WBUR-FM Boston (4/4, Zimmerman) provides an overview of “the history of legislation to put mental health services on equal footing with all other medical care,” noting that “parity efforts began in earnest in the late 1990s, but still aren’t fully implemented today, despite widespread support, including from notable advocates like former Congressman Patrick Kennedy.” The article quotes extensively from a policy brief published April 3 in the journal Health Affairs.

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Parity: If Not Now, When?,” Rachel Zimmerman, WBUR-FM Boston, April 3, 2014.

USA Today (4/4, Zoroya) reports, “The Pentagon said Thursday that more than 155,000 US troops have PTSD and that more than three-quarters of them are combat veterans.” Approximately “1,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era are diagnosed each week with post-traumatic stress disorder and more than 800 with depression, according to VA statistics.”

The National Journal (4/4, Vasilogambros, Subscription Publication) reports that Craig Bryan, executive director of the National Center for Veterans Studies, believes that soldiers can “get PTSD without actually seeing combat,” and the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, “changed its criteria for PTSD to no longer require that a person must have been in a life-threatening situation.” In fact, “the APA found that many members of the military and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though they didn’t think they were going to die, manifested the problems associated with PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “Military playing catch-up on PTSD,” Gregg Zoroya, Military Times, April 3, 2014.

In a 1,200-word entry in the New York Times (4/3, Fagan) “Opinionator” blog, novelist Jenni Fagan discusses her experiences with mental illness. She writes that “one in four of us directly experiences mental health problems,” but she points out that “mental health services remain underfunded” and “misunderstood.”

Related Links:

— “An Illness, Inherited?,” Jenni Fagan, New York Times, April 2, 2014.

WWJ-TV Detroit (4/3) reports that President Obama has signed Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-MI) “Excellence in Mental Health Act” into law. The new legislation is “expected to expand access to community mental health services, and strengthen the quality of care provided for those living with mental illness,” funding pilot programs in eight separate states to improve mental healthcare.

Related Links:

— “http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/04/02/passage-of-stabenows-mental-health-bill-gains-applause/,” WWJ-TV CBS Detroit, April 2, 2014.

The New York (NY) Times (4/3, A4, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports in a 1,000-word article that today Congress will hear testimony from legislators, patient advocates, and people living with psychiatric diagnoses “on the most ambitious overhaul plan in decades.” Experts call the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act’s prospects “uncertain” because of the legislative branch’s partisanship, although “both houses of Congress adopted one of its central provisions, expanding funding for outpatient treatment programs through other legislation,” last week.

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Groups Split on Bill to Overhaul Care,” Benedict Carly, New York Times, April 2, 2014.