News

While the percentage of American children living in poverty fell in 2015, many continue to live in high-poverty areas and gains in children’s well-being could be lost without continued investment, an annual report from the Annie. E. Casey Foundation finds.

According to the 2017 KIDS COUNT Data Book (pdf), 21 percent of all children in the United States lived in poverty in 2015, down slightly from 22 percent in 2014. The report also found that between 2010 and 2015, the percentage of children whose parent(s) did not have full-time year-round employment fell from 33 percent to 29 percent, while the percentage whose families struggled with a significant housing cost burden fell from 41 percent to 33 percent. Over the same period, the share of children living in high-poverty areas held steady at 14 percent, with higher rates in Southern and Southwestern states.

The report, which measured child well-being in four areas — economic well-being, education, health, and family and community — also found minimal gains in indicators of academic achievement. Although rates of high school completion and fourth-grade reading proficiency improved from 2010 to 2015, the percentage of children not attending pre-K classes has remained largely unchanged since 2009, while the eighth-grade math proficiency rate has gotten slightly worse.

The report did find progress in a number of health indicators, including the uninsured rate for children, which fell from 8 percent in 2010 to 5 percent in 2015; the share of teens who abuse alcohol or drugs, which fell  from 7 percent to 5 percent; and child and teen deaths, which was down from 26 per 100,000 to 25 per 100,000. At the state level, New Hampshire ranked first overall in child well-being, followed by Massachusetts, Vermont, Minnesota, and Iowa, while Mississippi, New Mexico, Louisiana, Nevada, and Arizona ranked lowest.

Read more on PhilanthropyNewsDigest.org.

“Welcome to the Wild West of mental health care.” That’s how Stephanie,* a 40-something professional and Jackson Hole, Wyoming native, described the day she checked into the emergency department at St. John’s Medical Center a few years ago. She has struggled with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction, with some issues dating back to her teens. Her constellation of mental health challenges has meant several bouts of crippling depression, despite medication and therapy.

At the time, she was severely depressed and suicidal. She didn’t feel safe to be alone, so she called a friend to take her to the hospital. Because there is no other crisis facility in the valley for mental health patients, the hospital was Stephanie’s only option. And though the ER staff kept her from harming herself, the experience was less than optimal. 

Having grown up in the valley, Stephanie is not new to seeking mental health care from local providers. An intelligent, proactive woman, she is skilled at gleaning the best of what’s available in Jackson Hole. She is also all too familiar with the ramifications of a community in which physical health is exalted and mental health too often neglected until people reach a crisis.

When Stephanie was a teenager in the 1980s, the first time she sought mental health care was from her family doctor. No licensed psychiatrists were practicing in the valley at the time, so general practitioners were often patients’ first option for mental health care. That situation hasn’t changed much, and it’s not exclusive to Jackson. According to the Institute for Behavioral Health Integration, as many as 70 percent of all visits to primary care are the result of psychosocial issues.

Stephanie said she was lucky to have a doctor who understood the seriousness of her symptoms. “Had I not had that I would not be alive today,” she said.

While primary care providers play a crucial role in helping patients with mental health issues—whether in the ER or the doctor’s office—they only have so much expertise. A recent St. John’s Hospital Foundation study found that Jackson is in dire need of psychiatrists, with only two practicing in the valley. The search is on for ways to serve this need.

Read more on PlanetJH.com.

The Ford Foundation has announced the launch of a $100 million fund in support of organizations working to address mass incarceration in the United States.

Launched with a $100 million donation from philanthropist Agnes Gund, who sold a prized painting from her own collection to underwrite the gift, the Art for Justice Fund hopes to raise an additional $100 million in private capital over the next five years through art sales and other donations. Among other things, the fund will award grants to nonprofit organizations and leaders working to safely reduce jail and prison populations across the country while strengthening education and employment opportunities for people leaving the system. The fund also will support art-related programs that expose the injustice of mass incarceration and its impact on individuals and communities, especially those of color.

The Ford Foundation will partner with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to manage the donated funds, disburse grants, and create various publications and programs in support of the effort. In addition to providing expertise on program design, Ford also will cover the operating costs of the fund so that 100 percent of donated funds go directly to programming and grants.

“The criminal justice system in its current state — particularly in its treatment of people of color — is unfair and unjust,” said Gund in a statement. “It is my hope that by supporting organizations working on criminal justice reform with proven track records, the Art for Justice Fund can inspire change and help pave the way for a better, safer future for our communities and the millions of people whose lives are devastated by mass incarceration.”

Read more on PhilanthropyNewsDigest.org.

A bill to reduce mental health stigma in the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced the Stop Mental Health Stigma in Our Communities Act on the week coinciding with Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month. The bill would would require the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to work with advocacy and health organizations serving AAPI communities to implement outreach and education strategies about behavioral and mental health.

Mental health issues among AAPIs vary across subgroups, but research has shown that Southeast Asian refugees, including Cambodian and Vietnamese Americans who fled war-torn countries, consistently experience high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder. Suicide and depression are also mental health concerns in the AAPI community. Compared to whites, Asian-American college students experience a higher rate of suicidal thoughts, according to the Asian American Psychological Association.

The mental health bill Chu introduced would provide interventions and treatments that are culturally and linguistically sensitive to AAPI subgroups, she said. “Through messaging and outreach that reflect the unique cultural and language needs of our community, we can save lives and get individuals the help they deserve,” Chu said in a statement.

Read more on NBCNews.com.

The Conference Committee welcomes abstracts addressing topics related to the conference theme — Healing Ourselves: Cultural- and Traditional Medicine-based Approaches to Sustainable Health, and focusing on AI/AN research-related activity consistent with the five described tracks. The organizers invite abstracts from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, and are interested in a diversity of (inter-)national, regional, and local perspectives. Submissions by researchers, health care practitioners, health systems experts, and doctoral students engaged in research are welcome. Researchers from all organizational and institutional types (health service providers, governmental agencies, Tribal Colleges and Universities and other institutions of higher education) are encouraged to submit abstracts. They particularly welcome new scholars and members of AI/AN Tribes and other Indigenous populations interested in creating and engaging with a community of scholars through participation in the annual National Native Health Research Training (NNHRT) conference.

Read more on NNHRTI.org.

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