May 2017 – Additional Articles and Information from around the nation and world

‘All of this grief’: Prince Harry opens up about his mental health and Princess Diana’s death It wasn't until he began speaking with friends and family, then a therapist, that Harry said he realized it was the unresolved grief of losing his mother so young that was possibly crippling him. By Katie Mettler • Read more »

The disabled and the elderly are facing a big problem: Not enough aides The problem is only getting worse, driven by low wages and a shrinking pool of workers willing to perform this physically and emotionally demanding work. By Judith Graham • Read more »

Editorial: Will UI's Medicaid concerns break Branstad's state of denial? http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2017/04/28/editorial-ui-medicaid-concerns-branstad-denial/307274001/

After conservative session, GOP lawmakers say more to comehttp://www.kcci.com/article/after-conservative-session-gop-lawmakers-say-more-to-come/9547109

Forbes: $927 million state surplus is now $130 million deficit http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/community/2017/04/01/john-forbes-state-deficit-spending-legislature-branstad/99858964/

Iowa mother battles to get care for adopted son's violent disorderhttp://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/readers-watchdog/2017/04/01/iowa-mother-battles-get-care-adopted-sons-violent-disorder/99707828/

Depression is the No. 1 cause of illness and disability worldwide: WHO report http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/depression-no-1-illness-disability-worldwide-article-1.3014312

Is the American Dream killing us? Mortality has continued to increase among middle-aged American white peopleBy Robert J. Samuelson • Read more »

Pioneer Press: Most MN Medicaid Spending Is On Elderly And Disabled Care More than 1 million Minnesotans get coverage from Medicaid, the joint state-federal program to provide medical care to needy Americans. The majority are families with children, eligible for taxpayer-supported coverage because of their low income. But Medicaid — also called “Medical Assistance” in Minnesota — also covers people like David Bender, a 30-year-old St. Paul resident with severe mental and physical disabilities. ... But this life-saving care for some of Minnesota’s more vulnerable citizens doesn’t come cheap. The Medicaid programs covering elderly and disabled Minnesotans account for about 20 percent of enrollment — but almost 60 percent of the $11 billion Minnesota spent on Medicaid last year. (Montgomery, 4/2)

Minnesota Public Radio: A Killer Opioid's Dark Pathway To Minnesota Just two salt-sized specs of it can kill. It's 10,000 times more potent than morphine, and 2 milligrams of it can stop a one-ton elephant in its tracks. Now, carfentanil is being blamed for five overdose deaths in Minnesota. (Nelson and Crann, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: One Year Into Mental Health Plan, Burbank School Officials Gauge Progress Students’ mental health, anxiety — and the drugs they take to cope — were up for discussion during a Burbank school board study session Thursday, nearly one year after the board established a mental health and wellness plan. Since the plan was approved last April, Burbank officials have opened a mental health and wellness office at John Burroughs High School, trained teachers in suicide prevention and hired John Costanzo to serve as a mental health and wellness coordinator to oversee districtwide efforts. (Corrigan, 3/31)

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The New York Times: Iowa’s Largest Insurer Says It Will Withdraw From Obamacare Exchanges In the latest move by insurers worried about the viability of the markets created under the federal health care law, Iowa’s major carrier said Monday that it would stop selling individual policies in the state next year. In a statement, the insurer, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which is based in Des Moines, blamed its decision to withdraw in 2018 on what it said was the high cost of covering people under the Affordable Care Act. (Abelson, 4/3)

The Hill: Wellmark To Leave Iowa's ObamaCare Markets In 2018 Wellmark said in a statement that it has lost $90 million in the ObamaCare markets in three years and its customers have "endured double-digit premium increases." “Finding solutions to stabilize this market is in the best interest of all Iowans, including providers of health care and insurance carriers,” Wellmark Chairman and CEO John Forsyth said in a statement. “No one really benefits from rising costs. While there are many potential solutions, the timing and relative impact of those solutions is currently unclear. This makes it difficult to establish plans for 2018.” (Hellmann, 4/3)

Des Moines Register: Wellmark To Halt Sales Of Individual Health Insurance Policies Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield’s decision means more than 21,000 Iowans who bought health insurance policies from the company in the past three years will need to find another carrier — and it’s not clear all of those people will have another choice. (Leys, 4/3)

The Associated Press: VA Defending Work To Fix Troubled Veteran Suicide Hotline The Department of Veterans Affairs is telling skeptical members of Congress that it has fixed problems with its suicide hotline that were highlighted in a critical recent internal watchdog report. A March 20 audit by the VA inspector general had found that nearly a third of calls to the Veterans Crisis Line as recently as November were bounced to back-up centers run by an outside contractor. The rollover calls happen when phone lines are busy, leading to possible waits of 30 minutes or more. (Yen, 4/4)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Lawmakers Push Back Over Their Cheap State Insurance Iowa lawmakers who have been taking fire for paying as little as $20 a month in state health insurance premiums are pushing back in their hometowns against the bad press. Videos taken by people who attended several town hall meetings show Iowans asking lawmakers not only to fix their cheap rates through pending legislation but to collectively reimburse the roughly $435,000 that lawmakers underpaid since January 2016. The Register reported in February that more than 100 Iowa lawmakers were paying hundreds of dollars less than they should for their state-provided health insurance — a potential violation of state law. (Clayworth, 4/3)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Can Pa. Find A Way Out For Thousands Of Mentally Ill Inmates Languishing In County Jails? Forty percent of Philadelphia inmates are on psychotropic medications; 17 percent have what’s considered a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. At the state level, 29 percent of inmates have a mental illness. People with mental illness also stay longer in jail, and are more likely to return. So, on Tuesday, state officials will announce a multiyear initiative aimed at safely reducing the number of people with mental illness in Pennsylvania jails -- a problem that has so far been intractable in the face of criminal-justice reform efforts. (Melamed, 4/3)

The Des Moines Register: Kansas Should Know That Health Care Makes Working Possible Last week Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed legislation that sought to expand Medicaid to 150,000 residents under the Affordable Care Act. This is noteworthy because the bill was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature. Better late than never, Kansas lawmakers have figured out what the majority of states know: It makes sense to use the federal law to provide health insurance to poor people and collect a windfall of Washington dollars to pay for that coverage. But Brownback doesn't get it. His veto message underscores the misguided thinking behind the resistance in Republican-controlled states that refuse to expand Medicaid. (4/3)

The Des Moines Register: In Iowa, Strong Support For Planned Parenthood Is A Republican Value One of Republicans’ core beliefs is that every person can take part in the economic opportunity of our country. If women don’t have the ability to make decisions about when and whether to have children, they’re not in control of their

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economic future. If we take away their access to basic reproductive health care like birth control, we’re taking away their ability to chase the American dream. (Alan Zuckert, 4/3)US Doctors Call for Universal Healthcare: "Abolish the Insurance Companies" - See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/us-doctors-call-universal-healthcare-abolish-insurance-companies#sthash.GQxI5rfG.dpuf

Senator: DHS Investigator’s Caseload Rising: DHS Denies That Caseloads are Highhttp://whotv.com/2017/04/03/senator-dhs-investigators-caseloads-rising-dhs-denies-that/

bp Magazine (Bipolar Disorder)

This Month's Article: Ask the Doctor: Bipolar & Setting Personal Boundaries

Click Here for Content & Images: bphope.com/partners-this-month/ 

esperanza (Depression & Anxiety)This Month's Article: Depression & Getting Motivated: When I Just Don’t Want To Click Here for Content & Images:hopetocope.com/partners-this-month/

  Report Urges Riverside County to Focus on Mental Health Care, Not Jails The Press-Enterprise—Mar. 31 | California

‘I Can Help This Person': a Prison Psychologist Mourns a Patient He Tried to Save The Marshall Project—Mar. 30 | Washington Here’s What Trump’s New Executive Order Means for Opioid Addiction PBS Newshour—Mar. 29 | National

Health Study Finds Huge Disparities Based on Race, Neighborhood Chicago Sun-Times—Mar. 23 | Illinois

Editorial: Make Investment in Mental Health The Gainesville Sun—Mar. 21 | Florida

Corrections Budget Offers $7 Million for Mental Health, Addiction Treatment The Bismarck Tribune—Mar. 18 | N.D.

Spartanburg County Makes Some Progress on Mental Health Care for Inmates GoUpstate.com—Mar. 16 | South Carolina

As Opioid Overdoses Rise, Police Officers Become Counselors, Doctors and Social Workers The Washington Post—Mar. 12 | National

Supervisors Seek to Reduce Ontario County Jail Population Finger Lakes Times—Mar. 10 | New York

Wellmark's ACA exit shows why insurers need to know health law's futureWithout a clear sign that the federal government is going to help stabilize the insurance marketplaces as it works to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, more health insurers will stop selling individual market plans. READ MORE

Stateline: States Seek Medicaid Dollars For Addiction Treatment Beds But in the throes of an opioid epidemic that killed more than 33,000 people in 2015 alone, the nation’s supply of residential treatment slots falls far short of the number needed to serve everyone who walks in, gets dropped off by police, or is transferred from a hospital or crisis center. Waitlists persist almost everywhere, primarily because of a growing number of people addicted to heroin and

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prescription painkillers. To boost the number of beds available for low-income residents, the federal government has granted California, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York a waiver of an obscure Medicaid rule that prohibits the use of federal dollars for addiction treatment provided in facilities with more than 16 beds. (Vestal, 4/5)The Texas Tribune: House Approves Bill Focused On Mental Health Insurance Benefits Texas House members endorsed a bill Tuesday that would prevent health insurance companies from offering mental health benefits differently from medical benefits and offer more help for consumers who believe their insurance is wrongly denying them coverage. (Evans, 4/4)

Houston Chronicle: House OKs Bill On Mental Health Insurance Benefits The House tentatively approved legislation Tuesday that would ensure Texans have equal insurance coverage for mental and physical health care. The legislation, authored by Rep. Four Price, is the first of several that he has filed on mental health care following a series of interim committee hearings on the issue. Price, R-Amarillo, told colleagues Tuesday that insurance companies are not adequately covering mental health services despite parity laws. (Cobler, 4/4)

Iowa Public Radio: GOP Lawmaker Calls Reporting on Legislators’ Health Insurance Premiums 'Fake News' Some state lawmakers will pay more for their health insurance under a bill approved unanimously in the Iowa House today, after an earlier unanimous vote in the Senate. (Russell, 4/4)

The Des Moines Register: Stop Underfunding Of Mental Health Jewish scripture tells the story of the people of Israel standing on the edge of the promised land. Before they enter and create a new nation, Moses gives them one final challenge: “I have set before you life and death. … Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19, NRSV). Today, Iowa faces a choice. We can continue to underfund mental health care services, which for too many Iowans will mean death. Or we can have the courage to fix a broken system and give life. (Rev. Dr. Dave Switon and Rev. Travis Stanley, 4/4)

Des Moines Register: Hospitals Doubt Branstad Claim Medicaid Privatization Has Cut Hospitalizations 54% Hospital leaders expressed bewilderment Wednesday at the governor’s claim that the number of Iowa Medicaid members being admitted to hospitals had dropped by more than half since private management companies began running the program a year ago. Gov. Terry Branstad’s office made the claim in a press release trumpeting the success of his controversial decision to hire private companies to run the $4 billion Medicaid program. Branstad contends the switch, which took effect last April, is saving money by keeping members healthier. Wednesday’s press release from his office claimed that under Medicaid managed care, “hospital admissions are down 54 percent overall.” (Leys, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Disabled, Or Just Desperate? Rural Americans Turn To Disability As Jobs Dry Up The lobby at the pain-management clinic had become crowded with patients, so relatives had gone outside to their trucks to wait, and here, too, sat Desmond Spencer, smoking a 9 a.m. cigarette and watching the door. He tried stretching out his right leg, knowing these waits can take hours, and winced. He couldn’t sit easily for long, not anymore, and so he took a sip of soda and again thought about what he should do. (Terrence McCoy, 3/30)

The New Yorker: How Moderates Took Back Kansas The Medicaid vote capped an extraordinary year-long turn against [Kansas Gov. Sam] Brownback, in which many of his allies in the legislature were defeated in primary and general elections, and, in the legislative session now coming to a close, his budget and priorities were rejected. The political history of the past quarter century has been one of deepening polarization. The reaction in Kansas suggests that it is still possible for a party to go too far—that there is still a center in American life which may yet hold. (Benjamin Wallace-Wells, 3/31)

The Atlantic: Government Paid For Poor Citizens' Health Care Over 300 Years Before Obamacare There has always been government-subsidized health care in the United States. Until just after the Civil War, when state governments took more power, most Americans assumed that their local government would tax and spend to take care of the neediest. They frequently griped about the cost of these expenditures, as complaining about taxes is a long American tradition. But for about three centuries from the beginning of British North America, almost no one thought

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government-provided health care for the poor should go away. (Gabriel Loiacono, 4/2)

The Washington Post: Another State Is At Risk Of Having Only One Obamacare Health Insurer Two insurers announced this week that they would pull out of Iowa's Affordable Care Act exchanges next year, raising worries that the decisions could be the leading edge of a trend. Insurers face approaching deadlines and major uncertainties about the short-term viability of the exchanges, and beyond, because of politicians' inability thus far to move a specific repeal and replace plan forward. (Johnson, 4/6)Modern Healthcare: Nearly All Iowa Counties Are Down To A Single Insurer As Aetna Calls It Quits The decision follows on the heels of Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield's announcement that it will exit Iowa's individual market in 2018. Now thousands of Iowans will be forced to switch health insurers—if they can find one. (Livingston, 4/6)

Stateline: Getting The Mentally Ill Out Of Jails A dearth of beds at state psychiatric hospitals in many parts of the country and shortages of mental health resources mean that mentally ill people who commit minor crimes often end up languishing in jails, which are poorly equipped to handle their illnesses. It’s a difficult problem that, without intervention, creates a grim cyclical pattern: Untreated mentally ill people get carted off to jail, where their illnesses go unaddressed, which increases the odds that they will commit crimes after their release. But cities, counties and states across the U.S. are attempting to break that pattern, using law enforcement and criminal justice tools to direct those with mental illness toward treatment services that could help them control behaviors that got them into trouble. (Ollove, 4/7)

ProPublica: Federal Judge Sees New York State Conspiracy To Thwart Care For Mentally Ill A federal judge in Brooklyn has accused state officials of secretly trying to subvert a landmark court order to improve care for thousands of mentally ill residents of New York City. Three years ago, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ended a prolonged lawsuit against New York state by ordering the Department of Health to begin moving as many as 4,000 mentally ill residents housed in group homes to less restrictive environments where they could live more independently. (Sapien, 4/6)

San Jose Mercury News: Special Mental Health Program Launched For Teens Palo Alto teens and families looking for mental health services that fall between occasional therapy and hospitalization soon will have that option. With the help of an anonymous donor interested in reducing the number of teen suicides, the nonprofit Children’s Health Council has launched a 12-week Intensive Outpatient Program at its Palo Alto campus at 650 Clark Way. (Lee, 4/6)

Texas Tribune: Texas Families Fear Closure Of State Homes For People With Disabilities Legislators are continuing to battle families with relatives in state-supported living centers about the facilities’ future. In 2014, a state commission found that Texas could “no longer afford” operating costs for the state-supported living centers. Despite the centers' low enrollment and high operating costs, legislators have expressed reluctance over the years to completely do away with them. (Evans, 4/6)

Commonwealth Fund: Medicaid Cuts Would Affect Older, Sicker Americans Medicaid has been the subject of debate recently—with issues raised about eligibility, financing, and potential work requirements for beneficiaries. More fundamentally, there have been questions about who Medicaid covers and how well it helps them. According to data from the Commonwealth Fund’s Survey of High Need Patients, nearly half of adults with Medicaid are 50 or older; many have multiple chronic conditions, behavioral health problems, or physical limitations or disabilities. Any changes to the Medicaid program could disproportionately affect many of our neediest, sickest Americans. (Ryan and Abrams, 4/6)

The Des Moines Register: Patchwork Solutions Won’t Fix Health Care. Single Payer System Is Common Sense. Iowa’s largest health insurer, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa, recently announced it will no longer sell individual health insurance policies, affecting 21,000 Iowans who purchased policies in the past three years. Wellmark says it cannot continue to sustain the losses incurred in covering this group of individuals. Shortly thereafter, another large Iowa insurer, Aetna, announced it is also dropping out of the individual insurance policy market. (State Rep. John Forbes, 4/6)

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The Des Moines Register: GOP To Women: Get Pregnant, Give Birth, Good Luck Nearly 80 percent of Iowa adults support state funding for non-abortion services at Planned Parenthood. This includes a healthy majority of Republicans and evangelical Christians, according to a February Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Such broad support is likely because everyone understands how women get pregnant. They know Planned Parenthood provides birth control and services to prevent unwanted pregnancies. They know fewer unwanted pregnancies mean fewer women seek abortions. Yet a surprising number of elected officials seemingly fail to accept these reproductive basics. (4/6)McClatchy: GOP Proposal Could Shrink Coverage For People With Pre-Existing Conditions A White House push to let states waive mandatory coverage and rate requirements under the Affordable Care Act could jeopardize health insurance gains for millions of adults with pre-existing medical conditions who went largely without coverage before the health law passed. This week, the White House tried to get Republicans in the House of Representatives to amend their Obamacare replacement bill with language that lets states opt out of two popular ACA provisions, including one that requires individual health plans to cover 10 so-called essential health benefits. (Pugh, 4/7)

Iowa Public Radio: Iowa Hospital Association Warns Iowa Not To Lose Gains Made Under ACA The Iowa Hospital Association says it’s important not to lose the gains made under the Affordable Care Act. The warning comes after the insurance carriers Aetna and Wellmark announced this week that in 2018, they’ll stop selling individual policies on Iowa’s healthcare exchange created under the ACA. (Boden, 4/7)

The Washington Post: Deep Brain Stimulation May Reduce Severe Tourette’s Syndrome An experimental technique reduces the tics, or involuntary movements and vocal outbursts, associated with severe Tourette's syndrome in young adults, a study published Friday found. The surgical technique, called thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS), sends electrical impulses to a specific area of the brain that reduces the tics, according to the study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery. The finding adds to the growing body of evidence about the safety and effectiveness of deep brain stimulation, which might eventually lead the Food and Drug Administration to approve the treatment for Tourette's syndrome, according to the researchers. (Naqvi, 4/7)

Stateline: Uninsured Rate For Poor, Childless Adults Declines As the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress explore ways of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, a new study shows how beneficial the law has been to poor adults who don’t have children. The study by the Urban Institute found that between 2013 and 2015, the rate of poor, childless adults without health insurance fell by 47.1 percent. (Ollove, 4/10)

Arizona Republic: 45% In Mental-Health Crisis Said Phoenix Police Made Matters Worse Nearly half of mentally ill individuals who said they had contact with Phoenix police said the officers actually made the situation worse, according to a city survey. The survey, conducted by the Phoenix Mayor’s Commission on Disability Issues, questioned 244 individuals with mental-health issues found in Phoenix mental health clinics, residential programs and those who were homeless. (Cassidy, 4/10)

The Des Moines Register: Wellmark, Aetna Exits Call For Public Option Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield announced last week it will quit selling individual health insurance in Iowa. People who purchased policies the last few years will also lose them. A few days later Aetna announced its withdrawal from the individual market here, too. This is a devastating development. (4/10)

The Des Moines Register: Doctors Protest Branstad Speech At Medical Society Event What was once unbelievable is now believable and that's unbelievable. It is no coincidence with the recent change of administration in our country that the reading of George Orwell's "1984" has become so popular. With the government espousing protection of the environment while gutting the EPA and expanding military spending while basic needs like education and health care get short shrift, one can appreciate the repeated slogan: "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength." (Dr. David Drake, 4/10)

Des Moines Register: Elimination Of Kids' Health Care Tax Checkoff Sparks Heated Debate In Iowa Senate What appeared to be a minor change on Iowa income tax forms erupted into a heated debate Tuesday in the Iowa

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Senate with Democrats accusing Republicans of a mean-spirited move to deprive low-income children of government-funded health insurance. Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, the bill's floor manager, said the legislation would eliminate a requirement that Iowans indicate on their state tax returns the presence or absence of health care coverage for their dependent children. (Petroski and Pfannenstiel, 4/11)

The Star Tribune: Budget Cuts Would Deepen Statewide Shortage Of Psychiatric Beds, Minnesota Commissioner Warns A statewide effort to alleviate Minnesota’s chronic shortage of psychiatric beds by freeing up space at state mental hospitals would be jeopardized under budget proposals before the Legislature, the head of Minnesota’s largest state agency warned Tuesday. During a visit to a community mental hospital in Baxter, Minn., Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper said a proposed $600 million reduction in the Human Services budget would force the state to reduce staffing and capacity at state-operated mental facilities, reversing a year of progress in expanding access to treatment for psychiatric patients. (Serres, 4/11)

Texas Tribune: Sandra Bland's Mother Urges Texas House Committee To Pass Bill Named After Her Daughter [Geneva] Reed-Veal, an Illinois resident, was one of a number of witnesses, a vast majority of whom spoke in support of the Sandra Bland Act, which is pending before the [Texas] House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee. The comprehensive legislation's changes include requiring law enforcement agencies to test for profiling by documenting the race and ethnicity of drivers stopped; mandating people experiencing mental health crises and substance abuse be diverted to treatment instead of jail; and creating more de-escalation training for law enforcement personnel and serious incident reporting requirements for county jails. (Silver, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: In Medicare, States Are Far From Equal In 2015, Hawaii spent $6,608 per traditional Medicare beneficiary, but Mississippi spent $10,700. Nationwide, Medicare per capita costs amounted to $9,582, CMS data released Tuesday show. Why the difference? Medicare spending, utilization and quality vary widely across states, a phenomenon that is longstanding but remains poorly understood. These fluctuations by geography do not seem to reflect beneficiaries' health, the CMS noted in its methodology document for the data, which are released annually in what is formally known as the Geographic Public Use File. (Whitman, 4/12)

Kaiser Health News: In Remote Idaho, A Tiny Facility Lights The Way For Stressed Rural Hospitals Just before dusk on an evening in early March, Mimi Rosenkrance set to work on her spacious cattle ranch to vaccinate a calf. But the mother cow quickly decided that just wasn’t going to happen. She charged, all 1,000 pounds of her, knocking Rosenkrance over and repeatedly stomping on her. “That cow was trying to push me to China,” Rosenkrance recalls. Dizzy and nauseated, with bruises spreading on both her legs and around her eye, Rosenkrance, 58, nearly passed out. Her son called 911 and an ambulance staffed by volunteers drove her to Lost Rivers Medical Center, a tiny, brick hospital nestled on the snowy hills above this remote town in central Idaho. (Gorman, 4/13)

New York Magazine: We Need To Talk About Frankie Prescribing anti-psychotics to children is not uncommon. A 2015 Journal of the American Medical Association study found that in 2010, 418,000 kids under 12 were prescribed an anti-psychotic annually, which is not to say that that many children have psychotic disorders. According to a 2011 Pediatrics study of foster-care children given anti-psychotics, only a quarter were diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. More than half of them were diagnosed with ADHD. An increasing number of children receiving these drugs are toddlers. (Dyan Neary, 4/11)

The Des Moines Register: Branstad's Private Medicaid 'Success' That Wasn't Gov. Terry Branstad doesn’t have much to say about problems caused by his privatization of Medicaid. Low-income Iowans report losing health services. Providers are not being paid by managed care companies. The origins of the governor’s “savings” estimates remain a mystery. Taxpayers don’t understand why they’re bailing out for-profit insurers contracted with the state. (4/12)

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When Iowa’s Mental Health Crisis Lands Next Door http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2017/04/14/when-iowas-mental-health-crisis-lands-next-door/100434810/

Verma recuses self from Indiana, Iowa waiver talksCMS Administrator Seema Verma will not weigh in on any decisions involving Medicaid waivers from Indiana and Iowa. These two states paid her to help tweak their Medicaid programs when she was an industry consultant. READ MORE

CNBC: Neurocrine Announces FDA Approval of INGREZZA TM (valbenazine) Capsules as the First and Only Approved Treatment for Adults with Tardive Dyskinesia (TD)Star Tribune: Budget cuts would deepen statewide shortage of psychiatric beds, Minnesota commissioner warnsHuffington Post: Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge Launch Mental Health Film SeriesABC News: Iraqis haunted by war overwhelm mental health facilitiesStar-Telegram: Texas must face need to treat the mentally ill — and not in our jailsVOA News: Sierra Leone Grapples with Mental Health Impact of EbolaLinkedIn: Opioids, My Mom's Death, and Why People Trust Science LessVox: Treating depression is guesswork. Psychiatrists are beginning to crack the code.

The New York Times: New York Falls Short In Resettling Mentally Ill Adults, Angering Judge Four years ago, after more than a decade of litigation and negotiation, New York State officials agreed that the system of often dismal and dangerous adult homes was no place for the mentally ill. They agreed to move as many as 4,000 mentally ill residents out of their apartments and into supportive housing, a hard-fought recognition that people with disabilities should have the opportunity to live independently and participate in all aspects of community life. (Santora, 4/14)

Local Lawmakers Discuss Mental Health Issues http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Local-lawmakers-discuss-mental-health-issues-419549123.html

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Mental Health System Has Improved Since Tech, But Has A Long Way To Go, Experts Say Snook and several others agree that Virginia has been fairly adept at responding to crises — but they say lawmakers haven’t been as successful at addressing the mental health system’s underlying problems. Decades ago, Virginia shut down many of its state-run mental hospitals in response to a growing national trend but didn’t lay the groundwork for community-based care that would keep residents with mental illness from spiraling out of control. (Kleiner, 4/14)

Seattle Times: All Americans Deserve Quality Health Care Last year, I returned to the U.S. after living in Australia, which has a single-payer health-care system. The myths conservatives and self-interest groups spin about such systems is wrong. The quality of health professionals is on a par with the United States: appointments scheduled easily, care provided quickly, with a high degree of competence and costing substantially less. I never had to wait, and the system worked efficiently compared to our excessive administration and higher costs due to profit motives, and the complexity of our system with too many providers, insurers and payment companies. A single payer system, along with optional private insurance, is a cost effective, less complex way to provide health care. (Christopher J. Wachholz, 4/14)

The Washington Post: 10 Years After The Virginia Tech Massacre, Virginia Still Falls Short On Mental Health Care It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years since the horrific day at Virginia Tech when 32 students and faculty were killed and many others were injured by a young student with untreated mental illness. Ten years since countless lives and families were altered forever, including my own. ... Although progress has been good, Virginia sits in the bottom half of states in overall ranking for mental health care per person. Virginia still needs funding to establish consistent and comprehensive services in all communities; to expand intervention, treatment and transition programs for young adults, especially for those experiencing the first signs of mental illness; to attract and retain mental-health providers in the face of a critical workforce shortage; and to establish strict quality and performance outcomes to meet the needs of families and communities in our commonwealth. (Elizabeth Hilscher, 4/14)

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Des Moines Register: When Iowa's Mental Health Crisis Lands Next Door [W]hat we didn’t know, what most people don’t know or see that goes on behind closed doors when someone is mentally ill, were what relatives recounted later: Chase’s multiple suicide attempts. We didn’t see the countless appointments with doctors, psychiatrists and counselors, the rounds of various medications to find just the right cocktail and the battles to get Chase to take them. We didn’t see the self-harm, the many trips to the hospital when Chase was in crisis, only to be sent home days or hours later when there were no beds available, or Charla’s early retirement from her job as a Des Moines Public Schools teacher so she could better monitor and care for her son. And we didn’t see all the tears they likely shed, the arguments and moments of despair that no doubt occurred in their household in trying to deal with their sick son the best they could. (Kali VanBaale, 4/14)Cocoon-Like Bed Aims To Keep Kids With Special Needs Safe Struggling to keep her wandering son safely tucked away at night, one mom took matters into her own hands, designing a bed that's secure while also providing a calming effect. Read More >

Congress Weighs Expanding ABLE Act Read More >

— Prince Harry has opened up about his struggles with mental health that stemmed, in part, from Princess Diana’s unexpected death in 1997.

Stateline: States Consider Barring Death Penalty For Severely Mentally Ill Upset that people with schizophrenia and other mental disorders have been put to death after murder convictions, lawmakers in a handful of states want to bar the use of the death penalty for people with a serious mental illness. People accused of murder who are found not guilty by reason of insanity can serve time in a mental hospital and avoid the death penalty. But many states have a narrow legal definition of insanity — not knowing what one did was wrong. And critics say that leaves many people with mental disorders to be found guilty of capital crimes and sentenced to death. (Beitsch, 4/17)

Kansas City Star: Lawsuit Alleges Psychiatric Facility Employee Broke 9-Year-Old Boy’s Arm A suit filed last week alleges that an employee of a Kansas City, Kan., psychiatric hospital for children broke the arm of a 9-year-old patient. Jeffrey Wallace of Salina brought the suit on behalf of his son, who is not named because he’s a minor. (Marso, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Sorry, Republicans, But Most People Support Single-Payer Health Care Despite the rise of the tea party and unified Republican control of government, one decidedly anti-free-market idea appears ascendant: single-payer health care. And it’s no wonder, given that a record-high share of the population receives government-provided health insurance. As a country, we’ve long since acquiesced to the idea that Uncle Sam should give insurance to the elderly, veterans, people with disabilities, poor adults, poor kids, pregnant women and the lower middle class. (Catherine Rampell, 4/17)

Idaho Statesman: Health Care Failed My Son — And I’m A Doctor Jack had access to care. Despite this, the correct diagnosis was not made early on in his disease course; early diagnosis and appropriate intervention may have made a difference. We need a better understanding into the science behind mental health illnesses, including substance abuse disorder, to develop better methods of detection, prevention and treatment. (Kathryn Beattie, 4/17)

Topeka Capital Journal: Topekans To Know St. Francis’ Fate By Early May; SCL Health To Cease Operating Hospital This Summer In its release, SCL Health cited losses of $117 million over the previous five years, with physician clinics losing $31 million in 2016. The release also cited the lack of Medicaid expansion in Kansas, saying “Uncompensated and charity care more than doubled from 2012 to 2016.” (Chilson, 4/18)

Stat: How Drug Use Changes The Brain — And Makes Relapse All Too Common The opioid epidemic ravaging the United States has brought new impetus to understanding how addiction hijacks the brain. More and more, scientists are shifting their focus to what’s going on in the brain after people like Mooney go off drugs. Their quest has unveiled a troubling picture: Repeated drug use leads to long-term changes to the brain. Some of those changes, new research suggests, might be hard to reverse and might even intensify right after withdrawal, explaining why it is so hard to stay

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off drugs. (Wesphal, 4/19)

Prince Harry’s Mental Health Struggles Make Him a Part of a “Big Club”, and That Openness is the Key to Reducing Stigmahttps://www.bustle.com/p/prince-harrys-mental-health-struggles-make-him-part-of-a-big-club-that-openness-is-the-key-to-reducing-stigma-51653?utm_source

Rate of inmate suicides remains high in Mass. The suicide of Aaron Hernandez is the 65th reported prison suicide in Massachusetts in the two decades since another high-profile suicide

Days after acquittal, Hernandez found hanged in his cell The former Patriots star committed suicide in his cell Wednesday morning, the Department of Correction said. Hernandez’s lawyer said he will conduct his own investigation.

KQED: Judge Threatens To Fine California Prisons For Delayed Mental Health Treatment California prison officials could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines a day if they can’t comply with a federal court order to eliminate delays in treatment for the most severely mentally ill inmates. U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller this week threatened to fine prison officials to get them to meet the terms of a 1995 settlement of a decades-old class-action lawsuit. (Pickoff-White and Small, 4/20)

Surgeon General Murthy's departure paints uncertain path ahead for opioid crisis Public health experts worry that the sudden departure of Vivek Murthy as U.S. surgeon general, coupled with proposed budget cuts, could thwart progress in the war on opioid addition. READ MORE

How big of a threat can a 13-bed hospital really be? In a state with a glut of empty hospital beds, what health system would think of pitching yet another medical center? Well, this one is tiny. It's a micro-hospital, a concept that has taken off in other parts of the country but has yet to take hold in Illinois. READ MORE

Former SAMHSA official selected for new HHS mental health post Elinore McCance-Katz has been nominated to serve as the HHS' first assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse. READ MORE

— Columnist Michael Hiltzik says one unbelievably expensive Iowa patient makes the case for single-payer healthcare. The patient’s care costs $1 million a month.

The Associated Press: Justices Weigh Defendants' Right To Own Mental Health Expert The court has ruled previously that poor defendants whose mental health might be a factor in the criminal charges they are facing have a right to an expert's evaluation. The justices are deciding whether the expert must be independent of the prosecution. The outcome also could affect two Arkansas inmates who were spared execution last week by the Arkansas Supreme Court while the nation's highest court considers the issue. (Sherman, 4/24)

Boston Globe: Wisconsin Seeks To Mandate Drug Tests For Medicaid Recipients Low-income residents seeking government help in Wisconsin often slog through a frustrating, outdated bureaucracy at a run-down state building in Milwaukee, enduring a process that generates complaints about the difficulties of signing up for food assistance, unemployment benefits, and Medicaid. Now, in a first-in-the-nation experiment, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker plans to raise the bar higher for people seeking Medicaid, with an expansive program of mandatory drug screening, testing, and treatment as a condition of receiving benefits. (Herndon, 4/25)

The Associated Press: Overcoming Opioids: Special Schools Help Teens Stay Clean When Logan Snyder got hooked on pills after a prescription to treat pain from a kidney stone, she joined the millions already swept up in the nation's grim wave of addiction to opioid painkillers. She was just 14. Youth is a drawback when it comes to kicking drugs. Only half of

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U.S. treatment centers accept teenagers and even fewer offer teen-focused groups or programs. After treatment, adolescents find little structured support. They're outnumbered by adults at self-help meetings. Sober youth drop-in centers are rare. Returning to school means resisting offers to get high with old friends. (Johnson, 4/25)

NH Times Union: Lack Of Access To Mental Health Services Concerns Health Execs Executives from six of the state’s largest health care systems wrote to Gov. Chris Sununu on Monday to express their “deep concerns” about access to mental health services in the state, and the backlog of patients in emergency rooms awaiting admission to the state’s psychiatric hospital. “Given the state’s insufficient investments in additional bed capacity at New Hampshire Hospital, our emergency departments have become a boarding place for behavioral health patients in acute crisis,” states the April 24 letter from Dr. Travis Harker, chief medical officer at Granite Health, a collaborative involving Catholic Medical Center, Concord Hospital, LRG Healthcare, Southern NH Health and Wentworth-Douglas Hospital. (Solomon, 4/24)Sacramento Bee: Mentally Ill Inmates Seek Punitive Damages To Change State Prisons In a trial underway in front of U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, plaintiffs want a jury to find nine corrections department employees liable for malice and oppression to rectify abuses they say their client suffered during a brutal 2012 cell extraction. Along with general damages, the attorneys say a punitive award would send a message to the prison system and its staff on how to carry out the best practices – and avoid the worst – when inmates have full-blown psychotic breakdowns. (Furillo, 4/24)

Los Angeles Times: This One Unbelievably Expensive Iowa Patient Makes The Case For Single-Payer Healthcare Back in mid-2016, Iowa customers of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the dominant company in the state’s individual insurance market, got a shock: Premium increases of 38% to 43% were in store for many of them for this year. Three weeks ago they got a bigger shock: Wellmark was pulling out of Iowa’s individual market entirely, leaving the state with one company selling individual policies. Wellmark placed some of the blame on congressional Republicans’ failure to come up with a coherent repeal plan for the Affordable Care Act, leaving plans for 2018 in legislative limbo. With Wellmark’s departure, Iowa’s individual market may be down to a single insurer next year. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/24)

The New York Times: Nurse Replaces Surgeon General After Obama Appointee Resigns Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, an Obama administration holdover, was asked to resign by the Trump administration on Friday. He was replaced by his deputy, Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams, one of the first nurses to serve as surgeon general. Admiral Trent-Adams will for now be in an acting role. As of Friday evening, she had already replaced Dr. Murthy on the surgeon general’s Twitter account, and her portrait had replaced his on the agency’s Facebook page. One of the first comments on that post asked, “Where is Dr. Murthy?” (Ivory and Harris, 2/21)

Columbus Dispatch: Change In 52-Year-Old Medicaid Rule Will Expand Mental-Health Care A change in a federal Medicaid rule that has stood for 52 years is expected to allow more Ohioans to get badly needed mental-health services. Effective July 1, Medicaid recipients ages 21 to 64 who are in a managed-care plan will be eligible for up to 15 days of inpatient mental-health treatment. (Johnson, 4/23)

Iowa Public Radio: Scavo High School Receives Grant Funds To Become A Trauma Sensitive School Scavo High School is planning to use $23,000 from the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation to become what’s known as a “trauma sensitive school.” The community schools coordinator for Scavo, Lyn Marchant, says the money will help teachers and students recognize the connection between strife at home and performance in school. (Dillard, 4/23)

San Jose Mercury News: Patients Can Teach The Next Generation Of Doctors, Stanford Experts Say One of the most effective ways of making medicine more inclusive is to have doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, psychologists and occupational therapists all work together to learn about each patient as a person, and help them manage their care... To bring this into practice, medical school programs across the country are starting to bring engaged patients into the classroom, allowing them to share their story and become more than just a statistic in a textbook. (Bansal, 4/23)

Des Moines Register: This Is Grave Robbing, Not Medicaid Recovery Will the injustices visited upon Richard Meredith never end? ... As a young adult, he was sent to live at a state institution where, at the age of 24, he was subjected to a lobotomy that left him profoundly disabled. ... It was a life that ended unexpectedly on Sept. 1, 2013, after workers at

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the state-run Mental Health Institute in Clarinda mistakenly gave him a peanut butter sandwich rather than the doctor-ordered pureed food he was able to swallow. ... His family sued the state and the Iowa Department of Human Services, which ran the institute. ... the two sides agreed recently to settle the case for $150,000. But as part of the deal, the Iowa Department of Human Services insisted on clawing back $25,000 of that from Richard Meredith’s estate as reimbursement for some of the Medicaid dollars spent on Meredith’s care at the MHI. (4/23)

The Difference Between a Disorder and a Feeling It's easy to assume that because we all experience anxiety, we have an idea of what living with an anxiety condition might feel like. But that's simply not the case.READ MORE »

FDA Approves First Medicine for Tardive DyskinesiaThis month, the FDA approved the first medication for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia. If you have TD, this new medicine is worth a fresh conversation with your prescriber.READ MORE »

Responding to Bipolar Psychotic Symptoms As you learn how to manage your own illness, you might start noticing your symptoms. It can be scary to realize that you are headed for a psychotic episode, but it is possible to do things that lessen the severity of, or even avert, psychosis. READ MORE »

Depression is an Illness, Not a Weakness Many people express that their recovery from depression began when they reached out to a friend or family member for support. Here are a few ways to start that life-changing conversation.READ MORE »

Living with Depression: How to Keep Working Depression can make work more challenging, but you can still be productive. It requires self-acceptance, open communication with your professional circle and a few other things.READ MORE »

Situational Symptoms or Serious Depression: What's the Difference?What's the difference between symptoms that may arise in response to situational stress compared to signs of serious depression? How do you know if what you feel is normal and will pass or needs further attention? READ MORE »

Never Give Up "I started experiencing some panic and anxiety. Then I couldn't sleep, and then never could get out of my bed, or shower, or leave my room, or answer my friends, or even go to work. I had dark thoughts." READ MORE »

Therapeutic Alliance"I am 54 years old and I struggled with the intense pain and chaos of borderline personality disorder for decades...I felt that I was too old to heal." READ MORE »

Patrick J. Kennedy at ATA: We have to stop mental health stigma At this year’s American Telemedicine Association conference, Patrick J. Kennedy shared his personal journey with mental health and outlined how telemedicine can play a vital role in mental health treatment and awareness.

4. Severe Shortage Of Home Health Workers Robs Thousands Of Proper Care A critical shortage of home health care workers across the U.S. is denying care for senior citizens and people with disabilities. (Judith Graham, 4/26)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Sununu Tells Lawmakers Fixing State's Mental Health System Not An Option - A Mandate New Hampshire lawmakers are trying to push through a last-minute effort this session to address the state’s ongoing shortage of treatment for those battling severe mental illness. The proposal has the strong support of Governor Chris Sununu. (Sutherland, 4/25)

NPR: Bellvue's Prison Ward Is Home To 'Heartbreak And Hope,' Psychiatrist Finds When mentally ill inmates in New York City's Rikers Island jail become too sick, violent, delusional or suicidal for the jail to handle, they're sent to Bellevue

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Hospital Prison Ward for treatment. The inmates in Bellevue are awaiting trial for a variety of offenses, ranging from sleeping on the subway to murder. But for Dr. Elizabeth Ford, a psychiatrist who treats them, the charges against her patients are secondary. (Gross, 4/25)

RealClear Health: First, Do No Harm to Patients With Pre-Existing Conditions The recent U.S. House decision to pull the first iteration of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) off the floor doesn’t necessarily mean efforts to reform health care are at an end. As members of Congress work to develop legislation that will change the current health care system, they must develop policy that ensures people with pre-existing conditions will receive coverage without additional costs in premiums, deductibles or coinsurance for their pre-existing condition. (John Meigs Jr., 4/26)The Washington Post: Apparently Repealing Obamacare Could Violate International Law We’ve already seen that repealing Obamacare is politically perilous. Now there’s a new complication: It may also violate international law. The United Nations has contacted the Trump administration as part of an investigation into whether repealing the Affordable Care Act without an adequate substitute for the millions who would lose health coverage would be a violation of several international conventions that bind the United States. It turns out that the notion that “health care is a right” is more than just a Democratic talking point. (Dana Milbank, 4/25)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gov. Scott Walker's Proposal Is Detrimental To The Health Of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, in response to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s request for states to “innovate” their Medicaid programs, has laid out a proposal that would decrease access to health care for our most vulnerable, humiliate and marginalize those with addiction, and increase government bureaucracy. The core elements of the proposal include charging premiums, co-payments for unnecessary ER visits, work requirements for non-disabled adults, maximum enrollment periods, and, most sensationally, drug testing of Medicaid recipients. (Rebecca Bernstein, 4/25)

The Star Tribune: Why Men Like Me Should Talk Openly About Depression For too long, there’s been a stigma attached to mental illness in the United States and elsewhere. It’s especially bad for men, who are supposed to solve problems in this git-’er-done society of ours. Feelings? Fears? We’re supposed to swallow those, keep them bottled and buried. If they start to fight their way to the surface, you’re supposed to drown them in alcohol or play five rounds of golf every week or shut yourself away from family in your workshop or man cave. (Patrick Donnelly, 4/25)

Stat: It's Time To Kick Our Addiction To The War On Drugs As New Jersey Governor Chris Christie takes the lead in crafting the Trump administration’s response to the opioid crisis, he and his colleagues need to understand that we can’t fix the problem until we kick our long-term addiction to the war on drugs and accept overdoses for what they are: a health issue. Although the majority of Americans who consume illicit drugs do so without addiction, opioid overdose has become a deadly reality. Every day, 120 to 140 people in the US die from drug overdoses, more than from gunshot wounds or car accidents. About 90 of these are due to opioids. (Marc Krupanski, 4/25)

The Des Moines Register: New Medical Cannabis Bill Is Nearly As Weak As The First While recreational marijuana use has been legalized or decriminalized in nine states and 30 allow it for medicinal purposes, Iowa continues to limp along behind the curve. Our state has yet to get an effective, legally enforceable medical marijuana law. (Rekha Basu, 4/25)

The Associated Press: Key Provisions Of Proposed GOP Health Care Compromise Here's a look at key elements of the compromise, authored by Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J. (4/26)

ProPublica: America’s Other Drug Problem Every week in Des Moines, Iowa, the employees of a small nonprofit collect bins of unexpired prescription drugs tossed out by nursing homes after residents died, moved out or no longer needed them. The drugs are given to patients who couldn’t otherwise afford them. But travel 1,000 miles east to Long Island, New York, and you’ll find nursing homes flushing similar leftover drugs down the toilet, alarming state environmental regulators worried they’ll further contaminate the water supply. (Allen, 4/27)

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The Washington Post: Elephant Tranquilizer Is The Latest Lethal Addition To The Heroin Epidemic A substance used to tranquilize elephants that is 100 times more potent than the drug that killed Prince is hitting the Washington suburbs, adding the region to a growing list of communities nationwide reporting fatal overdoses linked to the exotic and toxic sedative. Three cases out of Anne Arundel and Frederick counties this month mark the first carfentanil-related fatalities in Maryland, alarming local health and law enforcement officials already in a state of emergency combating the opioid crisis. (Bui and Hermann, 4/26)

NPR: 'Minibrain' Study Yields Insights Into Roots Of Autism And Epilepsy Tiny, 3-D clusters of human brain cells grown in a petri dish are providing hints about the origins of disorders like autism and epilepsy. An experiment using these cell clusters — which are only about the size of the head of a pin — found that a genetic mutation associated with both autism and epilepsy kept developing cells from migrating normally from one cluster of brain cells to another, researchers report in the journal Nature. (Hamilton, 4/26)The Philadelphia Inquirer: Dementia Caregivers: Learning To Live In Your Loved One's Reality Dementia is now a far more complicated realm. There are 48 kinds, including variations of Alzheimer's, Lewy body, and frontotemporal dementias, Tam Cummings, a gerontologist from Texas, told 400 family and professional caregivers last week. They all have fatal, untreatable brain destruction in common, but their symptoms and courses are different. Cummings urged family members to ask their doctors more questions — as many questions as they might ask if the diagnosis were cancer. Knowing more, she said, may help them understand and cope with the memory lapses, confusion, delusions, falls, depression, and stubbornness that often accompany dementia. (Burling, 4/26)

The Des Moines Register: The Strange Iowa Political Trip For Medical Marijuana Two state senators, one Republican and one Democratic: One voted in favor of the medical cannabis bill that passed in the final hours of the legislative session, one voted against it. Both are unhappy. In a legislative session that tended to defy prediction, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that medical marijuana was the issue that kept lawmakers up all night as they tried to adjourn. It created odd, bipartisan political alliances as well as conflicts among lawmakers who support medical marijuana. (Kathie Obradovich, 4/26)

The Hill: New Bill Tests GOP Promise On Pre-Existing Conditions The revised Republican ObamaCare replacement bill is testing the party's pledge to preserve protections for people with pre-existing health conditions. House Republicans' own website states that people should "never" be charged more for having a pre-existing condition, but the revised bill would allow just that in states that are granted a waiver from ObamaCare’s protections. (Sullivan, 4/28)

The Hill: Healthcare Groups Denounce Revised GOP Health Bill Leading healthcare and advocacy groups are urging Congress not to pass the revised Republican ObamaCare replacement bill, fearing that changes could harm those with pre-existing conditions. The American Hospital Association (AHA), American Medical Association (AMA) and American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) all denounced the revised bill on Thursday. The groups were already opposed to the American Health Care Act (AHCA), saying that millions would lose coverage, but raised new concerns about an amendment from Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.). (Sullivan, 4/27)

CQ Roll Call: Opioid Abuse And Veteran Suicides Probed At Hearing Lawmakers demanded answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs and federal watchdogs Thursday as to why veteran suicides haven’t decreased despite increased funding to prevent them. Appropriators have injected new money into suicide prevention programs, a dedicated crisis line and mental health care. But despite that, veteran suicides have increased 32 percent since 2001, according to a sweeping report on veteran suicide published by the VA in August.The phenomenon isn’t limited to veterans. The civilian population’s suicide rate also shot up 23 percent over the same time period. (Mejdrich, 4/27)

Austin American-Statesman: A Question Of Restraint: When Policing The Mentally Ill Turns Deadly [Tom] Klessig is one of at least 33 people with histories of mental illness who died after being restrained by police in Texas over the past decade, according to a first-of-its-kind investigation by the American-Statesman of in-custody deaths. Six of those people wielded weapons; the rest were unarmed, records with the Texas Attorney General indicate. Because the reports that law enforcement agencies must file on in-custody deaths do not track information about the

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decedent’s mental health, the numbers are likely an undercount of those with a psychiatric disorder who die in police custody. (Ball and Schwartz, 4/27)

The New York Times: Trumpcare 2.0: It’s Even Worse Than The Original The original Trumpcare bill, whose spectacular failure embarrassed the White House, had a public approval rating of just 17 percent because it would have taken health insurance away from 24 million Americans, many of them poor, sick and elderly. The new version would further tighten the screws on vulnerable Americans by letting insurance companies charge older people and people with pre-existing conditions much higher premiums than they charge younger and healthier people. It would also give insurers the freedom not to cover essential health services like maternity care and cancer treatment. (4/28)

Akeem Browder: Kalief Browder’s brother talks criminal justice reform, closing of Rikers – Electronic Urban Report*With the announcement last month from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio that he has begun a long process to close the notorious Rikers campus of prisons, EUR/Electronic Urban Report caught up with Akeem Browder, brother of Kalief Browder, to discuss what role his brother’s case has played in the decision. More here.

The Hill: Key Republican blasts Trump's mental health pick

NPR: Grief, Recovery And Personal Treatment

The Columbus Dispatch: Change in 52-year-old Medicaid rule will expand mental-health care

USA Today: Surgeon general dismissed, replaced by Trump administration

Daily Press: Signs of hope on mental health 10 years after Tech tragedy

Washington Examiner: Study: Despite coverage expansions, mental health treatment lags

ABC News: Schools warn parents about Netflix's '13 Reasons Why'

Netflix's '13 Reasons Why' has gone viral. So has alarm over its depiction of suicide “There is a contagion factor when a school has a suicide. . . . and this show is causing the contagion to happen.” Continue reading →

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