Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: US Approach To Mental Health Care Is Broken; Kids Struggle With Lack Of Sleep
The New York Times: A Top Mental Health Expert On Where America Went Wrong
There’s a paradox that sits at the center of our mental health conversation in America. On the one hand, our treatments for mental illness have gotten better and better in recent decades. Psychopharmaceuticals have improved considerably; new, more effective methods of psychotherapy have been developed; and we’ve reached a better understanding of what kinds of social support are most helpful for those experiencing mental health crises. (7/22)
Los Angeles Times: Sleep Deprivation Is An Important Part Of Our Youth Mental Health Crisis
California achieved a first in the nation this month: implementing a statewide law setting limits on the earliest school start times for adolescents. California’s law is a real victory, considering that sleep deprivation is the norm for far too many teens — a situation with worrying implications across the board, but especially for the growing crisis of youth mental health. (Lisa L. Lewis, 7/22)
Dallas Morning News: Texas Must Stop Punting Mental Health Care To The County Jails
On Thursday, almost 400 people in the Dallas County jail were waiting for a bed in a psychiatric hospital. That’s because courts had deemed those inmates incompetent, meaning they weren’t well enough to participate in their defense because of mental illness. Although some have the means to seek treatment at a private facility, most of them have no choice but to go to a state hospital to recover. (7/22)
Also —
The Washington Post: The Biden Administration’s Monkeypox Response Has Been A Mess
Let’s not mince words: The monkeypox outbreak is a crisis. And the Biden administration’s response to that crisis has been a chaotic, anemic and bumbling mess. (Gregg Gonsalves, 7/21)
The Boston Globe: Nurses Are In Short Supply. The Legislature Can Do Something About It
In the pantheon of pandemic heroes, surely nurses rank near the top. They have ministered to untold numbers of dying patients, worked grueling hours under war-zone conditions, and endured verbal abuse and even physical assault by the very patients they cared for. (7/22)
Stat: There Should Be A 'Moonshot' Or 'Warp Speed' For Rare Diseases
The term “rare disease” is both an apt descriptor and a misnomer. Individually, each rare disease affects a relatively small number of people. But taken together, more than 30 million Americans, and 400 million people worldwide, are affected by one of the 10,000-plus rare diseases — 95% of which have no approved treatment. (Craig Martin, 7/22)
Stat: New Health Care Price Transparency Regulations Empower Patients
Many Americans are accustomed to shopping around for the best deal. We can access reams of information that help us make smarter decisions — except when it comes to health care services. (Seema Verma and Aneesh Chopra, 7/22)
