USA Today (6/25, Park) reported on the nonprofit Crisis Text Line, “which has brought the 1-800 support line into the age of texting.” The text line offers 24-hour, seven-day-per-week trained counselors to “respond to people in need with SMS texts” that are both “anonymous and confidential.” USA Today also pointed out, “As suicide rates have climbed to alarming levels – the highest in three decades – public health and CDC researchers agree that suicide prevention needs more resources.” For example, “in 2013, more than 41,000 people in the” US “committed suicide, according to statistics collected by the US Department of Health and Human Services.”

Related Links:

— “Crisis Text Line takes suicide prevention into the age of texting,” Madison Park, , June 25, 2016.

HealthDay (6/24, Preidt) reports that National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism issued the results of a study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, showing that the rate of US adults who “reported nonmedical use of addictive opioids in 2012-2013” was more than 4 percent, more than double the less than 2 percent rate a decade earlier. National Institute on Drug Abuse director Dr. Nora Volkow said the rise in opioid misuse “poses a myriad of serious public health consequences.” NIAAA director George Koob cautioned against the “potent interaction of opioids with alcohol and other sedative-hypnotic drugs – an interaction that can be lethal.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid Update: Painkiller Misuse in U.S. Doubled in Decade,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 24, 2016.

The Boston Globe (6/23, Teitell) reports the CDC’s 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance study found that smoking, drinking, drug use, and sexual activity have decreased among teens. However, the study noted teens are engaging in risky behaviors including “the use of electronic vapor products,” a decline in condom use, and the use of “potentially addictive prescription drugs.” The spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies, Bill Albert says, overall, “today’s teens are ‘more cautious,’ than those of previous generations.”

Related Links:

— “Teens and risky behavior: Is it getting better or worse?,” Beth Teitell, Boston Globe, June 23, 2016.

The Hill (6/22, Sullivan) reports that on June 22, the office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that “the House will vote on a long-delayed mental health reform bill in July,” HR 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA). The vote comes “as the Senate is also looking for a path forward on a similar mental health bill from” Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).

Related Links:

— “House to vote on long-delayed mental health bill in July,” Peter Sullivan, The Hill, June 22, 2016.

In an editorial, Bloomberg View (6/21) asserts that the United States “is the only affluent country where the number of psychiatrists per capita fell from 2000 to 2011, even as it spends twice as much as others on health care.” While proposed mental health legislation pending on Capitol Hill is “welcome,” its passage “would still leave many Americans without the care they need.” Bloomberg View calls for “wider coverage by government health plans,” because “adequate spending on mental health would save other social and government costs down the road.”

Related Links:

— “Better Mental Health Care Is Worth the Expense,” Bloomberg View, June 21, 2016.