NEWS & VIEWS

September 26, 2024

School-Based Mental Health Services

In collaboration with Mental Health America and Attendance Works, Healthy Schools Campaign (HCS) developed the role of school-based mental health services in improving student attendance and developed a related fact sheet explaining how school Medicaid can help fund services that address the health drivers of chronic absenteeism.

Health and Education Partnership Playbook addresses complex barriers to attendance and provides recommendations and examples for supporting healthier schools, families and students across all sectors of the community. 

More Children Are Living in Poverty

New U.S. Census data shows the supplemental poverty rate, which dropped during the pandemic, has rebounded beyond pre-pandemic levels.  With poverty rates going up, the number of uninsured students will likely increase leaving school administrators to grapple with funding the services and resources to students, to succeed in the classroom. Rising rates of students without health insurance can lead to students missing school due to the inability to seek treatment when sick or get the preventative services needed.

Walk, Bike, and Roll to School on October 9

The National Center for Safe Routes to School is encouraging participation throughout the month of October. Recognizing that this fall, many schools are in session in different times, please register to participate as an entire school, a neighborhood, or a family. These events are important opportunities to gather as a school or community, encourage physical activity, and promote safety in your neighborhoods and near schools.

Click here to find out how to get a start on planning and share the excitement for Walk, Bike, and Roll to school this year!

Immunizations

Immunizations help keep parents and children healthy, protect others, and wipe out some diseases! Now is the time to get caught up on vaccinations. For information on immunization schedules for adults and children in addition to required travel vaccines, check out the Indiana Department of Health website.

• Child and Teen Immunizations 
• Adult Immunizations 
• Travel Vaccines

Final Rules Under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA)

The United States continues to experience a mental health and substance use disorder crisis. In the almost 16 years since the enactment of MHPAEA, disparities in coverage between mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits and medical/surgical (M/S) benefits have persisted and grown.  These final rules aim to further MHPAEA's fundamental purpose – to ensure that individuals in group health plans or group or individual health insurance coverage who seek treatment for covered MH conditions or SUDs do not face greater burdens on access to benefits for those conditions or disorders than they would face when seeking coverage for the treatment of a medical condition or a surgical procedure. 

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury, who worked together on the final rules, anticipate that these changes will improve network composition by making mental health and substance use disorder provider networks more robust, and making it easier for individuals seeking mental health and substance use disorder care to actually receive it by cutting red tape, with fewer and less restrictive prior authorization requirements and other medical management techniques to navigate. 

Revisiting Recovery

When it was originally conceived, the concept of “recovery” was truly radical. For centuries, mental “illness” was seen as an individual, moral failing that one could not recover from, often requiring lifelong professional intervention through imprisonment or institutionalization. During the late 20th century, leaders with lived experience in the survivor movement asserted that people can recover from mental health and substance use disorders, play an important role in their own recovery, and lead fulfilling, self-directed lives in the community.

Service Model for YARH

Newly released infographics share important insights into services being evaluated within the Youth At-Risk of Homelessness (YARH) multiphase grant program. YARH seeks to build the evidence base on interventions that prevent homelessness among youth and young adults who have been involved in the child welfare system.

The current phase of YARH involves a rigorous summative evaluation of an intervention Colorado developed during the YARH program—the policy-relevant, comprehensive Pathways to Success (Pathways) service model. Pathways in Colorado is an intensive, coach-like case management model for youth and young adults with foster care histories at age 14 or older.

National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week Materials

In preparation for National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (NLPPW), observed Oct. 20-26, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have released outreach materials that organizations, governments and individuals can use to plan and implement local events and activities to educate communities about preventing lead exposure.

These resources can be adapted to reach many audiences, including parents, grandparents, caregivers, contractors, hardware stores, trade associations and media outlets. They are also designed so NLPPW can be incorporated into activities planned for Children’s Health Month, which is also observed in October. 

Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests

U.S. households can order four free COVID-19 tests from the federal government with the Sept. 26 relaunch of the at-home test distribution program.

How to Use Data to Combat Bullying 

and Enhance School Safety

In this webinar, participants will learn ways to:

• Identify patterns of bullying, harassment, and other negative behaviors that can affect student well-being.
• Implement targeted interventions to support students academically and emotionally.
• Create a safer, more inclusive school environment that fosters both academic achievement and well-being. 

The training is on October 9 at 2pm ET.

Fewer than half of U.S. jails provide life-saving medications for opioid use disorder

NIH findings highlight critical gaps in treatment access in correctional facilities, where almost two-thirds of people have a substance use disorder.

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