Mental Health Weekly最新文献

The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry is holding its 2025 Annual Meeting, “Human Rights and Mental Health Advocacy for Aging Adults,” March 14–17, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit https://aagponline.org/education-events/annual-meeting.

Following her position as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Biden Administration, Jennifer Mathis, longtime mainstay of the Bazelon Center, will be returning as deputy director, the Bazelon Center announced Feb. 3 in a news release. Mathis returns to the Bazelon Center after serving for four years as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Justice. See “Bazelon's Mathis joins Biden administration, MHW, Dec. 13, 2021; https://doi.org/10.1002/mhw.33045). Prior to joining the Biden Administration, Mathis worked at the Bazelon Center for 22 years supervising the Center's policy advocacy and litigating complex lawsuits establishing the rights of individuals with mental disabilities. She helped litigate the seminal Olmstead case in the Supreme Court and has litigated ground-breaking integration cases in states across the country, Bazelon Center officials stated. During the Obama Administration, Mathis helped draft regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act.

Legislation has been introduced in Oklahoma by a state lawmaker aimed at “abolishing” the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) that reads in part, “All duties, powers, and responsibilities, including real and personal property, including books, records, and funds controlled by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services shall be transferred to the State Department of Corrections.”

Observing the need to refine clinical guidelines and improve treatment outcomes, researchers in Japan say they have identified the three most effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques to help manage attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The meta-analysis of previous controlled trials is published in BMJ Mental Health.

Iowa officials and plaintiffs in a lawsuit over inadequacies in the state's Medicaid mental health services for children stand on the brink of a final settlement that advocates say will dramatically improve the trajectory for high-need children and their families.

Health care facilities are barred from hiring employees who have been convicted of certain criminal offenses, including felony convictions within the last five years related to “controlled substances.” The House passed legislation that would allow an exception for peer recovery coaches, wfyi Indianapolis reported Feb. 3. House Bill 1385 would allow health care facilities to employ peer recovery coaches certified through the Division of Mental Health and Addiction. Peer support professionals, or peer recovery coaches, assist people in the recovery process for substance use disorder and use their own lived experience with the disorder or serious mental health issues to aid in that process. Advocates said peers can play a vital role in clinical settings like hospitals, mental health clinics and emergency rooms because they are able to offer a unique type of support. The bill was approved by the House. It now moves onto the Senate for consideration.

Identifying key social determinants of health (SDOH) in suicide risk is critical for informing clinical practices, future research, and policy solutions to prevent suicide, say the authors of a new study examining the associations of SDOH with suicide-related outcomes.

Although encouraged by the millions in funding support of some of New York State's services and programs for people with mental illness in Gov. Kathy Hochul's 2025-2026 executive budget proposal, advocates say they oppose her plan to strengthen and expand the use of involuntary patient and outpatient confinement, citing the need instead for a more engaging and accountable mental health system.

The Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW), the national voice for payers that manage behavioral health insurance benefits for over 200 million people, announced the appointment of its new Board Chair, Brad Lerner, director of public policy, Behavioral Health, at Carelon Behavioral Health, an Elevance Health Company, for the 2025-2027 term, a news release stated. Brad formerly served as vice president of Government Affairs and associate general counsel for Beacon Health Options. He is a government relations professional with more than 30 years of public and private sector experience analyzing and addressing regulatory issues, including complex legal and policy issues in health care. He is a leading expert on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, providing analysis on compliance and works with federal and state policymakers on ways to improve the mental health and substance use disorders system of care.

Vermont's child welfare agency engages in a broad practice of surveilling and punishing pregnant women based on unfounded claims about their parenting capacity, including those related to their mental health, a newly filed lawsuit alleges. The complaint in the Vermont Superior Court case accuses the state Department for Children and Families (DCF) of illegally enlisting medical and social service agencies to provide information about the women they are monitoring on a “high-risk pregnancy docket.”