Photo: Alachua County via Flickr
The mental health of students has been of particular concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some students more severely affected by the lockdowns and safety restrictions than others. Particularly impacted are youth enrolled in special education, a population already disproportionately beset by mental illness and school suspensions. Continue reading
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Amid the mental and behavioral challenges fueled by COVID-19, expanded telehealth capabilities have contributed to a surge in mental health care. Use of the technology appears to have contributed to fewer no-show psychiatric and other counseling appointments among both new and existing patients and expanded access to care for patients in regions that pre-pandemic were bearing the brunt of the nation’s lack of mental health providers.
Once we’re safely past this pandemic, at least some emergency telemedicine expansions, granted through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state governors, likely will remain. As that future is being sorted out, it’s important to consider what’s beneficial and what’s concerning about treating mental illnesses from a distance. Continue reading
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During Election 2020, Oregon became the first state to approve the use of psilocybin, the active ingredient in more than 100 different species of wild psilocybin mushrooms, as a mental health treatment done in certified therapeutic settings. Last year, District of Columbia voters also decriminalized these wild, “magic” psychedelic mushrooms, a hallucinogen popularly known as a recreational drug.
Denver in 2019 became the first U.S. city to decriminalize mushrooms, and the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the first psychedelic, esketamine, to treat psychiatric disorders, including major depression that didn’t improve through previous use of other anti-depressants. Because of its psychedelic effects and potential to trigger suicidal ideation, dissociation disorders and other serious side effects, esketamine legally can be administered as a nasal spray only in a certified medical office and in conjunction with an oral anti-depressant. Trademarked as Spravato, esketamine is a more potent form of the anesthetic ketamine, which also is used to treat depression. Continue reading
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Here are just a few of the mental health initiatives that the Biden Administration appears poised to pursue, according to policy watchers and influencers.
Photo: Alachua County via Flickr
A federal law that has long led to severely mentally ill Medicaid patients not receiving needed care at many psychiatric facilities has outlived its presumed usefulness, according to a recent report.
A February 2021 analysis by the Manhattan Institute documents how a federal institutes for mental diseases (IMDs) exclusion enacted in 1965 discourages states from investing in patient care and restricts care and access. The IMD exclusion bars states from using the federal portion of Medicaid payments for services rendered “inside or outside” IMDs. They include hospitals, nursing homes or other facilities with 16 or more beds that primarily provide mental health care. The exclusion targets Medicaid patients ages 21 to 64 years old. Continue reading