The Detroit Free Press (4/26, Walsh-Sarnecki) reports, “The number of those diagnosed with autism has increased dramatically in the last 20 years, threatening to overwhelm the already limited services available for those…who are entering adulthood with the brain disorder.” While educational programs exist in schools to help children with autism, “most of those aging into adulthood will find an alarming lack of services designed to help transition into the next stage of their lives.” For many of these young adults with autism, it is difficult, if not impossible, to live a normal adult life. “Some experts estimate that 90% or more of adults with autism spend their lives in their parents’ home or group homes, playing video games or drawing pictures — over and over and over.” Not enough money exists on the state or local level to provide the special social skills training needed for young adults with autism to hold down a job successfully.

Related Links:

— “Lack of state services for aging autistic makes adulthood like ‘falling off a cliff’,”Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki , Detroit Free Press, April 25, 2012.

The Kaiser Health News (4/24, Graham) “Capsules” blog reported that according to a survey by the John A. Hartford Foundation, “large numbers of seniors aren’t receiving recommended interventions that could help forestall medical problems and improve their health.” The 12-month survey found, for example, that 62 percent of respondents said that clinicians did not ask after their mental health. The survey also revealed that “more than two-thirds of the time doctors and nurses didn’t ask older patients whether they’d taken a tumble or provide advice about how to avoid tripping on carpets or slipping on the stairs,” even though falls are the cause of some two million injuries each year in US seniors.

Related Links:

— “Poll: Doctors Fall Short In Helping Many Seniors,”Judith Graham , Kaiser Health News, April 24, 2012.

A new report on how long it takes Veterans Affairs to provide mental healthcare to vets who seek such care continues to generate extensive, somewhat negative coverage for the department.

The AP (4/25) reports, “Veterans are waiting an average of 80 days for mental health appointments at the Spokane VA Medical Center, far short of the 14-day goal set” by the US VA. Spokane “was one of four VA medical centers included in a review of mental health care access” by VA’s IG. The “report released Monday found that the average wait time for an appointment turned out to be 41 days.”

On its website, NPR (4/24, Abramson) published an online version of a story that will be broadcast on Wednesday’s “Morning Edition.” According to NPR, the IG’s “report says, rather than starting the clock from the moment a vet asks for mental health care, the VA has been counting from whenever the first appointment became available. That could add weeks or months to the wait time.” NPR adds, “At a Senate hearing Wednesday, the VA will have another chance to explain how it’s going” to improve its mental healthcare system.

According to CQ (4/25, Norman, Subscription Publication), the VHA assertion “that 95 percent of veterans who report mental health problems receive a full evaluation within 14 days has ‘no real value,’ with the reality being that veterans are waiting much longer for help, says a Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General’s report that will be explored” at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Shinseki “said in a statement…that the department has expanded its mental health services to add marriage and family therapists as well as licensed professional mental health counselors.”

NYTimes Says VA Must Do More For Vets Who Need Mental Healthcare. In an editorial, the New York Times (4/25, A24, Subscription Publication) is fairly critical of Veterans Affairs, saying a new report indicates that VA must do more to help vets who seek mental healthcare offered by the department. The Times does add, however, that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki “has taken admirable steps to help veterans by expanding and improving programs to fight homelessness and provide more psychological care.” The Times urges “President Obama and Democratic leaders” in Congress to resist House Republicans who have “made a target of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which runs a housing-voucher program” with VA that has “saved many thousands of veterans from homelessness.”

Related Links:

— “VA Struggles To Provide Vets With Mental Health Care,”Larry Abramson , NPR, April 25, 2012.

Medscape (4/24, Waknine) reports, “Maltreatment frequency is a strong predictor of future negative health and behavioral outcomes among low-income children, according to a…study published online April 23 in Pediatrics.” The study of data on nearly 6,000 children “found a linear dose-response relationship between number of abuse incidents and likelihood of adverse outcomes during childhood, including head injuries, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), mental health conditions, juvenile court petitions for violent offense or use of alcohol or illicit drugs, and suicide attempts before age 18 years.” In addition, “the frequency of maltreatment during childhood was linked to…an increased risk for mental health issues and problematic substance abuse.”

HealthDay (4/24, Preidt) reports, “Cyberbullying is different than traditional bullying, and anti-bullying programs need to use specific measures to combat online aggression,” according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. For the study, researchers “looked at 17,000 students in grades eight to 12 in Vancouver and found that 25 percent to 30 percent of them reported they had experienced or taken part in cyberbullying, while 12 percent said they had participated in or experienced schoolyard bullying.” Notably, students perceived that “95 percent of what happens online was intended as a joke and only five percent was intended to harm,” the study’s lead author pointed out. She added, “Students need to be educated that this ‘just joking behavior has serious implications.”

Related Links:

— “Cyberbullying May Call for New Prevention Tactics,”Robert Preidt , HealthDay, April 23, 2012.

Monday’s release of a report on mental healthcare services at Veterans Affairs generated extensive, mainly negative coverage for the agency.

The AP (4/24) reports, “Federal investigators reported Monday that nearly half of the veterans who seek mental health care for the first time waited about 50 days before receiving a full evaluation, a much longer lag-time than cited” by Veterans Affairs. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is scheduled to discuss the inspector general’s report at a hearing on Wednesday. On Monday, the panel’s chair, US Sen. Patty Murray, said the report is “deeply disturbing and demands action from” VA.

USA Today (4/24, Zoroya) quotes from the report (pdf), which says that VA’s “mental health performance data is not accurate or reliable” and that VA has “overstated its success” in providing mental health services to vets. The agency “said it concurred with the investigation results and would move ‘rapidly’ to revamp its process for measuring delays.”

The New York Times (4/24, Dao) “At War” blog notes that VA’s “under secretary for health, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, said in a letter to the inspector general that the VA generally agreed with the recommendations and that it would initiate a timeliness review of its entire medical system, not just the four regions analyzed by the inspector general.” In a statement, VA “said that in addition to hiring new clinicians, it had taken several other measures to improve mental health services, including creating a new office to oversee its mental health programs.”

The Washington Post (4/24, Vogel) reports, “On Thursday, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced that the department will hire 1,900 mental health workers, an increase of more than 9 percent, an action taken based on a review of mental health operations that began in 2011. ‘We have made strong progress, but we need to do more,’ the VA said in a statement released Monday afternoon.”

Modern Healthcare (4/24, Barr, Subscription Publication) notes, “A number of problems exist with the Veterans Health Administration’s tracking and providing of mental-health services, a new report” from VA’s inspector general finds. The “report, which was requested by members of Congress and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, recommends an overhaul of the VHA measurement methods and an examination of whether staffing vacancies at the VHA played a role.”

Experience Of Killing In War Associated With Suicidal Thoughts. HealthDay (4/24, Preidt) reports, “The experience of killing in war is strongly linked with suicidal thoughts,” according to a study published online in the journal Depression and Anxiety. “Researchers analyzed data from a survey of a nationally representative sample of Vietnam War veterans and found that those with more killing experiences were twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts as those with fewer or no experiences of killing.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health help for vets untimely,”Gregg Zoroya , USA Today, April 24, 2012.

HealthDay (4/21, Esposito) reports, “High school and youth football players sustained 14 brain injuries with long-lasting damage in 2011 — the highest number in more than 25 years — and this is a ‘major problem,’ a new report claims.” The data are “based on an annual survey, conducted by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, which collects data on catastrophic football injuries.” While “deaths from brain injuries among high school players have decreased every decade, from 128 in the 1960s to 32 in the 2000s, brain injuries with incomplete recovery reached the double digits in three of the past four years.”

Related Links:

— “‘Catastrophic’ Head Injuries to High School Football Players Rising,”Lisa Esposito , HealthDay, April 20, 2012.

The Time (4/21, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog reports that “your kids might be getting more exposure to such background TV than you think,” according to a study from the International Communication Association. Investigators “found that the average American kid was exposed to 232.2 minutes of background television per day — when the TV was on, but the child was engaged in another activity.”

The Los Angeles Times (4/21, Healy) “Booster Shots” blog reports, “African American kids’ daily exposure to background TV was 45% higher than the national average — the highest of all ethnic groups polled.”

Related Links:

— “TV On in the Background? It’s Still Bad for Kids,”Alexandra Sifferlin , Time Healthland, April 20, 2012.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (4/23, Torpy, Davis) reports, “A congressional report in February said studies indicate between 15…and 23 percent of the two million who have served in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced” a traumatic brain injury (TBI), “which would mean 300,000 to 460,000 cases. Army experts say those figures are too high.” The US military, however, now quickly takes soldiers with suspected head injuries out of combat duty. Still, some soldiers do not report head injuries, because, as Dr. Inge Thomas, coordinator of the TBI Injury Program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, explained, they “don’t want to be seen as sissies.”

Related Links:

— “Soldiers’ brain trauma cases disputed,”Bill Torpy , The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 22, 2012.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times (4/22, SR5, Subscription Publication), Richard A. Friedman, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, wrote that while conventional wisdom underlies the belief that the high rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is caused by the longevity and severity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “there is another factor that might be playing a role in the increasing rates of the disorder, one that has escaped attention: the military’s use of stimulant medications, like Ritalin [methylphenidate HCl] and Adderall [amphetamine, dextroamphetamine mixed salts], in our troops.” Friedman cited data revealed by the Department of Defense that “the number of Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions written for active-duty service members increased by nearly 1,000 percent in five years.” Friedman then called for “a rigorous epidemiologic study of a possible link between stimulants and PTSD in our troops.”

Related Links:

— “Why Are We Drugging Our Soldiers?,”Richard Friedman , The New York Times, April 21, 2012.