According to the New York Times (5/8, A1, Richtel, Flanagan), across the US, “hospital emergency departments have become boarding wards for teenagers who pose too great a risk to themselves or others to go home.” Teens who are in danger of dying by suicide “have nowhere else to go; even as the crisis has intensified, the medical system has failed to keep up, and options for inpatient and intensive outpatient psychiatric treatment have eroded sharply.” In a recent study involving “88 pediatric hospitals around the country,” researchers “found that 87 of them regularly board children and adolescents overnight in the” ED, and “on average, any given hospital saw four boarders per day, with an average stay of 48 hours.”

Related Links:

— “Hundreds of Suicidal Teens Sleep in Emergency Rooms. Every Night. “Matt Richtel, The New York Times, May 8, 2022

According to Healio (5/6, Downey), in a May 6 press release, HHS “announced the launch of the Maternal Mental Health Hotline, a national, confidential, toll-free service for new and expecting mothers who are experiencing mental health challenges.” This hotline was set for launch on May 8, “with counselors available to provide mental health support.” When mothers contact the hotline, they “can receive a range of support, including interventions from trained counselors who are culturally and trauma informed, in addition to referrals to community-based and telehealth” clinicians, as well as “receive evidence-based information and referrals to support groups and community resources.”

Related Links:

— “HHS announces Maternal Mental Health Hotline “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, May 6, 2022

RevCycle Intelligence (5/5, Bailey) reports, “The COVID-19 pandemic intensified healthcare workforce challenges, leading to significant staffing shortages, increased healthcare worker burnout, and other hurdles that will likely persist after the pandemic, according to a report from HHS.” This “report [PDF] from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) combines data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, highlighting how the pandemic has impacted the hospital and outpatient clinician workforce.”

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 Pandemic Exacerbated Healthcare Workforce Challenges “Victoria Bailey, RevCycle Intelligence, May 5, 2022

The New York Times (5/5, Pearson) reports, “For two years, working parents in America have been running on fumes, hammered by the stress of remote schooling, day care closures, economic instability and social isolation.” And “now, a new report says that 66 percent of working parents meet the criteria for parental burnout – a nonclinical term that means they are so exhausted by the pressure of caring for their children, they feel they have nothing left to give.” The report(pdf), “published Thursday by researchers with Ohio State University, is based on an online survey of 1,285 working parents that was conducted between January 2021 and April 2021.”

Related Links:

— “New Report Confirms Most Working Parents Are Burned Out “Catherine Pearson, The New York Times, May 5, 2022

The New York Times (5/4, Ghorayshi) reports “young children who transition to a new gender with social changes…are likely to continue identifying as that gender five years later, according to a” study published in Pediatrics. The study also found that “many had begun hormonal medications in adolescence to prompt biological changes to align with their gender identities.” Meanwhile, “2.5% of the group had reverted to identifying as the gender they were assigned at birth.”
The AP (5/4, Tanner) reports the study “involved 317 youngsters who were 3 to 12 years old when they were recruited.” The AP adds, “On average, the kids began identifying as transgender at around age 6.”

Related Links:

— “Few Transgender Children Change Their Minds After 5 Years, Study Finds “Azeen Ghorayshi, The New York Times, May 4, 2022

Bloomberg (5/4, Ceron) reports, “Almost half of LGBTQ youth considered attempting suicide in the past year,” according to a “survey from the advocacy group The Trevor Project” that “chronicled the responses of more than 34,000 LGBTQ people between the ages of 13 and 24 in the U.S.” The survey data disclosed on May 4 reveal that “73% of respondents…said they had symptoms of anxiety, and 45%…said they considered attempting suicide in the past year.” CBS News (5/4, Powell) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Almost Half of LGBTQ Youth Contemplated Suicide Last Year “Ella Ceron, Bloomberg, May 4, 2022

Psychiatric News (5/4) reports, “Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination may be linked to greater conflict with their children, which could in turn be associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety among children,” researchers concluded in a 199-family assessment. The findings were published online May 1 ahead of print in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Black Parents’ Experiences of Racial Discrimination Associated With Children’s Depression, Psychiatric News, May 4, 2022

CNN (5/4, Marples) reports, “Women of all ages and younger men with certain mood disorders are more likely to develop certain chronic illnesses,” investigators concluded after analyzing “health data of 40,360 adults from Olmsted County in Minnesota.” The study revealed that “women in their 20s were most likely to develop chronic illnesses if they had both anxiety and depression, with an over 61% increase in risk compared with participants without either mental disorder,” while men with “with anxiety and depression in the age 20 group were most likely to develop a chronic condition, with a nearly 72% risk increase compared with the control group, and men with anxiety in the age 60 group were least likely with an over 8% decrease in risk.” The findings were published online May 2 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Chronic diseases are more likely to develop in these groups of people with anxiety and depression “Megan Marples, CNN, May 4, 2022

Psychiatric News (5/3) reports, “Even as the number of people who identify as Hispanic in the United States grew by an estimated 5.2 million people (or about 4.5%) between 2014 and 2019, the proportion of U.S. mental health treatment facilities offering services in Spanish fell by nearly 18%,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the National Mental Health Services Survey” that “focused on data collected from 13,015 facilities in 2014 and 12,345 facilities in 2019.” Investigators also found that “among states with the fastest Hispanic population growth, several also experienced the greatest reduction in Spanish-language services.” The findings were published online May 3 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Study Reveals Drop in Spanish-Language Services at U.S. Mental Health Treatment Facilities, Psychiatric News , May 3, 2022

HealthPayerIntelligence (5/3, Bailey) reports, “The CMS telehealth waiver that expanded coverage for virtual care services during the COVID-19 pandemic helped increase access to virtual care for Medicare beneficiaries in disadvantaged neighborhoods,” according to a study published in Health Affairs. After “coverage was expanded, utilization increased across all ADI [Area Deprivation Index] quartiles. Following the waiver, 28 million beneficiaries had at least one outpatient visit claim, with more than 2.7 million participating in a visit via telemedicine (9.97 percent).”

Related Links:

— “Telehealth Waiver Boosted Care Access for Medicare Beneficiaries “Victoria Bailey, HealthPayerIntelligence, May 3, 2022