Week of July 8–12, 2024

General Mental Health Articles

• CMS has launched a dementia care program that will be piloted by 400 organizations. The “Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience Model” focuses on comprehensive, coordinated care that is designed to improve the lives of Americans with dementia, reduce strain on their unpaid caregivers, and enable people with dementia to remain in their homes, according to CMS. It is a voluntary, nationwide model that began July 2024 and will run for eight years. Read more here.

Youth Mental Health

• Don't get hysterical about your child's screen time or yank away their cellphone protectively, says Dr. Michael Rich, a pediatrician who runs a leading treatment program for kids with so-called "internet addictions." Children will go through life with a smartphone, he points out, and it's important for the adults to teach them to use one wisely. Amid calls to ban phones for children before high school and banish them from schools, Rich aims to inject a calming voice in the debate over kids, screens, and social media. Read more here.

Provider Burnout

• The percentage of physicians surveyed by the American Medical Association (AMA) who report at least one symptom of burnout has dropped below 50%, a first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group’s annual survey shows consistent declines in doctor burnout in the wake of an all-time high of 62.8% in 2021. Reported burnout dropped to 53% in 2022 and, as of the most recent 2023 survey, now sits at 48.2%. Read more here.

Military Mental Health

• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has determined that most of the mental health provider listings in Tricare provider network directories are inaccurate or outdated, a problem that could prevent military service members and families from getting vital behavioral health care. GAO estimated that 85% of listings in the Tricare East Region and 79% in the Tricare West Region had problems with location, gender of the provider, specialty or subspecialty descriptions, or phone and fax numbers. Read more here.
• The military would not be able to pay for surgeries for transgender troops under the Senate's version of the must-pass annual defense policy bill, new legislative text released. Transgender military kids could also lose access to hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and other medication if the treatment "could result in sterilization" under another provision that was also added to the bill during the Senate Armed Services Committee's consideration of the measure in June. Read more here.
• The Navy reported a record number of suicides in the first quarter of 2024, again drawing attention to the myriad issues revealed about the quality of life for personnel and the service's ability to prevent such deaths. According to recently released Pentagon data on suicide across all the services, the Navy reported 24 suicides for the first three months of 2024. That is the highest-ever quarterly figure for the service going back to 2018, when data first started being released. Read more here.

988 Hotline

• The 988 suicide hotline has offered crisis care to callers nationwide for almost two years, but answer rates still vary widely in the West. In Wyoming, answer rates for the three-digit hotline hovered at 90% last year, according to a new report from the behavioral health group Inseparable. Utah, New Mexico, and Idaho’s answer rates also hover around 90%, but answer rates in other states aren’t keeping up. The rate was 75% in Colorado, and Nevada’s 68% was the lowest in the region. Read more here.

The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues

• “Housing is the foundation,” Corey Richardson, ICGH’s CEO and clinical director, attests. ICGH embraces the concept of integrated care. A safe and comfortable place to lay your head is where it begins. In advancing its recovery-housing initiatives, ICGH has received support from the Housing Assistance Council (HAC), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that promotes affordable-housing efforts throughout rural America. Read more here.