In the US News & World Report (5/15) “Policy Dose” blog, Renee Binder, MD, incoming president of the American Psychiatric Association, and Riki Hokoma, president of the National Association of Counties, write that addressing the need to keep people with mental illnesses out of jail “requires bringing together state and county policymakers, heads of behavioral health programs and leaders in the criminal justice system to create the structure to support change.” For that reason, “we partnered with the Council of State Governments Justice Center to launch ‘Stepping Up: A National Initiative to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jails.’”

Now, “with support from the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and guidance from several national groups dedicated to these issues, counties across the country are joining a call to action and taking specific, research-driven actions to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in county jails.” The American Psychiatric Foundation is one of the initiative’s collaborators.

Related Links:

— “A Crisis in Our Jails,” Riki Hokama and Renee Binder, U.S. News & World Report, May 14, 2015.

HealthDay (5/15, Dotinga) reports “people with short-term debt, such as overdue bills or credit card debt, are more likely to be depressed than those who carry long-term debt through mortgages and other big loans,” according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Family and Economic Issues. For the study, researchers “relied on a national survey of more than 13,000 Americans in 1987-1989 and follow-up interviews of about 10,000 of those people in 1992-1994,” focusing on adults of working age. Investigators found that “a 10 percent increase in short-term debt was associated with a 24 percent increase in depression symptoms.” The study’s lead author suggested that “providing people with protection from debt might lead to mental health benefits.”

Related Links:

— “Short-Term Debt Can Depress More Than Your Finances,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, May 14, 2015.

The Huffington Post (5/15, Gregoire) reports that a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry found that with only one exception, there appears to be “no association between most psychiatric disorders and future violent behavior in delinquent youth.” After analyzing “data from over 1,800 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 18 who were arrested and detained in the Chicago area between 1995 and 1998,” then following the study participants over a number of years after they were detained, researchers discovered that even though “some youth suffering from mental illness were violent – young men with mania, a symptom of bipolar disorder, were twice as likely to report violent behavior as those without mania – their illnesses were not predictive of future violence.”

Related Links:

— “The Link Between Mental Illness And Violence Is More Complicated Than You Might Think,” Carolyn Gregoire, Huffington Post, May 15, 2015.

MedPage Today (5/18, Smith) reports, “War veterans with both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse problems can be treated for the trauma without waiting for a long period of sobriety,” according to research presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting. In a 22-patient study, “a majority of vets with both conditions were able to complete a 12-week course of cognitive processing therapy (CPT) with significant improvements on two PTSD measures,” even though none of them “had been sober for more than 90 days – far less time than is usually thought to be needed for effective treatment of PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “PTSD Treatment Can Start Early Despite Addiction,” Michael Smith, MedPage Today, May 17, 2015.

According to the Washington Post (5/16, Layton), about 20 percent of US middle schools and high schools reported that “their students” had been bullied in 2013, the “lowest rate since the federal government began collecting data on bullying in 2005.” The Post pointed out that the data comes from the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which has surveyed students ages 12 to 18 every two years since 2005. “Even though we’ve come a long way over the past few years in educating the public about the health and educational impacts that bullying can have on students, we still have more work to do to ensure the safety of our nation’s children,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement.

The AP (5/16, Hefling) reported that the survey from 2013 found that “22 percent of students age 12 to 18 said they were bullied,” a six percentage point drop from the 2011 survey when 28 percent of students said they had been bullied. While “educators and researchers praised the decline,” they also stressed that there are still large numbers of students subject to bullying, which can be magnified “in a world of rampant online social media where malicious statements can be made anonymously and shared quickly and broadly.”

Related Links:

— “Bullying rate among U.S. teens has dropped but remains a problem,” Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post, May 15, 2015.