Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
988 LGBTQ+ Suicide Prevention Lifeline Will Go Out Of Service Today
The Hill: Trump Admin Shuts Down 988 LGBTQ Mental Health Line
States and mental health organizations are bracing for the closure of a specialized service within 988, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, for LGBTQ youth on Thursday under orders from the Trump administration amid its broader spending cuts and the dismantling of programs dedicated to diversity and inclusion. “When the line goes silent, there are a lot of open questions that we’re trying to prepare for,” said Mark Henson, vice president of government affairs at the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization that responds to roughly half of 988’s calls and text messages from LGBTQ young people. (Migdon, 7/16)
North Carolina Health News: NC, LGBTQ+ Organizations Adjust After Tailored 988 Hotline Option Eliminated
LGBTQ+ youth no longer have a specially tailored option for help at the 988 National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Trump administration announced a month ago that beginning July 17, it would eliminate the “Press 3 option” on the free, 24/7 national hotline. The specialized service had been active for about three years. (Oliverio, 7/17)
The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Spending Board Shuffles $10 Million For Mental Health Crisis Hotline
Baltimore’s 988 mental health crisis hotline is getting a boost, thanks to a $10 million grant agreement approved by the Board of Estimates Wednesday. The five-year agreement between Mayor Brandon Scott’s Office of Recovery Programs and Behavioral Health System Baltimore Inc. (BHSB) allocates $2 million each fiscal year through 2030, according to ORP acting director Elizabeth Tatum. A presentation by Tatum showed that more than $7.35 million of the total funds will be allocated to “contracts and consultants,” while $1.3 million will go toward “indirect costs.” (Swick, 7/16)
Stat: Suicide Rates Rising In Older Men, CDC Data Reveal
After a decade-long rise in suicide rates among young Americans — and with depression diagnoses soaring in this age group during the pandemic — the U.S. surgeon general issued a report in 2021 warning about the “devastating” state of youth mental health. The American Psychological Association declared it a “crisis.” Meanwhile, another demographic has gone largely overlooked. (Goldhill, 7/17)
Public health updates —
The 19th: There Is An ‘Uphill Battle’ In The Fight Against Measles
Katherine Wells still remembers finding out that measles had hit West Texas. It was late January, and Wells, the director of the Lubbock Health Department, was notified that a child from nearby Gaines County was being treated for the respiratory disease at one of the local hospitals in Lubbock County. (Rodriguez, 7/16)
Bloomberg: Severe Obesity In US Children Has More Than Tripled Since 2008
The proportion of severely overweight children in the US has skyrocketed in recent years, with the highest rates seen in adolescents and Black children, a new study found. Roughly 23% of all children were obese in 2023, up from 19% in 2008, according to the survey published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. Additionally, more than 1% of children between the ages of 2 and 18 had “extremely severe obesity” — a 250% increase from the start of the study, the researchers from the University of California, San Diego, found. (Amponsah, 7/16)
NBC News: Birth Control Access: Scorecard Evaluates Family Planning Policies Across The U.S.
A new report finds that only a third of states protect access to affordable contraception through their policies, such as Medicaid expansion or requiring health insurers to pay for prescriptions for months at a time. The report, released Wednesday, analyzed current birth control policies across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. ... The report — a state-by-state contraceptive policy scorecard — shows how important local legislation is to family planning and health care. (Sullivan, 7/16)
The New York Times: Upended By Meth, Some Communities Are Paying Users To Quit
Overcoming meth addiction has become one of the biggest challenges of the national drug crisis. Fentanyl deaths have been dropping, in part because of medications that can reverse overdoses and curb the urge to use opioids. But no such prescriptions exist for meth, which works differently on the brain. ... Lacking a medical treatment, a growing number of clinics are trying a startlingly different strategy: To induce patients to stop using meth, they pay them. (Hoffman, 7/16)
KFF Health News: Maybe It’s Not Just Aging. Maybe It’s Anemia
Gary Sergott felt weary all the time. “I’d get tired, short of breath, a sort of malaise,” he said. He was cold even on warm days and looked pale with dark circles under his eyes. His malady was not mysterious. As a retired nurse anesthetist, Sergott knew he had anemia, a deficiency of red blood cells. In his case, it was the consequence of a hereditary condition that caused almost daily nosebleeds and depleted his hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that delivers oxygen throughout the body. But in consulting doctors about his fatigue, he found that many didn’t know how to help. (Span, 7/17)
CNN: A New Recall Of Injected Penicillin May Put Gains Against Syphilis In Peril
Drugmaker Pfizer is warning doctors that it expects to run low on supplies of Bicillin L-A, a long-acting injection of the antibiotic penicillin, the preferred option for treating syphilis during pregnancy. The news – the latest twist in a drug shortage that began in 2023 – follows a July 10 recall of certain lots of Bicillin L-A that were found to be contaminated with floating particles. Pfizer says it has not received any reports of adverse events related to the recalled shots. (Goodman, 7/16)
