Senators Pursue Funding Boost To Tackle Mental Health Emergencies

Bloomberg: Senators Push to Expand Mental-Health Crisis Funding to Cities
A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators are pushing for legislation to support local governments that expand their ability to deal with mental health-care emergencies, seeking to shift the responsibility away from the police. The bill, introduced by Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Texas Republican John Cornyn, would provide funding to expand mental-health services, including to the uninsured. It would also create a nationwide set of standards for running crisis hotlines, urgent care facilities, residential centers and mobile units that respond to behavioral crises. (Akinnibi, 6/1)

In other news about mental health —

USA Today: Naomi Osaka's Withdrawal From French Open Fuels Mental Health Debate
For all the story's complexities, and for all the public still does not know about Osaka's health and the communication between her and tennis officials, psychologists say Osaka should be lauded for speaking openly about her mental health in a culture still skeptical of wounds it cannot see, for asserting boundaries to keep herself safe even at cost to her career, and for challenging her sport, the media and the public to rethink what we demand of athletes. "So much of the world has been set up that this is the way we do it, and this is the way we've always done it, and it's going to work this way," said Lynn Bufka, a senior director at the American Psychological Association. (Dastagir, 6/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Naomi Osaka, Reluctant Stars, And The Sports World’s Mental Health Challenge
Naomi Osaka spent all of one match and 72 hours at this year’s French Open, but her short stay in Paris was enough to ignite a conversation about mental health and sports that may reshape the lives of professional athletes for years to come. ... Her exit this week once again highlights the rising but complex question of how the sports world should handle mental-health issues. In a workplace built around performance under pressure, athletes are increasingly asking what can be done when that pressure begins to harm their well-being in the decidedly non-traditional workplace of sports. (Robinson and Bachman, 6/1)

The Washington Post: Washington Football Team Hires Barbara Roberts As Its First Full-Time Psychologist 
The Washington Football Team has hired Barbara Roberts, a psychologist and former Georgetown professor, as its first full-time director of wellness and clinical services. Roberts is only the seventh full-time clinician and only the fourth with a PhD in psychology hired by an NFL team as the league has made mental health more of a priority in recent years. Roberts said her hope is that she can continue to “destigmatize” mental health and “normalize” the process of addressing mental wellness. (Jhabvala, 6/1)

Also —

Anchorage Daily News: More Alaskans Are Being Diagnosed With Eating Disorders, But Treatment Options In State Remain Scarce
These days, when potential patients call Katie Bell, an Anchorage therapist whose specialty includes treating eating disorders, she tells them that she’ll probably have an opening in about three months at the earliest. Then she gives them the names of three other providers they can call because “three months is too long to wait,” she said. Over the past year, Bell’s waiting list has grown. She said it may be a sign of a trend that’s happening nationally and across Alaska: an increase in eating disorder diagnoses that have been fueled by the pandemic. (Berman, 6/1)

Fox News: Earlier Sleep Cycles Linked To Lower Depression Risk: Study
A one-hour shift to an earlier sleep schedule could drop risk of major depression by 23%, according to a study. A team of researchers from University of Colorado Boulder and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard published findings in JAMA Psychiatry last week, drawing on deidentified genetic data from 840,000 people in the U.K. Biobank and 23andMe, including some 85,000 people who wore sleep trackers for a week, and 250,000 respondents to sleep-preference questionnaires. Results offer "some of the strongest evidence yet that chronotype—a person’s propensity to sleep at a certain time —influences depression risk," per a CU Boulder news release. (Rivas, 6/1)

The Boston Globe: Student Leaders Call On Boston Superintendent Cassellius To Resign Over Handling Of Complaints Of Unlicensed Counseling
Four Boston high school students on Tuesday called for Boston Superintendent Brenda Cassellius to resign over her handling of revelations that student leaders were subjected to an inappropriate form of group therapy. The students, speaking at a news conference at the Boston Public Schools’ Roxbury headquarters, said Acting Mayor Kim Janey should fire Cassellius if she doesn’t step down because she didn’t adequately respond to students’ complaints that adult leaders subjected students on the Boston Student Advisory Council to “Re-evaluation Counseling,” or RC. (Martin, 6/1)