Raising the Bar for Behavioral Health Care During the COVID-19 pandemic, the American public developed a deeper appreciation for behavioral health care, the umbrella term for mental health and substance use treatment. While demand for it is soaring, the US health care system is still falling far short. Despite significant spending, people with behavioral health conditions still suffer greatly. They experience more illness, poorer health outcomes, and a shorter life expectancy than the general population — often from preventable physical health conditions. State and federal governments are providing additional funds to improve behavioral health care, but ... October 26, 2021 COVID19, Healthcare, Mental Health Behavioral Health, COVID-19 0 0 Comment Read More »
In Their Own Words: How Fragmented Care Harms People with Both Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder For the 8.9 million American adults — about 500,000 Californians — with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance use disorder, it can be difficult to receive fully coordinated and effective care. For people with low incomes, the barriers can be even higher and lead to unnecessary suffering and poor health outcomes. To better understand how Californians with dual diagnoses experience treatment, CHCF commissioned interviews with 54 people insured through Medi-Cal who have both mental illness and substance use disorder (SUD), as well as additional interviews with the family ... October 5, 2021 Healthcare, Medi-Cal, Mental Health Fragmented Care, Health Outcomes, Mental Health 0 0 Comment Read More »
Mental Health–Related Emergency Department Visits Among Children Aged <18 Years During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 1–October 17, 2020 Rebecca T. Leeb, PhD1; Rebecca H. Bitsko, PhD1; Lakshmi Radhakrishnan, MPH2; Pedro Martinez, MPH3; Rashid Njai, PhD4; Kristin M. Holland, PhD5 Published reports suggest that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a negative effect on children’s mental health (1,2). Emergency departments (EDs) are often the first point of care for children experiencing mental health emergencies, particularly when other services are inaccessible or unavailable (3). During March 29–April 25, 2020, when widespread shelter-in-place orders were in effect, ED visits for persons of all ages declined 42% compared with the ... August 17, 2021 COVID19, Mental Health Children, COVID-19, Mental Health, Pandemic 0 0 Comment Read More »
The Pandemic of Loneliness In this extraordinary era of pandemic isolation, social distancing, and masking, it makes perfect sense that loneliness and its impact on mental and physical health would garner literary attention. Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, the US surgeon general, released a book early in the pandemic saying America is experiencing a loneliness epidemic. Murthy reported that chronic loneliness works this way: Persistent stress increases inflammation that damages tissues and blood vessels, increasing risk of cardiovascular illness and death. It can interfere with the function of the immune system and make high blood ... August 12, 2021 Mental Health COVID-19, Isolation, Loneliness, Pandemic 0 0 Comment Read More »
Coping with COVID Stress - Quick Tips from AAFP Family physicians Lalita Abhyankar, MD, and Kyle Bradford Jones, MD, recently joined Ada Stewart, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), for a virtual town hall(www.youtube.com) about stress and trauma related to COVID-19. The town hall was titled “Your Feelings Are Real: Navigating Grief, Anger, Fear, Guilt, and Moral Injury.” Jones shared his own experience working through depression and anxiety during medical training, an experience he chronicled in a memoir(www.amazon.com), and shared how the past year has worsened his mental health. Abhyankar, who works at a federally qualified health center in ... February 24, 2021 COVID19, Mental Health, Physician Wellness COVID-19, Mental Health, Stress, Trauma 0 0 Comment Read More »
