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Quiet quitting is becoming more popular among U.S. workers, due in part to pandemic-related burnout. Now, new data show college students are hopping on the trend as one-third of these individuals report putting less effort into schoolwork in an effort to preserve their mental health.

Quiet quitting refers to employees not going above and beyond in the workplace, and only doing exactly what their job description requires, according to Gallup. In the school setting, the definition refers to students only doing what’s required in courses and not putting in their full or extra effort.

An Intelligent.com survey conducted among 1,000 community, public, and private college students revealed more than one-third put only some or little effort into their schoolwork while one in five reported their school-life balance is unhealthy.

In addition, 60 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “C’s get degrees,” meaning students don’t need to go above and beyond in the classroom in order to graduate.

The majority of these individuals said they do so in an effort to preserve their mental and physical health. Other reasons provided included procrastination, not having enough time and being too comfortable with low expectations.

Students tended to rank their mental health as a priority over school work, while 21 percent reported feeling “stressful” about their classes this semester. Good grades, physical health, relationships, and finances all ranked below mental health in importance.

Read more at TheHill.com.

Hospital programs like Healing Hurt People in Philadelphia and Chicago’s Shirley Ryan AbilityLab are dedicated to providing psychological aftercare to victims of gun violence.

It is an area that psychologists say gets too little emphasis, considering the high number of gunshot-wound survivors. For every gun-related homicide, there are more than two nonfatal gun shootings, according to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. It also says that 9 in 10 survivors of gun violence experienced trauma from being shot. Additionally, the data shows that residents of the poorest neighborhoods are 6.9 times more likely to be victims of gun violence than those in better-off areas.

That trauma manifests itself in post-traumatic stress symptoms, including insomnia, depression, nightmares or flashbacks, alcohol or substance abuse, and an inability to concentrate, among others.

In March 2020, Devon Gipson was shot five times in a drive-by shooting two houses down from his grandmother’s home in South Los Angeles. The mother of his daughter was shot in the leg, and a friend was killed.

Gipson, who works stocking supplies at a contractor warehouse, considers it a miracle that he survived the gunshot wounds to his shoulder, back, arm and body. As he recovered, Gipson learned that healing physically was only a small part of the process.

If Gipson had been shot in Philadelphia and gone to Drexel University Hospital, counselors from Healing Hurt People, a free intervention program that operates during emergency room hours between 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., would have been able to address his physical needs. The program identifies and addresses a victim’s trauma through interviews, said Dr. John Rich.

“We want to change the conversation . . . toward healing and strength,” Rich said.

Read more at NBCNews.com.

Some will say that Black women in the United States have experienced substantial improvements in health during the last century. But if that’s the case, why do gaping health disparities persist?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source, an estimated 55 out of every 100,000 Black women died in 2020 because of untreated or ignored complications from childbirth (a rate three times higher than that of white women).

Additionally, the personal experience of racism can cause chronic stress that has debilitating health ramifications.

A Black woman with breast cancer is more likely to have a more aggressive cancer if the woman was born in a Jim Crow state. If we’re Black trans women, we’re highly likely to be victims of violence as we made up most of the 57 trans and gender nonconforming people murdered by hate in 2021.

There are so many unnamed Black women who have led untold efforts to mold a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. Together, today, we can do more for them and for each other than we ever have been able to before.

Racism and discrimination in healthcare are real and generational. Agency workers, clinic staff, healthcare providers, and community workers can help us bring about equitable and permanent fixes to the disparities we face. They can begin this lifesaving work by being open to and enabling the identification and reprogramming of the harmful and inaccurate implicit biases that harm Black women.

Read more at PsychCentral.com.

The shortage of Native American mental health clinicians is both a professional and a personal issue for Mary Owen.

“I’ve struggled with depression myself since high school,” said Owen, a Native American physician in Duluth and associate dean of Native health at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

Owen, a member of the Tlingit Nation, grew up in Juneau, Alaska, where “Natives were at the bottom of the pecking order,” she recalled, and the racism she frequently faced made her feel like a second-class citizen. She’s devoted much of her professional career to increasing the number of Native American healthcare professionals of all kinds. Owen said she’s always struggled to find Native therapists — for her own patients in Duluth, and for herself.

While exact numbers are hard to come by, there are likely only 200 to 300 Native American psychologists in the entire country, out of a population of several million people.

“American Indians are the most underserved and underrepresented when it comes to psychologists to potential population ratio,” said Doug McDonald, professor of clinical psychology at the University of North Dakota, and a member of the Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribes.

At the same time, there’s a significant need for mental health services in Native communities. According to government estimates, nearly 20 percent of Native American adults have experienced mental illness. The suicide rate for Native teens is more than twice that of white youth. Native people experience serious psychological distress at more than double the rate of the general population.

Read more at MPRNews.org.

Racial mental health disparities cost the United States around $278 billion between 2016 and 2020, putting a price tag on a health equity issue that’s long plagued the nation, according to researchers from the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine with support from Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.

The researchers looked at the national prevalence of mental health needs, care utilization, additional healthcare costs attributable to mental health disparities, and premature death across indigenous and racial or ethnic minorities. The analysis showed that, between 2016 and 2020, the US saw an excess of 117,000 premature deaths among indigenous and racial or ethnic minorities due to mental health needs.

All said, the excess cost due to these mental health disparities was $278 billion. That additional cost burden links back to mental illness, substance use disorder (SUD), and suicide, the researchers said.

These findings indicate that the healthcare industry needs to make more judicious investments in mental and behavioral healthcare, according to Daniel E. Dawes, JD, DHL (Hon).

“Investing in mental healthcare saves lives and dollars — we have known this for decades, but until now did not fully understand the monumental impacts of neglecting to act,” Dawes, a professor and the executive director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute and author of the Political Determinants of Health, said in a statement.

Read more at PatientEngagementHIT.com

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. Native American Connections, Inc. has been selected as the Partner of the Month for November in celebration of National Native American Heritage Month.

Since 1972, Native American Connections, Inc. has been changing lives, strengthening families, and building healthy communities. It began as a small grassroots organization operating one program for Native American men in recovery from substance use disorder. Today, Native American Connections owns and operates 22 sites throughout Phoenix offering a continuum of affordable housing, health, and community development services that touch and change the lives of over 10,000 individuals and families each year.

Some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

• Family Healing
• Counseling and Case Management
• Outpatient Treatment for Substance Use
• Residential Treatment for Substance Use
• Recovery Program for Young Adults

Learn more about Native American Connections, Inc. and its mission to improve the lives of individuals and families through Native American culturally appropriate health, affordable housing, and community development services.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.