The Washington Post (10/29) reports, “For decades, Medicare has covered only mental health services provided by psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers and psychiatric nurses.” However, “with rising demand and many people willing to pay privately for care, 45 percent of psychiatrists and 54 percent of psychologists don’t participate in Medicare.” In response, “beginning in January, Medicare for the first time will allow marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors to provide services.” This group “of more than 400,000 professionals makes up more than 40 percent of the licensed mental health workforce and is especially critical in rural areas.” Advocates additionally “note the importance of expanded Medicare coverage for telehealth, including mental health care,” that has become more widely available due to expanded coverage during the pandemic. The American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing Chair Robert Trestman, PhD, MD, “called on lawmakers and regulators to maintain those expansions and continue to reimburse mental health telehealth visits at the same rate as in-person visits, another pandemic innovation.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HCP Live (10/27, Derman) reported, “Treatment rates for depression, anxiety, ADHD, and behavior disorders among children and adolescents are low—and rates differ by age, income level, and region, according to a new international study.” Investigators came to these conclusions after analyzing data from “40 studies, published between 1988 – 2021, that conducted diagnostic interviews.” The research was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Mental Disorders Treatment Rates Remain Low Among Children and Adolescents,”Chelsie Derman, HCP Live, October 27, 2023

HealthDay (10/26, Norton) reports, “Millions of older Americans may be unaware they have memory and thinking impairments – mostly because their doctors aren’t diagnosing them, new research suggests.” Investigators found, “after analyzing Medicare data covering 40 million older Americans…that only a small percentage of expected cases of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were actually diagnosed.” According to HealthDay, “The upshot was that more than 7 million cases went undetected.” The research was published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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— “7 Million Americans Have Mild Cognitive Impairment and Don’t Know It,”Amy Norton, HealthDay , October 26, 2023

Psychiatric News (10/26) reports that “at this year’s American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s…annual meeting,” experts debated whether child and adolescent psychiatrists should urge “families to institute blanket bans on screens in bedrooms,” given that “numerous studies have established a strong link between evening screen time and poor sleep quality.”

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— “Should Psychiatrists Advocate Banning Screens From Kids’ Bedrooms?, Psychiatric News , October 26, 2023

The AP (10/26, Baldor) reports, “The number of suicides among U.S. military members and their families dipped slightly in 2022, compared with the previous year, as the Defense Department tries to build prevention and treatment programs to address what has been a steadily growing problem over the past decade, The Associated Press has learned.” However, “because the active-duty force is smaller now, the rate of suicides per 100,000 service members inched up, according to U.S. officials.” Overall, “defense officials said the long-term trend still points to increasing deaths, although the relative stability in the numbers for 2022 gives them some cautious encouragement.”

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— “The number of military suicides dipped in 2022 as the Pentagon works on new prevention programs,”Lolita C. Baldor, AP, October 26, 2023

Psychiatric News (10/25) reports, “Youth who reported experiencing severe psychological distress were more likely to vape cannabis in the previous month than those who did not report psychological distress, according to” a study. Investigators came to this conclusion after looking “at the association between cannabis vaping and psychological distress among 22,202 youth aged 11 to 18 years using data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Over 60% of Youth Who Vape Cannabis Report Psychological Distress, Psychiatric News , October 25, 2023

NBC News (10/25, Guilfoil) reports, “The White House on Wednesday requested $1.55 billion from Congress to address illicit fentanyl driving overdose deaths across the country as part of a broader funding package.” This money “would be included alongside money for grants to states, territories and tribes through a Department of Health and Human Services program that aims to help strengthen addiction treatment, overdose prevention measures and recovery support services.” The request “comes after the administration asked Congress for money focused on foreign policy and border issues, including an additional 1,000 law enforcement personnel and investigative capabilities to prevent cartels from moving fentanyl into the country.”

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— “White House presses for money to prevent opioid deaths as congressional dysfunction stymies aid,”Kyla Guilfoil, NBC News , October 25, 2023

Healio (10/25, Cooper) reports, “An earlier follow-up visit after psychiatric inpatient discharge was associated with lower risk of suicide in a population-based study from South Korea.” The data indicated that “earlier follow-up lowered suicide risk for patients with substance use disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, suggesting that ‘more intensive follow-up’ is needed immediately after discharge, particularly for the prevention of suicide in those deemed high-risk at admission…wrote” the researchers. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Earlier follow-up lowered suicide risk after psychiatric inpatient discharge,”Justin Cooper, Healio, October 25, 2023

The New York Times (10/24, Weiland) reports, “Health workers feel burnout more frequently than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, while also struggling with symptoms of anxiety and depression, sleep problems and harassment, according to a federal survey of American workers published on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The result “compared data from 2018 and 2022 and underscored a dire staffing crisis in the nation’s health work force, which limped through the pandemic amid long hours, high turnover, violence in emergency departments and public vitriol over vaccines, masks and treatments.”

The Hill (10/24, Weixel) says the report found that, “overall, about 46% of health care workers reported feeling burnout often or very often in 2022, compared with 32% in 2018.” Almost “half of those in the field also reported they were likely or very likely to apply for a new job – in contrast to other worker groups who reported a decrease in job turnover intention.”

Healio (10/24, Rhoades) reports, “Harassment at work also rose from 6.4% to 13.4% from 2018 to 2022, and was linked to increased odds of: anxiety,” depression, and burnout.

Related Links:

— “Why Health Care Workers Are Burning Out,”Noah Weiland, The New York Times, October 24, 2023

The Washington Post (10/24, Reynolds Lewis) reports, “Young adults in the United States experience anxiety and depression twice as frequently as teenagers, according to a new nationally representative survey.” The survey, from “Making Caring Common, a project of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education,” found that “thirty-six percent of young adults — ages 18 to 25 — reported anxiety, compared with 18 percent of younger teenagers — ages 14 to 17 — while 29 percent felt depression, compared with 15 percent in the younger age group in the survey.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)