Politico (1/1, Paun) reports, “Nearly 60 years after Congress barred Medicaid from treating people in what were then derided as insane asylums, lawmakers are on the verge of reversing course.” The House passed a bill in December that “would give states the option to treat Medicaid patients suffering from addiction for up to a month in a mental hospital on the government’s dime,” while “the Senate Finance Committee approved a similar provision in November.”

However, “fears of reinstitutionalization have also animated civil rights advocates” who “fear a slippery slope back to warehousing the sick and point to states like California and New York that are already experimenting with forcing patients into care.”

Related Links:

— “Mental hospitals warehoused the sick. Congress wants to let them try again.,” Carmen Paul, Politico, January 1, 2024

Psychiatric News (12/28) reports, “Living with an adult with depressive symptoms is linked to substantially lower average yearly income and employment rates as well as reduced quality of life for adults who do not have depressive symptoms, a study…has found.” Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing “data from The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component…which collects data on demographics, health conditions, health status, use of health care services, income, and employment for each person in a household.” The findings were published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Living With Adults With Depressive Symptoms Linked to Lower Income, Quality of Life,” APA Psychiatric News Alert, December 28, 2023

The AP (12/29, Schoenbaum) reports transgender-identifying youths are sometimes sent to inpatient wards inconsistent with their gender identities. Notably, “North Carolina lacks uniform treatment standards across hospitals and runs low on money and staff with proper training to treat transgender kids in crisis,” while “last-resort measures to support patients…often fail to help them, and sometimes make things worse.”

Meanwhile, “a nationwide dearth of pediatric psychiatric beds was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an unprecedented number of people seeking emergency mental health services, according to a report by the American Psychiatric Association.”

Related Links:

— “For transgender youth in crisis, hospitals sometimes compound the trauma,” Hannah SchoenBaum, Associated Press, December 29, 2023

KFF Health News (12/28, Whitehead) reports mental health courts aim to divert people with mental illnesses from the criminal justice system, but they often struggle to fulfill this promise. According to critics, the diversion programs “are often expensive and resource-intensive, and serve fewer than 1% of the more than 2 million people who have a serious mental illness and are booked into U.S. jails each year.”

Additionally, “there is a lack of conclusive evidence on whether the courts help participants long-term.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Courts Can Struggle to Fulfill Decades-Old Promise,” Sam Whitehead, KFF Health News, December 28, 2023

HealthDay (12/27, Mundell) reports, “For the growing number of American seniors who live alone, having a beloved dog or cat by their side could help them maintain a healthy brain.” According to new research involving more than 7,900 people averaging 66 years of age, “those who lived alone were able to stave off losses in memory and thinking if they had a pet,” although “pet ownership didn’t seem to affect the cognition of older folks who lived with others.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Pets Bring Health Boost to Single Seniors’ Brains: Study,” Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, December 27, 2023