Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Arkansas Sues YouTube, Alphabet Alleging Harms To Kids' Mental Health
AP: Arkansas Sues YouTube Over Claims That The Site Is Fueling A Mental Health Crisis
Arkansas sued YouTube and parent company Alphabet on Monday, saying the video-sharing platform is made deliberately addictive and fueling a mental health crisis among youth in the state. Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed the lawsuit in state court, accusing them of violating the state’s deceptive trade practices and public nuisance laws. The lawsuit claims the site is addictive and has resulted in the state spending millions on expanded mental health and other services for young people. (DeMillo, 9/30)
San Francisco Chronicle: S.F.’s New Mental Health Court Has Helped Few People So Far
Nearly a year since San Francisco’s CARE Court started, only five CARE agreements, or court-ordered treatment plans, have been reached, according to the San Francisco Superior Court. The city has received 42 petitions — a small fraction of the 1,000 to 2,000 people officials estimate could be eligible for the program in the city. About half of San Francisco’s cases have been dismissed. (Angst and Bollag, 9/30)
The Washington Post: Mental Crisis In Custody Spurred ‘Death Sentence,’ Prosecutors Say At Trial
Irvo Otieno stopped breathing last year as multiple law enforcement officers and staff members at Virginia’s Central State Hospital restrained him for 11 minutes, in a case that sparked international headlines and drew widespread comparisons to prominent instances of police brutality against Black people. Now a jury will decide whether Otieno’s death — caught entirely on video — was a crime. (Vozzella and Rizzo, 9/30)
USA Today: Haunted By Migrant Deaths, Border Patrol Agents Face Mental Health Toll
Migrant deaths have surged for a second year along this stretch of U.S.-Mexico border in West Texas and southern New Mexico. The personal and economic toll on migrant families of losing their loved one – often the breadwinner – is immense. But there is a hidden toll, too, on the border agents who find the bodies of migrants, or who fail trying to save the ones they find barely alive. (Villagran, 10/1)
In related news about transgender health care —
NBC News: Study Establishes First Causal Link Between Anti-Trans Laws And Suicide Attempts
State laws targeting transgender people made trans and nonbinary young people more likely to attempt suicide in the past year, according to a first-of-its-kind study. The research, published last week in the journal Nature Human Behavior and conducted by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, is the first to establish that such laws directly caused an increase in suicide attempts. (Yurcaba, 9/30)
NPR: Tim Walz’s State Became A ‘Trans Refuge.’ Here’s What That Means
As Gov. Tim Walz prepares to debate Sen. JD Vance Tuesday night, Minnesota’s status as a “trans refuge” state will likely be in the spotlight. “He’s very heavy into transgender, anything transgender he thinks is great,” former President Trump said on Fox the day after Walz was announced as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. (Trump has pledged, if elected, to end gender-affirming care for youth nationally.) (Simmons-Duffin, 10/1)
