Crain’s Cleveland Business (2/14, Coutre) reports, “Faced with new or different challenges” brought to light by the pandemic, “many employees are more aware of their own mental health needs, and as they spoke up, employers, too, have developed a stronger awareness of the importance of addressing those needs, said Patty Starr, president and CEO of Health Action Council…a nonprofit coalition representing midsize to large employers that aims to enhance human and economic health.” For example, many “employers are making significant investments in employee assistance programs and benefits like outpatient mental healthcare.” These programs offer “substantial opportunity for cost savings in employers’ mental healthcare benefits, and” help address “concerns of presenteeism, absenteeism and productivity.”

Related Links:

— “Making mental health a top priority is growing trend for employers, employees “Lydia Coutré, Crain’s Cleveland Business, February 14, 2022

Healio (2/14, Gramigna) reports, “The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9] appeared reliable and valid for depression screening among patients with neurological disorders,” researchers concluded after analyzing “PHQ-9 questionnaire responses from 277 patients admitted to a neurology department at Peking University,” then using “the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview…and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression to assess depressive symptoms.” The findings were published online Feb. 9 in BMC Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “PHQ-9 may offer effective depression screening in patients with neurological disorders “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 14, 2022

Bloomberg Law (2/14, Subscription Publication) reports HHS “announced that nearly $55 million will be awarded to 29 health centers funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, according to Monday’s news release.” This “funding will support the use of telehealth, digital patient tools, and health information technology platforms.” According to HHS, “health centers have reported a 6,000% increase in the number of virtual visits from 478,333 in 2019 to 28,550,608 in 2020.”

Healthcare IT News (2/14, Jercich) reports these “one-time grants are intended to support the health centers in developing, implementing and evaluating evidence-based strategies that optimize the use of virtual care to increase access and improve clinical quality for underserved communities and vulnerable populations.”

Related Links:

— “HHS puts $55M toward virtual care for underserved groups “Kat Jercich, Healthcare IT News, February 14, 2022

Healio (2/11, Herpen) reported, “A variety of social and environmental factors are crucial to assess rates of self-injury mortality [SIM] and suicide,” investigators concluded in a study that “utilized a partial panel time series with underlying cause-of-death data in 101,325 SIMs from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., for the intervals of 1999 to 2000, 2007 to 2008, 2013 to 2014 and 2018 to 2019, which included all suicides, accidental and undetermined drug intoxication deaths and self-harm behaviors.” The findings were published online Feb. 9 in JAMA Network Open. They “ identified 8 factors associated with the SIM rate in 2018-2019: centralized medical examiner system (β = 4.362), labor underutilization rate (β = 0.728), manufacturing employment (β = −0.056), homelessness rate (β = −0.125), percentage nonreligious (β = 0.041), non-Hispanic White race and ethnicity (β = 0.087), prescribed opioids for 30 days or more (β = 0.117), and percentage without health insurance (β = −0.013) and 5 factors associated with the suicide rate: percentage male (β = 1.046), military veteran (β = 0.747), rural (β = 0.031), firearm ownership (β = 0.030), and pain reliever misuse (β = 1.131).

Related Links:

— “Social, environmental factors key to assessing rates of self-injury mortality and suicide “Robert Herpen, Healio , February 11, 2022

According to Politico (2/13, Ollstein, Wilson), now, as Democrats pivot to crack “down on insurers who routinely deny mental health and addiction claims” in an effort to assure mental health parity, the health “insurance industry and its allies, which have successfully staved off tougher enforcement, are lining up against the measures,” spending time “talking with committee chairs and sending letters to key lawmakers to stop a pair of bills, including tougher enforcement such as stiff fines.” Mental healthcare clinicians, “looking to counter the insurance industry’s claims, are also ramping up their lobbying and urging Congress on as they consider penalizing insurers.” Saul Levin, MD, MPA, FRCP-E, FRCPsych, CEO and Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association, told Politico, “This is the big issue for us on the Hill.” Dr. Levin added, “If you can’t provide care, what are we here for?”

Related Links:

— “Mental health push in Congress sparks lobbying frenzy “Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Wilson, Politico, February 13, 2022

The AP (2/12, DiLorenzo) reported that during the recent Tokyo Olympic Games, the subject of mental health “shook up those Games and made everyone take notice.” Now, during the winter games in Beijing just six months later, “the conversation has evolved: The subject pops up regularly, but no one is shocked when it does.” After “several elite athletes stumbled in Beijing, they were often quick to remind the world that they’re human, too.” Now, “as more athletes acknowledged what they face behind the scenes, the stigma around talking about mental health” may “merely become one more challenge in the mix.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health hovers over Olympics, on its way to mainstream “Sarah DiLorenzo, AP, February 12, 2022

HealthDay (2/10, Preidt) reports that “nearly one-third of older COVID-19 survivors develop new health problems in the months after their infection,” according to a study in which researchers “analyzed 2020 health insurance data from more than 133,000 Americans 65 and older who were diagnosed with COVID before April 1, 2020.” Among these patients, “32% sought medical attention in the several months after their diagnosis for one or more new or persistent health conditions,” the study published in The BMJ found. Researchers “found the COVID patients had a higher risk for a number of conditions, including respiratory failure, fatigue, high blood pressure and mental health diagnoses.”

Related Links:

— “1 in 3 Adults With COVID Develops Other Health Issues Later: Study “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 10, 2022

Psychiatric News (2/10) reports, “Family structure, socioeconomic status, and the experience of racism were primarily associated with negative impacts of COVID-19 across family generations in minority communities, more so than preexisting medical or psychiatric conditions,” investigators concluded in research utilizing “data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.” The study revealed that “among the 9,267 youth and their caregivers…social determinants of inequity, including lower socioeconomic status, living in single-parent households, and experiencing racism, were primarily associated with negative COVID-19 experiences, such as food insecurity and financial worry.” The findings were published online Feb. 9 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study Identifies Factors Associated With Negative COVID-19 Experiences, Psychiatric News, February 10, 2022

Healio (2/10, Miller) reports data indicate that “people who survived COVID-19 were more likely to report symptoms of anxiety, depression or both compared with those who did not have a history of the disease.” Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing data from “survey responses from 3,633 U.S. adults,” then using the “Patient Health Questionnaires and the General Anxiety Disorder screening tool to evaluate clinical levels of anxiety, depression and psychological distress.” The findings were published online Jan. 12 in the European Journal of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 survivors three times more likely to report anxiety “Janel Miller, Healio, February 10, 2022

MedPage Today (2/9, George) reports, “Dementia incidence tripled in lonely older adults who otherwise would be expected to have relatively low risk based on age and genes,” investigators concluded in a study that “assessed 2,308 participants who were dementia-free at baseline with an average age of 73.” The study revealed that “lonely older people under age 80 without an APOE4 allele had a threefold greater risk of dementia…over 10 years than similar people who weren’t lonely.” What’s more, “regardless of age or APOE4 status, lonely older adults had a higher 10-year dementia risk compared with those who weren’t lonely.” The findings were published online in the journal Neurology.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)