Category: mental health

When Gun Violence Ends Young Lives, These Men Prepare the Graves

Just outside St. Louis, a cemetery for children sits on a hill. A wooden, weather-worn sign welcomes mourners to “Baby Land.” The gravediggers who made the special spot work quietly in the shadows.

The ‘KHN Health Minute’ Debuts on CBS News Radio

Launched Jan. 12, the “Health Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the KHN newsroom to the airwaves each week.

Luring Out-of-State Professionals Is Just the First Step in Solving Montana’s Health Worker Shortage

Two proposals would make it easier for professionals with out-of-state licenses to work in Montana, but that tactic likely won’t be enough to fill the demand for mental health providers.

NFL Has Been Slow to Embrace Mental Health Support for Players

The shocking on-field cardiac arrest of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin traumatized some players and underscores the need for more consistent mental health support in a league whose athletes are trained to show no weakness.

Readers and Tweeters Diagnose Greed and Chronic Pain Within US Health Care System

KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.

A $30 Million Gift to Build an Addiction Treatment Center. Then Staffers Had to Run It.

Howard Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and chairman of his own charitable foundation, gave $30 million to build an addiction treatment center in the central Illinois community where he farms. But the money was a one-time gift for infrastructure, so the clinic is on its own to keep it running.

Early in the Pandemic, Private Insurers Paid Similarly for Common Telehealth and In-Person Claims

This analysis of 2020 claims data finds that as telehealth use surged as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the shift toward virtual physician and mental health care did not materially affect how much insurers paid for each patient encounter.

Behavioral Telehealth Loses Momentum Without a Regulatory Boost

As flexible treatment options spurred by the covid pandemic wane, patients relying on medications classified as controlled substances worry that without action to extend the loosened rules, it’ll be harder to get their meds.

In PA County Jails, Guards Use Pepper Spray and Stun Guns to Subdue People in Mental Crisis

An investigation of records from 25 county jails across Pennsylvania showed that nearly 1 in 3 “use of force” incidents by guards involved a confined person who was having a psychiatric crisis or who had a known mental illness.

California Senate’s New Health Chair to Prioritize Mental Health and Homelessness

California state Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton has been appointed chair of the Senate’s influential health committee. A licensed social worker, Eggman said she will make mental health care and homelessness front-burner issues.