News

In her first months as a community health worker, Jee Hyo Kim helped violent crime survivors access supportive services and resources. When a client with post-traumatic stress disorder sought a therapist, she linked him to one that fit his needs. She helped clients afraid to leave their homes obtain food delivery vouchers. As one client described her, Kim was a “connector.”

Then, Kim learned to go further. Through a training program, she gained the know-how and confidence to provide emotional support. She learned evidence-based mental health counseling skills such as asking open-ended questions. She also discovered that some things she was already doing, such as listening attentively and restating what she hears, are core to communicating empathy — a vital component of a successful relationship between a client and their mental health provider.

Asian Health Services, where Kim works, is a part of a fledgling movement trying to address a dire shortage of therapists by training community health workers and other nonlicensed professionals who have trusted relationships with their communities to add mental health counseling to their roles. This approach, already implemented abroad and proven to help address some common mental health conditions, is called lay counseling.

The Oakland-based community health center serves mostly low-income Asian immigrants who speak limited English. As a community health worker, Kim now also practices lay counseling under a licensed therapist’s supervision. She does not have a license, but as a Korean immigrant and strong-arm robbery survivor, she shares lived experiences with many of the people she serves, enabling her to build trust.

Concerned that people were falling through the cracks, the health center in 2021 launched a grant-funded initiative to support victims of violence. In addition to lay counseling and therapy by licensed providers, available in several languages, the program, known as the Community Healing Unit, provides services such as helping clients access crime victim funds.

The program has sent 43 community health workers, case managers, and other employees to a lay counseling training program, said Ben Wang, the health center’s director of special initiatives. Trainees learn through formal instruction, observing teachers providing counseling, and practicing counseling with one another, along with feedback from instructors.

Read more at CaliforniaHealthline.org.

A leading national survey finds that 22% of LGBTQ+ women respondents have attempted suicide, and 66% reported seeking treatment for trauma.

“The trauma burden in this community is enormous,” said Jaime Grant, one of the researchers who conducted the survey.

These findings are included in a report released Tuesday from the Urvashi Vaid National LGBTQ+ Women’s Community Survey, named after the late lesbian activist. The report comes from analysis of a national survey of 5,000 LGBTQ+ respondents who previously or currently identify as a woman, conducted between June 2021 and June 2022.

The analysis finds that LGBTQ+ women experience substantial health disparities, mental illness and barriers to care.

These findings come more than a decade after Grant’s earlier research found that transgender people had attempted suicide at a rate nine times higher than the national average. Grant, who also led the National Transgender Discrimination Survey in 2011, said those data helped improve medical treatment for transgender people. She hopes this report will do the same for LGBTQ+ women.

The survey also sought to identify barriers to health care for LGBTQ+ women. Research shows that 77% of the U.S. population has a primary care physician, but just over half of LGBTQ+ women in the survey reported being under the care of one. Respondents of color were twice as likely to say they lacked access to quality health care.

Respondents cited cost and discrimination as the leading reasons for why they put off or didn’t seek out medical care when they were sick or in need. Dyar says there’s been limited research done to determine what exactly limits access to care for LGBTQ+ women.

While the Urvashi Vaid National LGBTQ+ Women’s Community Survey has been led by community activists and researchers, it’s moving to a more prominent organization in an effort to boost its reach and impact. The survey will now be housed at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the group announced on Tuesday.

Read more at NPR.org.

On October 16, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved 1115 waivers in four states — Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Oregon — that, for the first time, allow state Medicaid agencies to cover American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) traditional health care practices. These waiver approvals aim to support sovereign Tribal governments in providing health care services reflective of individual Tribes’ cultures and healing knowledge. In each of the four states and at the federal level, the waivers and the terms of the approvals were developed in partnership with Tribal leaders through formal Tribal consultation processes, public comment periods, and advisory groups.

Traditional health care practices, also known as traditional healing or traditional medicine, are a form of culturally centered care that has been shown to improve health and well-being, especially behavioral health and quality of life. This care can be offered as standalone services or alongside conventional Western (also known as allopathic) medical treatments to provide a multifaceted approach to health and well-being. Some traditional health care practices may be used across many cultures. For example, commonly offered traditional practices in Native American communities include talking circles, sweat lodges, and smudging. However, many other healing practices are unique to individual Native nations and locations. Because of the wide variability in traditional health care practices and the sometimes religious or spiritual meaning of these practices, the waiver approvals do not include a specific list of covered traditional healing services. Instead, the facilities providing these services can choose what to offer based on what will best meet the needs of the communities they serve.

All Medicaid benefits for AI/AN people received through IHS and Tribal facilities are paid for with a 100 percent federal match, in recognition of the federal trust responsibility to provide health care to Native people. This means states will receive a 100 percent federal match for traditional health care practices received by AI/AN people through IHS and Tribal facilities and UIOs that have care coordination agreements with IHS or Tribal facilities. States will receive their standard federal match for non‑AI/AN, IHS-eligible people who are receiving traditional health care practices.

The groundbreaking approval of these waivers has the potential to improve outcomes and decrease health disparities for Native people served by Medicaid, by improving access to culturally centered health care practices that have been used over many generations. Tribal and state leaders in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Oregon are gearing up for implementation. Across the country, these approvals create a blueprint for other states to work in partnership with Tribal leaders to design and submit their own waivers.

Read more at CHCS.org.

Staunton Farm Foundation announced its latest round of grants on World Mental Health Day last week. The timing was just happenstance, though, as the Pittsburgh-based organization has been dedicated year-round to helping people who live with mental illness and/or substance use disorders for nearly a century.

In this second round of funding, it awarded 19 grants totaling nearly $1.2 million to agencies and organizations throughout Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Westmoreland and Washington counties. The awards included four new organizations among those who previously received funds: Chabad House on Campus Inc., Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Greensburg, and The Education Partnership.

Established as a family foundation in 1937, Staunton Farm Foundation exists thanks to Matilda Staunton Craig, known as Aunt Daisie, who wanted her estate to be used to benefit people with mental illness. Following the direction set in her will and in response to current needs, Staunton Farm Foundation trustees make grants to support treatment, services and systems improvements for children, youth and adults with behavioral health issues, according to the foundation website.

Because of the limited number of behavioral health organizations in the 10 southwestern Pennsylvania counties eligible for the grants, Staunton Farms Foundation regularly has repeat applicants for grants. For example, the news release stated that Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens will expand its mental health services by creating a designated therapeutic space — including therapy rooms, an art therapy studio, and a multipurpose therapy room for modalities such as play and music therapy — for both youth at the De’Avry A. Thomas Community Center and the broader community. It is based in Penn Hills.

Informational materials on the grants highlighted three repeat organizations. JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s 10.27 Healing Partnership will collaborate with LIGHT Education Initiative to elevate the voices of families and survivors of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting by working with schools and organizations to present lived experiences that build empathy and understanding of modern-day antisemitism. The Jewish Family & Community Services’ UpStreet program, which opened its first physical location last year and saw 90% of nearly 200 teens and families return for drop-in support, will formalize its practices, strengthen its operation model and develop a sustainability strategy. The Monroeville Public Library will build on the previous year’s achievements by expanding its Mental Health & Wellness programming to more target audiences, extend the program to additional locations, and create more offerings such as grief support, therapy sessions, mindfulness classes.

Read more at UnionProgress.com.

Asheville’s unhoused population is accustomed to navigating complicated pathways to meet basic needs from city and county resources, nonprofits, and religious institutions. Now tens of thousands of other Western North Carolina residents are experiencing similar barriers on a temporary basis as the unhoused population grew overnight due to people who lost their homes in Hurricane Helene. The city has added four shelters for the general population, and the need continues to be high.

The number of unhoused people in Asheville was already a concern before Helene. Rental prices here are among the highest in the state, and as a heavily marketed popular tourism destination, a significant amount of housing stock is used for short-term rentals. The barriers to accessing treatment for mental health and substance abuse are also acute in a city that has become a hub for the rural region that surrounds it. Buncombe County’s January 2024 point-in-time count identified 739 people living in transitional housing, emergency housing, or living outside.

The bright green van that is Appalachian Mountain Health’s mobile medical unit usually visits the same location on a certain day of the week to provide primary and mental health care. Since Helene, however, the mobile team assesses daily what the needs are, and goes where they are greatest, said Summer Hettinger, a family nurse practitioner for Appalachian Mountain Health.

Caring for wounds that result from substance use has also been a necessity made more difficult with no running water in most of the city. In addition to giving out general hygiene kits from Direct Relief, the mobile team has handed out wound care kits for abscesses, such as xylazine wounds. Also known as “tranq,” the sedative xylazine can create open sores on the skin.

Prior to Helene, the mobile unit saw patients by appointment. Given the difficulties with cell phone and Internet service, it’s now “first come, first serve,” Hettinger said. (Locations for the mobile medical unit are shared on Instagram and Facebook.)

Anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications have been in demand post-Helene. Hettinger says the mobile medical unit is both refilling prescriptions and initiating new e-prescriptions at four pharmacies that have the capacity to do so.

Read more at TheAssemblyNYC.com.

Most are aware that homelessness and mental health are presenting as a two-fold crisis on the streets of Los Angeles County.

In short, it’s not enough just to find housing for the 75,312 homeless people in the county. That’s because surveys indicated at least 25% of the unhoused on the streets have a serious mental illness, such as psychotic disorders and schizophrenia. Thus, housing without behavioral treatment won’t be successful, experts say.

To help address both problems, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday, Sept. 22, signed Senate Bill 1336, which frees up L.A. County to transform seven vacant buildings at the Metropolitan State Hospital campus in Norwalk into shelters for those removed from the streets, while also providing mental health treatment facilities.

“We are battling a mental health crisis, and we desperately need places where we can treat and house people who are struggling,” said Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn. “These buildings are doing no one any good sitting empty.”

A recent lawsuit brought by the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights against L.A. County and L.A. city and a resulting settlement required the county to create 3,000 new residential treatment beds and 450 new board and care service contracts to treat those with mental illness.

The facility is a state-run public hospital specializing in psychiatric care. The 826-bed hospital sits on 162 acres and is within a security perimeter, Hahn reported. It currently admits patients who are: incompetent to stand trial; have mental health disorders; been found not guilty by reason of insanity; or are under conservatorships, a legal means to provide care for mentally ill individuals.In those vacant buildings, the county wants to create 219 mental health beds where homeless individuals suffering acute episodes would get treatment, then after several months, move into housing, Hahn said. Two buildings would be used for permanent supportive housing. Some housing space would be reserved for foster kids transitioning out of the system, she added.

Read more at WhittierDailyNews.com.