Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Army Leaders Focus On New Factors Behind 30% Spike In Suicides
AP: As Suicides Rise, Army Brass Reassessing Outreach
If there were any signs that Staff Sgt. Jason Lowe was struggling, the soldiers he served alongside didn’t see them. The 27-year-old paratrooper was a top performer. He was on the Commandant’s List and had just finished second in his class in the Army’s Advanced Leader Course, setting him up for a promotion within the storied 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. Yet, five days after graduation, after Lowe left texts and calls unreturned, Staff Sgt. Ryan Graves drove to Lowe’s apartment in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with a bad feeling. “On the way there I think it set in that maybe there’s something a lot worse going on,” Graves said. (Morgan, 9/28)
Kaiser Health News and WXXI: ‘You’re Going To Release Him When He Was Hurting Himself?’
When Joe Prude called Rochester, New York, police to report his brother missing, he was struggling to understand why Daniel Prude had been released from the hospital hours earlier. Joe Prude described his brother’s suicidal behavior. “He jumped 21 stairs down to my basement, headfirst,” Joe said in a video recorded by the responding officer’s body camera in the early hours of March 23. Joe’s wife, Valerie, described Daniel nearly jumping in front of a train on the tracks that run behind their house the previous day. (Dahlberg, 9/29)
The Star Tribune: Iraq Vet In Minn. National Guard Uses His Own Downward Spiral To Offer Soldiers Hope
Sergeant First Class Joshua Guyse comes from central casting as a senior infantry instructor for the Minnesota National Guard: A sturdy six-foot-three, haircut high and tight, a feared-but-respected reputation as “the right hand of Satan,” in Guyse’s words. When he talks, you listen. One morning, the 48-year-old stood in front of the 175th Regiment Regional Training Institute here and spoke about something that has gone from relatively unspoken to top of mind in the military: Mental health and suicide prevention. “Nobody’s afraid to ask for help if they have a broken leg,” he said. “But if somebody has a mental health issue, are they comfortable coming to ask for help? Why not? Pride. Stigma. Shame. Afraid it might affect their career.” (Forgrave, 9/29)
In other news about mental health —
MinnPost: COVID-19 Forced Minnesota’s Reluctant Mental Health Providers To Try Telemedicine. Now There’s No Going Back
For years, telemedicine has been touted as a way to address mental health provider shortages in Greater Minnesota or as an option that could help stave off the looming mass retirement of the state’s aging psychologist workforce. But, despite the promise offered by technology, most mental health providers in Minnesota avoided making the move to telemedicine, instead preferring to see their patients face-to-face. Then COVID-19 hit Minnesota and everything changed. Within weeks of Gov. Tim Walz’s statewide stay-at-home order, mental health providers across the state were forced to embrace telemedicine: Sticking with the old ways of doing business would mean turning patients away and shutting down their practices. (Steiner, 9/28)
The Baltimore Sun: As Coronavirus Rolls On In Maryland, Mental Health Toll Surges, With Experts Fearing Spike In Suicides
The voices on the other end of the Baltimore crisis hotline are desperate. An elderly woman is stuck in her home. Her adult kids are too afraid to expose her to the coronavirus, so they won’t visit her. She is lonely. Her dark thoughts are scaring her. (Wenger, 9/29)
NBC News: Early Care Leads To Better Mental Health For Transgender Youths, Study Finds
Transgender children who receive gender-affirming medical care earlier in their lives are less likely to experience mental health issues like depression and anxiety, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. "The study highlights that timely access to gender-affirming medical care is really important for youth with gender dysphoria," said the study's lead author, Dr. Julia C. Sorbara, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Gender dysphoria involves a conflict between an individual's sex assigned at birth and their gender identity. (Moreau, 9/29)
