Psychiatric News (1/17) reports investigators sought to find out what US religious “leaders believe about the cause and treatment of depression,” focusing “specifically on the data obtained from the 890 primary leaders of religious congregations who predominantly completed the survey online between February 2019 and June 2020.” The study revealed that “most of the religious leaders indicated that they would be moderately or very likely to encourage a congregant with depression to seek help from a mental health professional (90%) and take prescribed medications (87%).” The study authors concluded, “These results suggest that medical professionals should view the vast majority of religious leaders as allies in identifying and properly treating depression.” The findings were published online Jan. 11 in a brief report in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Most U.S. Religious Leaders Endorse Medical Understanding of Depression, Survey Finds, Psychiatric News, January 17, 2023

The Washington Post (1/16, Blakemore) reports, “Military members and their families have unique mental health needs,” but research indicates that “up to 35 percent of military recipients don’t have access to adequate psychiatric care despite government insurance that covers such services.” Investigators arrived at that conclusion after examining “39,487 U.S. Zip codes with at least one beneficiary of Tricare, the Defense Department health-care program that covers uniformed service members, retirees and their families,” then combining “data from a variety of federal sources with community information.” The findings were published online Jan. 3 in JAMA Network Open.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

According to Kaiser Health News (1/13, Larson), Montana state “lawmakers from both parties have shown support for a plan to stop the practice of committing people with Alzheimer’s disease, other types of dementia, or traumatic brain injuries” (TBI) “without their consent to the troubled Montana State Hospital and instead direct them to treatment in their communities.” However, “a budget estimate attached to the proposed legislation raises questions about whether Montana communities, many of which are still reeling from past budget cuts and insufficient Medicaid reimbursement rates, will have the capacity to care for them by July 2025, when involuntary commitments would cease under the plan.”

Related Links:

— “Ending Involuntary Commitments Would Shift Burden of Dementia Care to Strapped Communities ” Keely Larson, Kaiser Health News, January 13, 2023

NPR (1/16, Chatterjee) reports, “The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline received over 1.7 million calls, texts and chats in its first five months,” a figure that is “nearly half a million more than the old 10-digit Suicide Prevention Lifeline fielded during the same period the year before.” According to federal data “the Lifeline responded to 154,585 more contacts – including calls, text messages and chats – in November 2022 than the same month the year before,” and “the average wait time to speak to a counselor also fell – from close to three minutes in November 2021, to 36 seconds last November.”

Related Links:

— “988 Lifeline sees boost in use and funding in first months “Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, January 16, 2023

HealthIT Security (1/12, McKeon) reports, “Cloud adoption has been on the rise in the healthcare sector for years for good reason as more organizations lean into digital transformation.” However, “despite rapid adoption, cloud technologies are not immune to security threats,” as “data from Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) company Netskope” revealed that “more than 400 distinct cloud applications delivered malware in 2022.” The report noted, “Cloud malware delivery increased in 2022 after having remained constant in 2021, caused by an increase in the total number of apps abused to deliver malware and the quantity of malware downloads coming from the most popular apps.”

Related Links:

— “Cybersecurity Risks Spike Within Cloud-Based Apps, Report Shows ” Jill McKeon, HealthIT Security , January 12, 2023