What’s known as emergency room boarding of psychiatric patients has risen between 200% and 400% monthly in Massachusetts during the pandemic — and the problem is widespread. The CDC says emergency room visits after suicide attempts among teen girls were up 51% earlier this year as compared with 2019.
The World Health Organization this week updated its guidance on children and covid vaccinations — but in a different way than alleged in a viral social media post.
Long before covid, music therapists used singing and wind instruments to help COPD and asthma patients. These same therapies might help patients recover from covid’s lingering symptoms as well. And though it wasn’t clinical music therapy, singing with an online choir has helped me navigate long covid.
Democrats in Congress and the states are devising strategies to expand health coverage — through the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid and a “public option.” But progress remains halting, at best. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington may have to agree on how to control prescription drug prices if they wish to finance their coverage initiatives. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews Michelle Andrews, who reported and wrote last month’s KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode about a very expensive sleep study.
Millions of older adults want to be comfortable going online and using digital tools to enhance their lives. But many need help. A number of groups around the country offer assistance.
In a sharp shift from Trump-era policies, President Joe Biden looks at expanding Medicaid eligibility to new mothers, inmates and undocumented immigrants and adding services such as food and housing.
Even those not infected by the virus could suffer health problems related to poverty, job loss, eviction — or all of the above. And the pandemic drove the nation’s largest decline in life expectancy since World War II.
More than 46,000 children in the U.S. have lost a parent to covid-19. Families say finding even basic grief counseling has been difficult and there’s been no coordinated effort to help these children access services or benefits.
Venture capitalists have poured billions into the digital mental health space, sensing an area of unmet demand that is ripe for disruption. The problem for consumers is separating the apps that might help from those that offer little more than distraction — or could actually do harm.
The scientific literature shows that natural immunity does provide protection against covid-19, but experts say getting vaccinated can provide additional protection against variants.
