General Mental Health Articles
- Employers want the Trump administration to take a fresh look at the Biden administration’s mental health parity rule, which requires insurers to cover mental health and substance use treatment on the same level as other types of care. Insurers and employers have argued that workforce shortages are the main drivers of barriers to mental health care and that the Biden administration’s rule could lower quality of care for patients and increase costs for employers. Read more here.
- Clinics that treat eating disorders are evolving, nationally and in Colorado, to deal with yet another disturbing result of the pandemic — people with anorexia or bulimia are now far sicker by the time they seek help. Experts blame the isolation of the pandemic for the delay in care and the overall stress of living through such uncertain times for the reason many people relapsed or developed eating disorders as a coping mechanism. Read more here.
- The Biden administration finalized a long-awaited rule laying out how some health care providers can prescribe gold-standard opioid use disorder treatments through telehealth. The final rule from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services allows providers who have not had an in-person visit with a patient to prescribe six months’ worth of buprenorphine through telehealth, including through audio-only visits. Read more here.
Gun Violence and Mental Health
- Gun violence in the U.S. is typically tracked by logging shooting incidents, victims, or homicide arrests. This tragedy reveals an overlooked casualty count: the grieving children left behind. Studies show that children bereaved after the death of a parent are at risk of long-term effects, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and academic and behavioral problems. Read more here.
- More than 1,000 teens gathered to learn how to recognize the signs of suicide and strategies that could help save a life. The gathering came at a time when suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24 in Texas, according to the Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas. Read more here.
Veteran Mental Health Issues
- Since 2018, according to an internal VA report, community care referrals increased by an average of 15-20% every year, with a rising number of veterans seeking emergency care, geriatric care, and other forms of health care in the private sector. The report, generated by a panel of independent experts, also advised that the VA focus on bringing veterans back into the VA system. Congress also addressed the issue of VA wait times as part of a sweeping bill signed into law. Read more here.
Climate and Mental Health
- Entire neighborhoods in Southern California have been destroyed by deadly wildfires, displacing communities that don't know what — if anything — they'll have to return to. Researchers have linked wildfires to long-lasting anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors, in addition to the well-documented physical toll. Both the loss and uncertainty surrounding wildfires are traumatic, Jeff Katzman, a Connecticut-based psychiatrist who grew up in Pacific Palisades, California, told Axios. Read more here.
- The state’s 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline had the nation’s fifth highest rate of abandoned calls and a cash deficit that could worsen as federal dollars expire this year. Thousands of Texans in need are abandoning the state’s suicide hotline mid-call every month as call centers struggle under a $7 million funding deficit and a growing suicide rate statewide. Read more here.
Health Insurance and Mental Health Benefits
- The Supreme Court agreed to hear a broad challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s coverage of preventive services in its upcoming term, the latest in more than a decade of battles over the health reform law. A ruling for the conservative Texas employers who filed the case would erode the coverage of tens of millions of people who get their health insurance from their employer or through Obamacare’s marketplace, removing requirements that insurers cover the full cost of everything from birth control to vaccines to mental health screenings. Read more here.
- The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments over whether a Republican-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ people was unconstitutional. The challenge comes amid the national battle over LGBTQ+ rights. It is also part of a broader effort by the Democratic governor, who has vetoed Republican bills targeting transgender high school athletes, to rein in the power of the GOP-controlled legislature. Read more here.
- House Republicans are passing around a “menu” of more than $5 trillion in cuts they could use to bankroll President-elect Donald Trump’s top priorities this year, including tax cuts and border security. The early list of potential spending offsets obtained by Politico includes changes to Medicare and ending Biden administration climate programs, along with slashing welfare and “reimagining” the Affordable Care Act. Read more here.
- Although the Biden-Harris administration has come to an end, some of its work will continue. The administration has invested tens of billions of dollars to expand federal and state mental health and substance use services through the Safer Communities Act, the American Rescue Plan, and other legislation. In the fall, they significantly extended these efforts by finalizing rules to extend mental health parity laws. Read more here.
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