Youth Mental Health
- Nevada just passed a law allowing bachelor’s degree-trained behavioral health specialists to practice in schools and other settings. The new legislation is part of a grassroots movement that started in Oregon. Since launching in 2022, the University of Oregon's Ballmer Institute for Children's Behavioral Health has trained undergraduate students in how to deliver skill-based interventions—like stress management and conflict resolution—to kids. Read more here.
- Illinois will require school districts to provide universal mental health screenings for students with Gov. JB Pritzker’s signing of SB 1560, making it the first state in the nation to do so, according to a news release. Under the law, schools in the state will receive access to free screening tools and related technology to help districts provide annual screenings for students in grades 3-12 starting in the 2027-28 school year. Read more here.
Veterans’ Mental Health
- The military services are inconsistently weighing discharge upgrade appeals from veterans whose experience with mental health issues or sexual assault may have contributed to their exit from the military, a new report has found. Pentagon directives issued in 2014 and 2017 instructed review boards to give liberal consideration to applicants who were sexual assault victims or who have conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. However, that guidance isn’t being followed regularly within the services, the Government Accountability Office said in the report. Read more here.
Gun Violence
- Records released this week by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police confirm they had several contacts in recent years with Shane Tamura, the 27-year-old man who drove to New York and killed four people on July 28. The records show he was known to suffer from mental illness, had been the subject of two emergency psychiatric evaluations, and yet was still allowed to buy firearms legally — including the AR-15-style rifle used in New York. Read more here.
Research
- Exposure to childhood physical or verbal abuse have similar associations with lower mental well-being during adulthood. Interventions to reduce child abuse, including physical chastisement, should consider both physical and verbal abuse and their individual and combined consequences to life course health. The potential role of childhood verbal abuse in escalating levels of poor mental health among younger age groups needs greater consideration. Read more here.
- Is guided internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) effective in the treatment of women with bulimia nervosa in an outpatient psychiatric setting? In this randomized clinical trial of 61 women with bulimia nervosa, women who received ICBT plus usual care had a significant decrease in bulimia symptoms compared with women who received usual care only. These findings support guided ICBT as a promising intervention for women with bulimia nervosa receiving treatment in psychiatric settings. Read more here.
Budget Bill Impacts on Medicaid and ACA
- Colorado is hoping a just-under-the-wire application to the federal government will help soften the blow of Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the recently signed tax and spending measure. The application is to create what is known as a state directed payments program. Such programs pull down extra federal Medicaid funding that can then be paid to health care providers with the goal of expanding access to care and improving the quality of the care. Read more here.
Federal Policy
- House Democrats are sounding the alarm and demanding more information about a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) demonstration they say will increase red tape by adding prior authorization requirements in Medicare. Led by Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Ami Bera (D-Calif.), a group of 17 Democrats questioned why HHS would want to test adding prior authorization requirements in traditional Medicare when the Trump administration is touting efforts to reduce the practice in Medicare Advantage (MA). Read more here.
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