Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lockdown Study: Domestic Violence Rose -- And Was Much More Severe
Los Angeles Times: Domestic Violence Rose During Lockdown — And Injuries Are Dramatically More Severe, Study Finds
A new study found that, as the tightest restrictions on nonessential activities began to lift in Massachusetts, physicians at a large hospital in Boston saw a near-doubling of the proportion of domestic abuse cases that resulted in physical injury in comparison with previous years. The injuries were also dramatically more severe, prompting concerns that victims had delayed seeking care even as the violence against them escalated. Experts on intimate partner violence have feared that such abuse would increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the fact that fewer victims appeared to be coming forward for fear of being infected in a clinic, shelter or hospital emergency department. (Healy, 8/18)
ABC News: Gun Suicide Rates Were Rising Even Before The Pandemic: CDC
Even before the pandemic, suicide rates in the United States were rising, according to a new government report. While suicide rates in both urban and rural areas rose steadily between 2000 and 2018, the pace of increase quickened in rural areas after 2007, rising 3% every year compared to the 1% increase seen each year between 2000 and 2007, the National Center for Health Statistics report found. (Schumaker, 8/19)
ABC News: Like The Virus, Coronavirus Pandemic Mental Stress Hits Latinos More: Study
Experts are sounding the alarm that beyond the physical and mortal toll the coronavirus has taken on Americans, its impact on mental health can be severe as well, especially for Latinos as that population remains disproportionately affected by the virus. A survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week revealed that 41% of respondents reported symptoms of some mental disorder, including trauma-related symptoms, depression and anxiety. (Romero, 8/18)
NPR: Staying Strong During Lockdown Means Reaching Out — And Working Your Mind, Too
It can be tempting, as the pandemic wears on, to shut down — to escape into TV binging, social media and other inadequate ways of blocking out the stress and fears of illness or economic disaster. Dr. Maryland Pao, the clinical director of the National Institutes of Mental Health Intramural Research Program and a psychiatrist who regularly sees children with life-threatening illnesses, says she's seen striking similarities between the ways her young patients deal with their diagnoses, and how lots of people are responding as we roll past month 5 of the pandemic. (Fulton, 8/18)
AP: Teens Struggle To Balance School, Family, Work Amid COVID-19
With her baby brother in her arms, Kara Apuzzo tried to follow along in an online class as he squirmed or slept. Other times, the 18-year-old rushed to get ready for work at a front-line job at Target as her virtual high school lessons were still wrapping up. Last school year was further complicated by computer issues that kept her from logging in and online tools that bedeviled even her teachers. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Apuzzo, who lives in New Haven, Connecticut, knew she wanted to go to college right after high school. Now, she’s not so sure. (Whitehurst, 8/18)
ABC News: Teletherapy Meets Teens Where They Live: On-Screen
Due to the coronavirus, many teens have been missing their proms, graduation ceremonies, daily routines and their friends. These missed events and social interactions are only adding to the additional stress many adolescents are facing amid the pandemic, health experts say. (Bhatt, 8/19)
And LGBTQ individuals are facing more challenges —
The Washington Post: Coronavirus Pandemic Is Worsening Transgender Mental Health To Alarming Levels
The surgery was supposed to be a turning point.Brenda Emery spent a year preparing for the vaginoplasty. To save up for it, she took jobs in food service straight out of college and moved in with her mother. She talked at length to therapists and medical experts to make sure the procedure to modify her lower body was what she really wanted as a transgender woman. ... Then came the novel coronavirus, halting all non-emergency surgeries. (Fowers and Wan, 8/18)
Stat: LGBTQ Youth Say Cost, Parent Consent Pose Barriers To Mental Health Care
The Covid-19 pandemic stands to exacerbate the existing mental health crisis among LGBTQ youth, who are at far higher risk of suicide than their peers. But it might also yield lessons in how to surmount the barriers to counseling they so often encounter. (Isselbacher, 8/18)
