According to the New York Times (5/8, A1, Richtel, Flanagan), across the US, “hospital emergency departments have become boarding wards for teenagers who pose too great a risk to themselves or others to go home.” Teens who are in danger of dying by suicide “have nowhere else to go; even as the crisis has intensified, the medical system has failed to keep up, and options for inpatient and intensive outpatient psychiatric treatment have eroded sharply.” In a recent study involving “88 pediatric hospitals around the country,” researchers “found that 87 of them regularly board children and adolescents overnight in the” ED, and “on average, any given hospital saw four boarders per day, with an average stay of 48 hours.”

Related Links:

— “Hundreds of Suicidal Teens Sleep in Emergency Rooms. Every Night. “Matt Richtel, The New York Times, May 8, 2022

According to Healio (5/6, Downey), in a May 6 press release, HHS “announced the launch of the Maternal Mental Health Hotline, a national, confidential, toll-free service for new and expecting mothers who are experiencing mental health challenges.” This hotline was set for launch on May 8, “with counselors available to provide mental health support.” When mothers contact the hotline, they “can receive a range of support, including interventions from trained counselors who are culturally and trauma informed, in addition to referrals to community-based and telehealth” clinicians, as well as “receive evidence-based information and referrals to support groups and community resources.”

Related Links:

— “HHS announces Maternal Mental Health Hotline “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, May 6, 2022

RevCycle Intelligence (5/5, Bailey) reports, “The COVID-19 pandemic intensified healthcare workforce challenges, leading to significant staffing shortages, increased healthcare worker burnout, and other hurdles that will likely persist after the pandemic, according to a report from HHS.” This “report [PDF] from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) combines data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, highlighting how the pandemic has impacted the hospital and outpatient clinician workforce.”

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 Pandemic Exacerbated Healthcare Workforce Challenges “Victoria Bailey, RevCycle Intelligence, May 5, 2022

The New York Times (5/5, Pearson) reports, “For two years, working parents in America have been running on fumes, hammered by the stress of remote schooling, day care closures, economic instability and social isolation.” And “now, a new report says that 66 percent of working parents meet the criteria for parental burnout – a nonclinical term that means they are so exhausted by the pressure of caring for their children, they feel they have nothing left to give.” The report(pdf), “published Thursday by researchers with Ohio State University, is based on an online survey of 1,285 working parents that was conducted between January 2021 and April 2021.”

Related Links:

— “New Report Confirms Most Working Parents Are Burned Out “Catherine Pearson, The New York Times, May 5, 2022

The New York Times (5/4, Ghorayshi) reports “young children who transition to a new gender with social changes…are likely to continue identifying as that gender five years later, according to a” study published in Pediatrics. The study also found that “many had begun hormonal medications in adolescence to prompt biological changes to align with their gender identities.” Meanwhile, “2.5% of the group had reverted to identifying as the gender they were assigned at birth.”
The AP (5/4, Tanner) reports the study “involved 317 youngsters who were 3 to 12 years old when they were recruited.” The AP adds, “On average, the kids began identifying as transgender at around age 6.”

Related Links:

— “Few Transgender Children Change Their Minds After 5 Years, Study Finds “Azeen Ghorayshi, The New York Times, May 4, 2022