Carolina, saying the state has not done enough to make sure people with serious mental illnesses are taken out of group homes and helped to get back into the community where they can work and lead independent lives. The lawsuit said the state violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by opting, through money and policy decisions, to leave people with mental illnesses in group homes. Read more here.
Youth Mental Health
- California, home to some of the largest technology companies, would be the first U.S. state to require mental health warning labels on social media sites if lawmakers pass a bill. The legislation sponsored by state Attorney General Rob Bonta is necessary to bolster safety for children online, supporters say, but industry officials vow to fight the measure and others like it under the First Amendment. Warning labels for social media gained swift bipartisan support from dozens of attorneys general, including Bonta, after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to establish the requirements earlier this year. Read more here.
Maternal Mental Health
- The American approach to pregnancy and birth has largely been to leave families to manage the transition to new parenthood on their own. The United States is one of the only countries in the world without paid parental leave, and while a handful of states have started their own paid-leave initiatives — though Pennsylvania isn’t one of them — even these programs do not cover all workers. There is also no national program for preventing or treating postpartum mood disorders (PPMDs) — mental health conditions that include postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, PTSD, and postpartum psychosis — which affect about 15-20% of new birthing parents in America. Read more here.
988 Lifeline
- Information from Oklahoma City shows mental health-related calls dispatched to Oklahoma City police officers have dropped over 57% in the past 13 months. The reduction signals a transformational shift in the way people experiencing mental health crises in Oklahoma City are being connected with specialized support and away from emergency law enforcement intervention. Read more here.
- Sixty-two percent of Americans say it’s the federal government’s responsibility to ensure everyone has health care coverage, a survey from Gallup found. The figure is the highest it’s been in more than a decade. It slipped to its low of 42% in 2013, during the difficult rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as ObamaCare. Read more here.
Federal Policy
- The idea of requiring site-neutral payments in Medicare -- in which providers would be reimbursed at the same rate for performing the same service, regardless of where it's performed -- appears to be gaining steam on Capitol Hill. Read more here.
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