2018

How to Find an Affordable Therapist
Posted on Oct 29 2018
Tonic (Vice News)
NAMI mentioned

Discusses how overwhelming the hunt for psychological care can feel, but provides information and steps to take to make the process more manageable. 

Helping Patients in Minority Communities Cope With Serious Mental Illness
Posted on Oct 26 2018
U.S. News & World Report

Looks at how minority populations face numerous barriers to treatment that make them less likely to get the care they need and, as a result, the consequences of mental illness in minorities may be long lasting. 

More College Students Seeking Mental Health Care
Posted on Oct 25 2018
HealthDay

College students in the U.S. are showing higher rates of diagnosis for a range of mental health conditions, suggests a new study in the Journal of American College Health. Using a national American College Health Association dataset of over 450,000 undergraduate students, researchers investigated whether mental health diagnoses and treatment among students changed between 2009 and 2015. They found that treatment and diagnoses of anxiety increased by nearly 6 percent, followed by depression and panic attacks, which each increased about 3 percent.

Turning the tables, people with mental illness share what they want scientists to study
Posted on Oct 24 2018
STAT
NAMI mentioned

Patients are usually the subject of scientific studies, but a new effort is trying to bring patients’ priorities to the forefront in research on mental health. For months, the Milken Institute and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance have been collecting the perspectives of patients with depression or bipolar disorder. The first-of-its-kind survey poses a question patients don’t often get asked. Since launching the survey in August, more than 5,600 people have taken part. 

Higher Rate of ED Visits in Mental Illness Patients Explained
Posted on Oct 22 2018
Medscape
NAMI mentioned

Discusses new research results that show individuals with mental health diagnoses make 25 percent more visits to the emergency department (ED) than those without mental illness; increases in frequency correspond to illness severity. Investigators analyzed data on more than 3.5 million individuals. They found that patients with mental illnesses visited the ED more frequently and that the increase correlated with illness severity, prior patient visit patterns, previous hospitalization, and high rates of lagged ED visits. 

Trump’s “junk” health care plans threaten people with mental illnesses
Posted on Oct 21 2018
Salon
NAMI mentioned

In an op-ed, Mary Giliberti, CEO of NAMI, takes issue with short-term, limited-duration insurance (STLDI) plans that do not cover mental health treatment and medications. On October 1, a rule went into effect that would allow insurance companies to expand the sale of these dangerous, virtually unregulated STLDI plans. This rule threatens to undermine consumer protections for people with mental illness and/or pre-existing conditions and will turn back the clock to a time when those individuals were excluded from lifesaving care.

Mental health patients, with nowhere else to go, are overwhelming emergency departments
Posted on Oct 18 2018
STAT

An opinion piece that calls for new ways to give health care workers real-time insights into the needs of psychiatric patients. Also the need to consider better ways to “triage” psychiatric patients to more appropriate caregivers after they’re admitted to the emergency room. The piece states that the better able we are to match patients with the appropriate resources outside of the emergency department, the better off our health system and our patients will be.

Virginia Lawmaker Settles Suit; Seeks Mental-Health Reform
Posted on Oct 17 2018
Associated Press

Discusses the reforms that Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds has pushed for since his son's death including a law requiring mental-health patients to be transported to a state hospital if space isn't found in a public or private facility. The state has also created a real-time psychiatric bed registry to help mental-health workers find spaces in their region. The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health has also committed to holding annual seminars to help mental-health workers.

Report: World Support For Mental Health Care Is 'Pitifully Small'
Posted on Oct 15 2018
NPR

Discusses a recent report from the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health. The report calls for more reliance on community health workers, greater attention to stigma, a broader definition of mental illness to include mental health, a search for ways to create resilience in currently healthy people and the use of technology tools for diagnosis and therapy. The Commission notes the availability of funding is "alarmingly low," citing a comparison between how much was spent on other diseases in 2013 and how much was spent on mental illnesses.

Mental health crisis could cost the world $16 trillion by 2030
Posted on Oct 09 2018
Reuters

Every country in the world is facing and failing to tackle a mental health crisis, from epidemics of anxiety and depression to conditions caused by violence and trauma. A commission report by a team of 28 global experts assembled by the Lancet medical journal says there is a “collective failure to respond to this global health crisis” which “results in monumental loss of human capabilities and avoidable suffering.” The burden of mental ill-health is rising everywhere, says the Lancet Commission, in spite of advances in the understanding of the causes and options for treatment.