Health Care

Facilitating Rapid Access to Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Use Care

Introduction: Access to Behavioral Health Services According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), in 2021, approximately 40% of adults reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, and 57% of female and 29% of male high school students reported experiencing persistent feelings … Read More

CMS Framework for Advancing Health Care in Rural, Tribal, and Geographically Isolated Communities

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) serves the public as a trusted partner and steward, dedicated to advancing health equity, expanding coverage, and improving health outcomes across all its programs to promote high-quality, equitable care, including for rural, … Read More

An Approach to Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting in Cases of Questionable Confessions

Introduction The hypothetical case introduces the complex ethical and legal implications of physicians as mandatory reporters when treating patients with mental illness. When a patient with reality challenges (e.g., psychosis, mania, or delirium) endorses having sexual contact with minors, how … Read More

What’s Working (or Not) in State Policies for Substance Use During Pregnancy

Substance use during pregnancy (or “prenatal substance use”) is becoming more common. Overdose and substance-related suicide are the leading preventable causes of maternal mortality, and prenatal substance use can increase the risk of miscarriage, birth defects, developmental disabilities, preterm birth, low birth weight, and decreased … Read More

How Should Clinicians and Students Cope With Secondary Trauma When Caring for Children Traumatized by Abuse or Neglect?

When health care professionals encounter child abuse and neglect, they can experience a range of emotions, such as anger, sadness, and frustration. Such feelings can cloud judgment, compromise care, or even undermine one’s capacity to complete evaluation of a child. … Read More

How Should Race and Resource Context Influence How Neglect Is Considered by Clinicians?

Separation of children from their parents is one possible traumatizing consequence of a mandated report, which is not to be taken lightly. This commentary on a case considers how racism and poverty should influence clinicians’ construal of their duties as … Read More

FACT SHEET: President Biden to Announce Strategy to Address Our National Mental Health Crisis, As Part of Unity Agenda in his First State of the Union

In his first State of the Union, the President will outline a unity agenda consisting of policy where there has historically been support from both Republicans and Democrats, and call on Congress to send bills to his desk to deliver … Read More