“The 21st Century Cures Act that gained congressional approval on Wednesday has been championed as a way to speed up drug development, but it’s also the most significant piece of mental health legislation since the 2008 law requiring equal insurance coverage for mental and physical health. The bill includes provisions aimed at fighting the opioid[…]
“New York is set to begin a $30 million program aimed at providing mental health services to low-income residents with little or no access to care. The program, Connections to Care, will tap existing community organizations that reach low-income residents but are not providing mental health services. Chirlane McCray, chairwoman of the Mayor’s Fund to[…]
“In order to keep somebody healthy, you might have to treat their brain and the rest of their body together,” Murphy said in a phone interview. “That means that when you walk into a community health center, and you present with a behavioral health issue, you shouldn’t be sent offsite.” Sen. Murphy is backed by[…]
“I want you to imagine for a moment what it would be like if Americans treated cancer in a different way than we do now. Imagine that instead of encouraging people to quit smoking and take other steps to prevent cancer, we just sort of crossed our fingers. Instead of telling people they need to[…]
“The Living Room model of care jibes with psychiatrist Patrick Corrigan’s theory of destigmatization. Corrigan, a researcher at the Illinois Institute of Technology, believes that destigmatizing mental illness hinges on more people coming out as having a mentall illness. We can learn about the causes and rates of various mood disorders, but living and working[…]
“No genuine system of mental health care exists in the United States. This country’s diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems are fragmented across a variety of providers and payers – and they are all too often unaffordable. If you think about it, the list of complications is almost endless: Families of loved ones with[…]
“Currently only Washington state and Kentucky have adopted laws that require suicide prevention training be included in mental health education programs. It’s too soon to tell how effective those laws have been, but smaller scale efforts have shown great results. The Henry Ford Health System, a Detroit-based health care organization,found that suicide rates among its patients dropped by 75 percent[…]
“We are responsible for the lack of progress made in terms of diagnosing and treating mental illness because we’ve successfully hidden the magnitude of the problem. Why should Congress or state legislatures allocate funds to fix a problem that flies under the radar? Today, there are more people in our country whose lives have been[…]
“After analyzing the DNA of 150,000 people, scientists say they can pinpoint the genetic roots of schizophrenia. In the largest study of its kind, a consortium of researchers from around the world linked the mental illness to 108 spots on people’s DNA. Previously, scientists had only discovered 30 such locations. The study was published Monday[…]
“Boys don’t cry, or at least they’re not supposed to. Yes, the old, unreconstructed machismo that was once all too synonymous with being a man has been partly driven back; men are more likely to open up and talk about their feelings. But discussing anxiety, depression and mental distress is still seen as weak or[…]
