Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Benefits Spotlight Shortage Of Mental Health Providers
The Wall Street Journal: Where Are The Mental-Health Providers?
Millions of Americans with mental illness are hearing a loud and clear message: Get help. There’s still one question: Who is going to treat them? The shortage of mental-health providers in the U.S. has long been considered a significant problem. But it is becoming more acute as people are encouraged to seek treatment, or find they are able to afford it for the first time as a result of new federal requirements that guarantee mental-health coverage in insurance plans. (Radnofsky, 2/16)
The Kansas City Star: Suffering Children In Need Of Mental Health Care Too Often Starve For Help
Maybe she was trying to commit suicide. She’s not sure. The hydrocodone and ibuprofen the 18-year-old downed that morning last fall in her south Kansas City home would at least make her very sick. The senior made it to her school bus. Made it through her first hour at Center High School. But when assistant principal Sharon Ahuna saw the overdosed student in the hall between classes, she had sunk to the floor against the wall with her arms clutching her legs. The adults who swept in to her aid were sped by fear but swollen with frustration over the fractured network of mental health services struggling to help the nation’s children. (Robertson, 1/14)
