In an essay in the New York Times (1/24, Lyons, Subscription Publication) “Disability” series, writer Gila Lyons details her ongoing up-and-down struggle with panic disorder. She writes that while “physical disabilities are understood and written into law and accommodated…mental illnesses are stigmatized, nebulous to measure and accommodate, and often seen as a fault in the person, rather than an uncontrollable physical reality.”

Currently, “consensus among the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Psychiatric Association points to mental illness as significant changes in thinking, feeling or behavior coupled with an inability to function in daily life in terms of self-care, maintaining jobs and relationships.”

Lyons reminds readers, “The Americans With Disabilities Act protects those with both physical and mental disabilities by ensuring they have fair and equal access to employment, housing, transportation and governmental services,” while “the Social Security Administration recognizes anxiety disorders, along with eight other categories of mental disorders, as conditions that qualify for disability benefits.”

Related Links:

— “When Life Gave Me Lemons, I Had a Panic Attack,” Gila Lyons, New York Times, January 24, 2018.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times (1/24, Subscription Publication) called “I Was Tortured In Gay Conversion Therapy. And It’s Still Legal In 41 States,” Sam Brinton, “the head of advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project, which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth,” writes about his own personal experiences as a child undergoing “hurtful” conversion therapy.

Brinton observes, “Every prominent professional health association…opposes the use of conversion therapy on youth, calling it harmful and ineffective.” Brinton, who says he is “proudly bisexual and gender fluid,” calls for the passage of “legislation to stop licensed therapists who seek to harm LGBTQ youth with conversion therapy.”

Related Links:

— “I Was Tortured in Gay Conversion Therapy. And It’s Still Legal in 41 States,” Sam Brinton, New York Times, January 24, 2018.

The New York Times (1/4, Pear, Subscription Publication) reports that on Thursday, the Trump Administration unveiled “sweeping new rules that could make it easier for small businesses to band together and create health insurance plans that would be exempt from many of the consumer protections mandated by the Affordable Care Act.” According to the Labor Department, up to 11 million consumers “could find coverage under this proposal,” which would exempt small businesses from providing certain “‘essential health benefits’ like mental health care, emergency services, maternity and newborn care and prescription drugs.” The article says “consumer groups, state officials and Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans have strenuously opposed similar ideas for years.”

The Washington Post (1/4, Goldstein) reports that this proposal “would carry out the most significant part of an executive order that President Trump signed in October, directing the government to foster more alternative types of insurance.” Advocates maintain “the so-called association health plans would be less expensive, while critics – including the insurance industry – fear that they would promote substandard coverage and weaken the ACA’s already fragile insurance marketplaces.”

The Wall Street Journal (1/4, Armour, Subscription Publication) reports that this proposal is an attempt by the Trump Administration to roll back ACA provisions by using regulations. Critics warn that by excluding some types of coverage, the plans would be able to discriminate against certain groups, such as cancer patients.

Related Links:

— “Trump Proposes New Health Plan Options for Small Businesses,” ROBERT PEAR, New York Times, January 4, 2018.

In “Science Now,” the Los Angeles Times (1/2, Kaplan) reports investigators “have a new reason to believe that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the US has reached a plateau.” Their “evidence comes from the National Health Interview Survey, which polls American households about a variety of conditions.” In findings published Jan. 2 in a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “the research team found that 2.41% of US kids and teens had a form of autism between 2014 and 2016.” While the “prevalence rose slightly…from 2.24% in 2014 to 2.41% in 2015 and then 2.58% in 2016,” the rise was not “enough to be considered statistically significant.”

TIME (1/2, MacMillan) points out the study took into account “survey responses from a nationally representative sample of more than 30,000 children, ages 3 to 17, and their families.” The study did reveal variation in rates of autism by sub-groups, however. For example, “3.54% of boys were reported to have an autism spectrum disorder, compared to 1.22% of girls.” What’s more, “prevalence was 1.78% in Hispanic children, 2.36% in black children and 2.71% in white children.”

Related Links:

— “Autism spectrum disorders appear to have stabilized among U.S. kids and teens,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2018.

The AP (1/2, Binkley) reports almost half of the US’ largest public universities to do not keep records of suicides among their student populations. The AP says that in a recent inquiry, it found that among the 100 largest public universities in the US, “43 currently track suicides, including 27 that have consistently done so since 2007.” Most others, however, “said they don’t track suicides or could provide police reports for only a few cases known among campus administrators.” The piece adds that most data on suicides comes from the CDC, “which does not specifically track college suicides.”

Related Links:

— “Most big public colleges don’t track suicides, AP finds,” COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press, January 2, 2018.