The House and Senate have come to agreement for legislation that will require employers and health insurers to put mental-health coverage on par with that for physical coverage.
The Wall Street Journal says that "Details of the agreement are expected to be set this week, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers is seeking funding for the measure, which would cost the government an estimated $1.3 billion over five years and $3.4 billion over 10 years, mainly because of lost tax revenue."
AHCJ offers many resources on covering mental health issues that should help you localize this important story.
Workshop panel: Tackling mental health issues in your city
Audio and multimedia presentations from the panel
Tip Sheets
Adolescent mental health issues: Information and media contacts from the Menninger Clinic at the Baylor College of Medicine, as well as some guidelines for dealing with substance abuse in adolescents.
Mental health issues in veterans: A presentation from the panel "New generation of veterans deals with post-traumatic stress" at Health Journalism 2007, about the mental health of veterans returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. From Larry Albers, M.D., chief of the Mental Health Care Group, Long Beach VA Healthcare System.
PTSD in veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq: A presentation from Mark Barad, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA, from a panel at Health Journalism 2007: "New generation of veterans deals with post-traumatic stress." Topics covered include understanding the symptoms, what is so bad about PTSD, comorbidities, consequences, and treatment options and barriers to treatment.
'A Hidden Shame:' Reporting on deaths in mental hospitals: Alan Judd and Andy Miller of The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported a series about deaths in Georgia's mental hospitals. They shared how they did the story, including the following tips for reporters pursuing similar stories.
Addiction and urban health: A presentation by Joshua Lee, M.D., M.S., at the session "Tackling mental health issues in your city" at the Urban Health Journalism Workshop 2007. Lee is an assistant professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. The presentation shows addiction statistics and breaks down the science behind addiction.
AHCJ articles
Bay Area panel on veterans' health highlights untold stories: A panel of experts gave a compelling presentation about one of the nation's biggest health stories – the medical, mental and psychosocial challenges faced by returning war veterans and their families – at a May 21 meeting of AHCJ's San Francisco Bay Area chapter. An article about the panel, as well as audio of the event and handouts and presentations from the speakers offer numerous story ideas that haven't been covered yet.
Uncovering mystery deaths in state mental hospitals: Alan Judd and Andy Miller of The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported a series about deaths in Georgia's mental hospitals.In this article, they explain how they did the reporting for the series.
Death in Sin City – analyzing the CDC’s mortality database: Alex Richards and Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun reported on how people die in Las Vegas and NEvada, using the CDC's mortality data. In this article they explain how they did the reporting.
AHCJ award winner
A Burden to be Well: Sisters and Brothers of the Mentally Ill: Karen Brown of WFCR-FM, Amherst, focuses on the issues and emotions that face the sisters and brothers of people with mental illness. These siblings often feel ignored by family, health care providers, and society at large while the ill sibling takes up most of the available attention. Meanwhile, these siblings may be suffering in their own right – from the trauma of exposure to mental illness, the grief of watching a sibling lose control, the responsibility of caring for an ill sibling, and the guilt of being the "healthy one." A Burden to Be Well" follows closely two sets of siblings – coping with different stages of mental illness.
Recent articles
New Orleans doctors practice amid challenges
Georgia mental patients released into uncertain conditions
Two CIA psychologists responsible for interrogation torture tactics
Elderly Nevadans' suicide rate three times higher than U.S. average
Facility 'treats' children with electric shock
Kids are prescribed powerful antipsychotic drugs, results are untested
PTSD strikes children in violent urban neighborhoods
Chronic violations found in Mo. mental health system
Broken system forces law enforcement to handle mentally ill
Families uninformed about serious, even fatal, accidents at mental health facility
Recent reports/studies
School Mental Health: Role of the SAMHSA and Factors Affecting Service Provision
The U.S. Surgeon General reported in 1999 that about one in five children in the United States suffers from a mental health problem that could impair their ability to function at school or in the community. Yet many children receive no mental health services. While many of the existing mental health services for children are provided in schools, the extent and manner of school mental health service delivery vary across the country and within school districts. Federally led initiatives have identified schools as a potentially promising location for beginning to address the mental health needs of children.
A report from the Government Accountability Office describes the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's coordination with other federal departments and agencies to support mental health services in schools, the efforts SAMHSA has made to identify and support evidence-based school mental health services and best practices for service delivery and factors that affect the provision of mental health services in schools.
Psychological distress, substance abuse in veterans
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 7 percent of veterans aged 18 or older experienced serious psychological distress in the past year, 7.1 percent met the criteria for a substance use disorder, and 1.5 percent had co-occurring serious psychological distress and substance use disorder.
Veterans aged 18 to 25 were more likely than older veterans to have higher rates of serious psychological distress, substance use disorder, or co-occurring psychological distress and substance use disorder in the past year.
Veterans with family incomes of less than $20,000 per year were more likely than veterans with higher family incomes to have had serious psychological distress, substance use disorder, or co-occurring psychological distress and substance use disorder in the past year.
Web sites
At a Glance: Safe Reporting on Suicide
