In a letter to the editor of the New York Times (4/19), APA President Theresa M. Miskimen Rivera responds to a New York Times article about Idaho cutting services for people with schizophrenia, which led to deaths. Rivera writes, “As president of the American Psychiatric Association, I read [the] article with deep concern. The lesson is clear: When intensive, community-based supports for people with serious mental illness are withdrawn, they face heightened risk of crisis, hospitalization and death.” Rivera continues, “Further, these costs do not disappear. They only increase, shifting into psychiatric crisis units or inpatient units, emergency rooms, jails – and, most tragically, into preventable loss of life.” Rivera asserts, “Idaho’s experience is a stark warning of a broader failure unfolding across the country: the failure to treat mental health care as critical public health infrastructure.” Policymakers need to “recognize that sustained investment in community-based care is a public health necessity, not an option.”

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— The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Managed Healthcare Executive (4/15, Lutton) reports, “In 2024, the number of uninsured people in the United States rose for the first time since 2019, according to a recently published KFF issue brief.” The “shift was due to a number of factors, including a mix of policy changes, affordability issues and coverage disruptions, authors…explain in the brief.”

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— “Uninsured rates in United States rise for first time since 2019,”Logan Lutton, Managed Healthcare Executive, April 15, 2026

Healio (4/15, Swain) reports, “People reporting a high level of loneliness, but not those with social isolation, had elevated risk for developing valvular heart disease, according to the results of a prospective cohort study.” One researcher said, “Our findings suggest that loneliness may be an independent and potentially modifiable risk factor for degenerative valvular heart disease. Identifying this new risk is an important step in potentially preventing valve disease, which can lead to heart failure, reduced quality of life and the need for valve replacement surgery.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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— “Loneliness tied to elevated risk for valvular heart disease,”Erik Swain, Healio, April 15, 2026

Psychiatric News (4/15) reports the latest Mental Heath Parity Index “starkly illustrates how patients across the country face greater barriers to accessing mental health/substance use disorder (MH/SUD) care compared with physical health care – even though Congress requires insurers to treat the two equally.” The index “compares network composition and reimbursement rates for MH/SUD services and physical health services among the nation’s four largest insurers: Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare.” This year’s edition found that “in 42 states plus Washington, D.C., patients face a greater disparity in accessing in-network MH/SUD services compared with physical health services. Nationally, UnitedHealthcare has the greatest discrepancy, with 48% of the nation’s physical [healthcare professionals] in its network, compared with only 20% of MH/SUD” healthcare professionals.

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— “Patients in Almost Every State Face Disparities in Accessing Mental Health Care, Psychiatric News, April 15, 2026

The Washington Post (4/14, Klein) reports on how cannabis impacts the brain, saying it “can affect your ability to retain information in the short term.” In a study published in JAMA Network Open, heavy lifetime cannabis “users exhibited lower brain activity during a working memory task compared with nonusers after excluding recent users.” Additionally, long-term cannabis use has “been associated with changes in brain volume,” especially “in people who started using cannabis in adolescence, when the brain was still developing.” Meanwhile, in a review published in The Lancet Psychiatry, “researchers found no help or harm from specific cannabinoids with relation to a number of mood-related concerns.” The review “also concluded there wasn’t enough data to study any potential effects on bipolar disorder or depression.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)