The Hill (3/1, Weixel) reports that advocates for mental health are now “seizing on the new spotlight on their issue after the Florida shooting, as President Trump and congressional Republicans focus on mental health as a solution to gun violence.” Some mental health advocacy “groups want to use the renewed attention on mental illness to push for more resources to address what they see as major gaps in the country’s mental health system.” Groups mentioned in the article are Mental Health America and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Related Links:

— “Mental health groups push for policy changes after shooting,” NATHANIEL WEIXEL, The Hill, March 1, 2018.

The AP (3/1) reports that officials in Phoenix, AZ, “are launching an interagency push to reduce suicide among military service personnel, veterans and their families.” The initiative, which is “sponsored by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,” has the goal of increasing “support” and developing “a response plan for detection of warning signs and timely intervention.”

Related Links:

— “Phoenix launching interagency initiative to prevent suicide,” Associated Press, March 1, 2018.

CNN (2/28, Scutti) reports researchers found that “small changes in the blood vessels within our eyes at age 60 can foretell a significant loss of memory over the next couple of decades.”

Medscape (2/28, McNamara) reports researchers used “fundus photography, which takes images of the interior surface of the eye, including the retina,” and “found retinopathy was associated with faster cognitive decline over a 20-year period vs no retinopathy.” Some 12,317 older adults were included in the study. The findings were published online in the journal Neurology. HealthDay (2/28, Thompson) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “These health problems can be predicted with a look into your eyes,” Susan Scutti, CNN, March 1, 2018.

The Huffington Post (3/1, Herreria) reports on a new survey (pdf) by The Trevor Project which “found that more than 50 percent of LGBTQ youths who participated in its national survey had been diagnosed with an eating disorder.” Among respondents to the “first of its kind” survey of 1,034 self-identified LGBTQ individuals ages 13 to 24, “71 percent of trans respondents had been diagnosed with an eating disorder, with anorexia being the most common disorder.” The article says that about 58 percent of respondents diagnosed with an eating disorder also considered suicide, according to the survey.

Related Links:

— “Over 50% Of LGBTQ Youths Struggle With Eating Disorders, Survey Finds,” Carla Herreria, Huffington Post, March 1, 2018.

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.