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Latest News Around the Web

Iowa To Have A Third Privately-Run Psychiatric Hospital As Part Of National Trend

KFF Health News (4/1, Leys ) reports that privately-run psychiatric hospitals are part of “a national trend toward having such hospitals owned by investors instead of by state governments or nonprofit health systems.” In Iowa, “two out-of-state companies have developed psychiatric hospitals” since 2020, “and now a third company has obtained a state ‘certificate of need’ to open a 60-bed facility in Grinnell.” Before 2020, there were “no privately owned, free-standing psychiatric hospitals” in Iowa. Universal Health Services “says it has mental health facilities in 39 states” including Iowa.

Related Links:

— “For-Profit Companies Open Psychiatric Hospitals in Areas Clamoring for Care,”Tony Leys, KFF Health News, April 1, 2024

Urgent Care Clinics For Mental Healthcare Becoming More Common

The Wall Street Journal (4/1, Armour , Subscription Publication) reports on urgent care clinics developed to treat young people facing mental health crises, which are growing given the rising number of patients needing mental healthcare. According to a letter in Psychiatric Services, there were at least 77 such clinics in the US in 2021, and over 20 have opened in the past year east of the Rockies.

Related Links:

— “America’s Mental Health Is Worsening. Special Urgent-Care Clinics Step In.,”Stephanie Armour, HealthDay, April 1, 2024

Analysis Shows Continued Increase In Rates Of Suicide For Adolescents From 1999 To 2020

HealthDay (3/29, Mundell ) reported an analysis found that “U.S. rates of suicide by all methods rose steadily for adolescents between 1999 and 2020” as “over 47,000 Americans between the ages 10 and 19 lost their lives to suicide,” with “sharp increases year by year.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Steady Rise in U.S. Suicides Among Adolescents, Teens,”Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, March 29, 2024

Poll Finds Majority Of Teenagers Increasingly Using Social Media To Self-Diagnose Mental Health Issues

The Hill (3/30, Lonas ) reported a poll from the EdWeek Research Center shows that “teenagers are increasingly using social media to self-diagnose their mental health issues,” specifically, “55 percent of students use social media to self-diagnose, and 65 percent of teachers say they’ve seen the phenomenon in their classrooms.” The poll also shows that “72 percent of educators believe social media has made it easier for students to be more open about mental health struggles they are facing.”

Related Links:

— “Teens’ latest social media trend? Self-diagnosing their mental health issues,”Lexi Lonas, The Hill , March 30, 2024

Foundation News

Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller to Receive MFP Anti-Stigma Advocacy Award

The 2024 Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry (MFP) Anti-Stigma Advocacy Prize will be awarded to Maryland Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller for her Personal Interview on May 23, 2023 with WBAL News.
Lt. Gov. Miller was very helpful, conveying to the public in a very personal way the impact of her father’s mental illness – not only on him, but on their family. Her experience also demonstrated that one can live through this kind of experience and still become very successful adults. She also made an important point that mental illness isn’t a moral failing, but is a chronic health condition.

The Anti-Stigma Advocacy Award will be formally presented at the Maryland Psychiatric Society annual meeting on April 18.

The Foundation established this annual prize for a worthy media piece, preferably local or regional, that accomplishes one or more of the following:

  • Shares with the public their experience with mental illness in themselves, a family member, or simply in the community.
  • Helps others to overcome their inability to talk about mental illness or their own mental illness.
  • Imparts particularly insightful observations on the general subject of mental illness.

Click here for information about past winners.

PSA Examines Anxiety from Political and Social Media

The Foundation has re-released a Public Service Announcement to local Maryland radio stations that examines anxiety caused by political and social media. People experience a wide variety of feelings after a particularly divisive political campaign or a significant event getting 24 hour coverage across networks and online. Those feelings can include alienation from family and friends, anger at a system or event out of their control, and grief or helplessness at what may come. There are things that can be done to help, ranging from breaks from Facebook and TikTok and similar sites to seeking actual help from professionals.

Listen to the PSA on our home page or from our PSA collection, where you can listen to or download other advice given in past PSAs.

Call for Nominations for Anti-Stigma Advocacy Award

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry presents an annual award to recognize a worthy piece published in a major newspaper or on public media that accomplishes one or more of the following:

· Shares with the public their experience with mental illness in themselves, a family member, or in the community.
· Helps others to overcome their inability to talk about mental illness or their own mental illness.
· Imparts particularly insightful observations on the general subject of mental illness.

The article should be published or produced during the period from January 15, 2023 to January 9, 2024. A Maryland author and/or newspaper or major media outlet is preferred. Click here for past winners and published articles.

The award carries a $500 prize, which is given at the Maryland Psychiatric Society annual meeting in April. Please send nominations to mfp@mdpsych.org by January 10, 2024.

New Foundation Radio Spot Looks at Maryland’s Extreme Risk Protection Order

More than 2/3 of people who die from guns in the United States have their own finger on the trigger. A gun in the home increases the chance of a suicide there by three fold. The Maryland Extreme Risk Protection Order seeks to help mitigate that. This new radio spot from the Foundation examines how the order allows family, police, and clinicians to petition a judge to temporarily remove guns from the home of someone who is at risk for using them to harm themselves or others.

Gun Suicide Risk and Maryland LawGun Suicide Risk and Maryland Law, MP3, 1.1MB

You can listen to the ad using the player in the upper right of the website’s homepage. All past public service spots are also available for listening or to download on our Radio Advertisements page.

Foundation Radio PSA Examines Child and Teen Adolescent Health

Among children and teens the rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide have been surging for over a decade and made severely worse by the pandemic. The latest radio spot from the Foundation examines how suicide is now the second leading cause of death among children aged 10-14 and the rise in emergency room visits for young people has become a national emergency. The Foundation asks you to reach out to your local and state legislators to urge funding for mental health help for our youth.

Child and Adolescent Mental HealthChild and Adolescent Mental Health, MP3, 1.2MB

You can listen to the ad using the player in the upper right of the website’s homepage. All past public service spots are also available for listening or to download on our Radio Advertisements page.