News

National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) is an annual observance that sheds light on the impact of HIV and AIDS on women and girls. Every year on March 10, and throughout the month of March, national and community organizations come together to show support for women and girls impacted by HIV and AIDS. This year marks the 12th observance of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The 2017 theme is “The Best Defense Is a Good Offense.”

Today, about one in four people living with HIV in the United States is female. Only about half of women living with HIV are getting care, and only four in 10 of them have the virus under control. Women face unique HIV risks and challenges that can prevent them from getting needed care and treatment. Addressing these issues remains critical to achieving an HIV- and AIDS-free generation.

Read more on WomensHealth.gov. Read the National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day fact sheet.

In partnership with states and providers, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plays a leading role in safeguarding the health of America’s future by providing coverage for more than one in three American children. Through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program’s (CHIP) mandatory and optional benefits, children receive access to a spectrum of comprehensive and preventive health care services aimed at providing a sound start for lifelong health. As a result, children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP lead the nation in participation in preventive care and access to needed care.

CMS and states have also demonstrated consistent commitment to improving the health of children through care redesign and innovation in programs such as Medicaid Health Homes, the Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program, and models tested under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center), including the State Innovation Models Initiative and Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns Initiative. To build on those efforts, the Innovation Center, in partnership with the Center for Medicaid and Chip Services (CMCS), is releasing a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input on the design of alternative payment models focused on improving the health of children and youth covered by Medicaid and CHIP. As the insurer of a third of the nation’s children and a leader in health care innovation, CMS is uniquely positioned to improve the health of America’s children.

CMS seeks input through the RFI from the broad community of child and youth-focused stakeholders on concepts critical to addressing the comprehensive health needs of children and youth, such as:

• Opportunities and impediments to extending and enhancing integrated service model concepts like accountable care organizations (ACOs) to the pediatric population;
• Flexibilities and supports states and providers may need in order to offer such models of care to a state’s pediatric population; and
• Approaches for states and providers to coordinate Medicaid and CHIP benefits and waivers with other health-related social services for children and youth.

To be assured consideration, RFI comments must be received by March 28, 2017.

Read more about the RFI.

Last year, a study doubled previous estimates of the transgender population in the United States, putting the figure at 1.4 million, or about 0.6% of the population. A recent Gallup poll shows the percentage of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. increased from 3.5% in 2012 to 4.1% in 2016. In 2015, Fusion’s Massive Millennial Poll found half of 1,000 people ages 18-34 saw gender as a nonbinary spectrum.

These increased numbers likely result from a general increase in acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities, as people who can expect to be welcomed and supported regardless of gender identity or orientation are more likely to feel safe enough to express those identities and/or orientations. Despite this greater acceptance, however, the mental health care system is not adequately meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ individuals, according to a study published in the Journal of Women’s Health.

Gender and sexual minorities tend to have higher rates of mental health issues, which likely correlate with increased vulnerability to discrimination and violence. According to data from the Office for Victims of Crime, at least half of all transgender individuals experience sexual abuse or assault at some point in their lives. Some reports say that figure is as high as 66%, and sexual assault is often experienced alongside physical abuse.

The study, which limited its scope to participants in Ontario, Canada, compared mental health access among gender and sexual minorities to access among heterosexual and cisgender people. Researchers used a cross-sectional internet survey of 704 participants. They oversampled racial minorities and people of low socioeconomic status to ensure vulnerable groups had adequate representation.

Transgender participants were 2.4 times more likely than cisgender participants to report an unmet mental health care need. Bisexual participants reported unmet mental health care needs at 1.8 times the rate of cisgender heterosexual women. Untreated depression was 1.6 times more common among transgender participants.

Read more on GoodTherapy.org. Read the abstract of the study.

The following is an excerpt from a news article on NJTVOnline.org.

A groundbreaking study on children and mental health on who gets treatment and who doesn’t, why and what impact it has on a child’s development and adulthood. It’s a Rutgers-Camden study to be published in May in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. The study’s author, Assistant Professor Wenhua Lu, joins NJTV News Correspondent Michael Hill to talk about her findings.

Hill: You conclude mental health treatment and counseling services are disproportionately received according to racial and socioeconomic factors. How did you reach that conclusion?

Lu: Yes. For that study I looked at the national survey of children’s studies. It’s national data and we can actually take surveys from parents across the United States. Based on children’s self reports, there are like 15 percent of children who suffer from mental health problems but they didn’t receive appropriate health care. There are enormous disparities with respect to race and socioeconomic status. For example, compared with white Hispanic and black children are less likely to receive the mental health care that they need. And also compared with children who are either publicly insured or privately insured, those kids who don’t have the insurance are less likely to receive the mental health care that they need.

Hill: Why is that? What is there the disparity?

Lu: This is a great question. There are a lost of reasons or risk factors that may lead to these disparities. For example, at the child level, so let’s say like the whole child and adolescent population in general, at the children’s level there’s children and adolescents who have mental health problems. They may have self-induced stigma, or they may have a mistrust to the mental health professionals. And at the parent level, they may also have a stigma and they may also not have enough community support. At the community level, there’s children and adolescents’ families, especially those living in socioeconomic disadvantaged communities, they may have a lack of access to those appropriate health services. At the policy level, for example for children who are publicly insured, like those families who are served by receiving Medicaid, there are opportunities for serving them to receive such health care, but they are not aware of this. So others can contribute to children’s mental health service needs, and also with respect to racial ethnic minority children specifically. Among these groups they may also have cultural mistrust for health care professions, especially in the U.S.

Read the full article on NJTVOnline.org.

On December 6–7, 2016, more than 120 representatives from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) funded tribal youth programs gathered in Palms Springs, CA, to share information with their peers and learn from experts in the fields of youth development, trauma-informed care, and juvenile justice as a part of the OJJDP National Tribal Youth Conference entitled “Walking With Tribal Youth: Trauma-Informed, Culturally Based Justice and Healing,” the conference was organized by OJJDP’s Tribal Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center.

According to Ending Violence So Children Can Thrive, a report from the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence, American Indian and Alaska Native children suffer exposure to violence at rates higher than any other race in the United States. They also experience posttraumatic stress disorder at triple the rate of the general population. The effects of this trauma include poor physical and mental health, poor school performance, development of substance use disorders, and overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system.

To address these negative effects, the conference included presentations, workshops, and panel discussions on the impact of historical and intergenerational trauma; trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy; the adaptation of treatment approaches to tribal cultures; the principles of positive youth development; strengths-based strategies for engaging youth (the promotion of cultural connections, skill development, leadership opportunities, and healthy relationships); trauma-informed and culturally appropriate screening tools in the juvenile justice system; and promising practices for building community partnerships in Indian country.

Read more on OJJDP.gov.

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) will host the Health Disparities Research Institute (HDRI) from August 14 – 18, 2017. The HDRI aims to support the research career development of promising minority health/health disparities research scientists early in their careers and stimulate research in the disciplines supported by health disparities science.

The program will feature lectures, mock grant review, seminars, small group discussions on research relevant to minority health and health disparities. It will also include sessions with NIH scientific staff engaged in related health disparities research across the various institutes and centers.

Target Audience

This program is intended for early stage research investigators. Applications will only be accepted from post-doctoral fellows, assistant professors, or individuals in similar early stage research career positions who are engaged in minority health and health disparities research. Early career researchers from diverse backgrounds interested in the conduct of health research, within academic, community-based, non-profit, and other non-academic settings, are encouraged to apply.

Read more on NIMHD.NIH.gov.