Bloomberg Law (9/20, Subscription Publication) reports, “The Office of Minority Health has awarded more than $3 million in grants to eight organizations as part of a three-year initiative surrounding Black youth mental health policies, the Department of Health and Human Services” announced on Sept. 20. The project period of this initiative “begins Sept. 30, the HHS said.”

Related Links:

— “HHS Grants $3 Million for Black Youth Mental Health Initiative Bloomberg Law, September 20, 2022

The New York Times (9/20, Baumgaertner) reports, “A panel of medical experts on Tuesday recommended for the first time that doctors screen all adult patients under 65 for anxiety, guidance that highlights the extraordinary stress levels that have plagued the United States since the start of the” COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Washington Post (9/20, Zimmerman), the purpose of the US Preventive Services Task Force’s (USPSTF) draft recommendation statement is to help “primary care clinicians identify early signs of anxiety during routine care, using questionnaires and other screening tools.”

The AP (9/20, Tanner) reports, “The proposal is open for public comment until Oct. 17, but the group usually affirms its draft guidance.” The task force’s “recommendations are based on a review that began before the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluating studies showing potential benefits and risks from screening.”

CNN (9/20, Thomas) reports, “The task force defines anxiety disorders as ‘characterized by greater duration or intensity of a stress response over everyday events.’” Types of anxiety recognized “include generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and agoraphobia.” Additionally, the draft “recommend[s] screening for major depressive disorder in adults, consistent with recommendations for depression screening published in 2016.”

Related Links:

— “Health Panel Recommends Anxiety Screening for All Adults Under 65 ” Emily Baumgaertner, The New York Times, September 20, 2022

MedPage Today (9/19, D’Ambrosio) reports, “Women who lived in states with policies that punished women for substance use during pregnancy received worse prenatal and postpartum care, according to a cross-sectional study” published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

USA Today (9/19, Hassanein) reports “a staggering number of maternal deaths in the United States were found to be preventable, according to” a CDC report that found “more than 80%, or roughly 4 in 5 maternal deaths” from 2017 to 2019, “were due to preventable causes.” The analysis also “included a section on maternal deaths for American Indian and Alaska Native people,” which found “more than 90% of Indigenous mothers’ deaths were preventable.” The report is “based on figures from Maternal Mortality Review Committees” that are “based in 36 states.”

ABC News (9/19, Kekatos) says, “Mental health conditions…made up the plurality of deaths at 23%, the report found.” Additional “underlying causes of pregnancy-related death included hemorrhaging; heart conditions; infections; thrombotic embolism… cardiomyopathy…and high blood pressure.”

The Hill (9/19, Folmar) reports, “The leading causes of pregnancy-related death differed between ethnicities,” but “Black Americans were disproportionately affected.”

Related Links:

— “‘Staggering’ and ‘sobering’: More than 80% of US maternal deaths are preventable, CDC study shows “Nada Hassanein, USA TODAY, September 19, 2022

According to Kaiser Health News (9/19, Zurek, Rocha), refugees who arrive in the US “are 10 times as likely as the general population to have post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety.” Many of these refugees, who “fled their homelands because of violence or persecution,” now “must deal with the mental toll of integrating into new environments.” Even though “their need for mental health services is greater than that of the general population, refugees are much less likely to receive such care,” not only because of “societal differences,” but also due to “the overall shortage of mental health” professionals in the US, as well as “the myriad obstacles and barriers to receiving mental health care that refugees encounter.”

Related Links:

— “Many Refugees Dealing with Trauma Face Obstacles to Mental Health Care ” Erica Zurek and Alander Rocha, Kaiser Health News , September 19, 2022