Week of April 8–12, 2024

General Mental Health Articles

• Unarmed emergency responders, Nevada Sanchez and Sean Martin, take a police dispatch call in southeast Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city with high rates of violent crime and police shootings. They have no enforcement powers or protective equipment and say they use their voices and brains to deescalate encounters with people in mental health and substance abuse crises. On some occasions, they may have saved lives. Read more here.

Youth Mental Health

• Suicide rates among people of all ages in the United States have increased over the past two decades, making it a serious public health problem. Among U.S. college athletes, suicide is now the second leading cause of death after accidents — and rates have doubled from 7.6% to 15.3% over the past 20 years, according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Read more here.
• This past October, a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from dozens of states — including Arizona, California, Louisiana, and New York — sued Meta in California’s federal court, accusing the company of deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to young users while testifying before Congress that the platforms are safe. Other states and the District of Columbia have filed similar suits. Read more here.
• Millennials and Generation Z are experiencing a new wave of anxiety when it comes to medical costs. According to a new study, 67% of Gen Z and 62% of millennials avoid seeking healthcare because of the price, compared to 46% of Americans overall. The study was commissioned by the insurance firm Assurance IQ. Read more here.

Gun Safety

• In Virginia, an assistant principal is charged with child abuse after failing to intervene before a 6-year-old shot his first-grade teacher. In Michigan, a couple is sentenced to a decade in prison for failing to stop their 15-year-old son from gunning down four high-school classmates. In Illinois, a father pleads guilty to reckless misconduct after his son killed seven people at a Fourth of July parade. The cases represent a new type of weapon in the country's gun violence epidemic: a prosecutorial one. Read more here.
• Activist groups are using a typical advocacy tool — voicemails to members of Congress — with a new, uncomfortable twist: They’re from the deceased victims of gun violence, generated by artificial intelligence. TheShotline.org, a gun reform campaign by March for Our Lives and Change the REF, is asking constituents nationwide to send representatives in their zip code the AI-generated phone calls. Read more here.

The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues

• Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the expansion of Florida's Coordinated Opioid Response network, known as CORE, at a stop in Sanford. CORE, a substance abuse and recovery network established in 2022, will cover 17 more counties, including Lake, Orange, Polk, and Seminole, for a total of 29. The Department of Children & Families will have $26 million in opioid settlement funds for the program. Read more here.
• For the first time, methamphetamine and cocaine have surpassed heroin and opioids in illicit drug use involving fentanyl, according to a recent study, and some experts are calling it the “fourth wave” of the opioid epidemic. According to a recent study, 60% of drug screens from 2013 to 2023 that tested positive for fentanyl also contained meth, and about one quarter also contained cocaine. Read more here.
• In state after state, centers for problem gambling are noticing an alarming rise in calls to their helplines. The circumstances reported are also getting more severe, according to the directors of five problem gambling centers, a gambling researcher, and an addiction counselor. People are filing for bankruptcy or losing homes or relationships. At the same time, callers are skewing younger, the experts said — often men in their 20s and 30s. The directors say the mounting call volume has coincided with the legalization of sports betting and rising popularity of sports betting apps. Read more here.

Climate Change and Mental Health

• Checking air quality and staying indoors when smoke inundates the Seattle area has become second nature during Washington’s wildfire season in recent years. However, new research highlights how wildfires can affect a less visible aspect of well-being: mental health. A University of Washington study published in late February found an increase in prescriptions to treat depression and anxiety or stabilize mood in the six weeks after wildfires. Read more here.

Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ Issues

• A federal appeals court will hear arguments over Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for minors, as the fight over the restrictions on transgender youths adopted by two dozen states moves closer to the U.S. Supreme Court. Arkansas is appealing a federal judge’s ruling last year that struck down the state’s ban as unconstitutional, the first decision to overturn such a prohibition. Read more here.
• Wading into a national debate, the Legislature advanced a bill to ban transgender people from school bathrooms, domestic violence shelters, and other spaces that align with their gender identity — despite warnings the bill would put at risk millions of dollars in federal funding for shelters. The House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure agreed to advance House Bill 608 by Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, to the full House. Read more here.
• The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics on Monday voted to bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports competitions. NAIA’s Council of Presidents unanimously voted in favor of the policy that says “only students whose biological sex is female” may participate in women’s sports. However, all student athletes may participate in men’s sports. Read more here.