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Drug overdose deaths among American Indians and Alaska Natives grew 43% between 2019 and 2020—the highest rate of deaths in 2020 and 30% higher than for white individuals. Suicides were the second leading cause of death for that group in 2019, with a rate around 20% higher than that of non-Hispanic Whites.

But now, the federal government is trying to direct more money toward policies meant to help the unique population that has long suffered from mental health challenges, advocates say.

“You’ve got to notice when these very high-consequence drug issues are coming into our tribal nations,” such as skyrocketing opioid and methamphetamine use, said Melissa Walls, a researcher at John Hopkins University who comes from an indigenous background.

“Health inequities are already persistent. Layer on top of it Covid-19 and the fact that Covid is creating more issues with mental health and substance use,” she said. “It’s very heavy and very hard.”

Now, Congress and the Biden administration are trying to offer more money to treat substance use and mental health issues for long-underserved American Indian communities.

“There is a sea change coming, and that’s exciting,” said Brenna Greenfield, a University of Minnesota Medical School professor working in indigenous health equity.

Native American mental health was previously “overlooked or addressed in culturally incongruent ways,” but it’s now “being discussed nationally and better funded from state to national levels,” she said.

Historically, mental health treatment has come in a one-size-fits-all approach that aligned more with Western European than indigenous values. Decades of prejudice and poor policy have left many from tribal backgrounds lacking in professional and other opportunities, making the problem worse.

While researchers welcome more funding and a greater focus on health equity as a needed boost, there’s a long road ahead for greater health equity.

Read more at News.BloombergLaw.com.

About 9.5% of youth ages 13 to 17 in the United States belong to the LGBTQ community, according to a 2020 survey conducted by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. And LGBTQ youth who felt high social support from their families reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate support, according to The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.

Support from parents and caregivers can make an impact on a child’s mental health. When a child comes out, parents don’t always know what to do and what to say, and that’s OK, said Caitlin Ryan, director of the Family Acceptance Project. The main thing is that you are there for your child, she added.

Here are some ways you can support your LGBTQ child’s mental health:

When a child comes out, or speaks openly about their LGBTQ identity, it’s important to listen to and respect what they have to say. However, if you aren’t ready to have these open conversations, or think that speaking with your child will lead to an argument, it can be helpful to take a step back and focus on learning more about your child’s identity.

When children come out, some parents and guardians initially struggle to understand their child’s identity. Additionally, for some parents of transgender or non-binary youth, it can be difficult to adapt to their child’s chosen name and pronouns. However, it’s important to use a child’s chosen name and pronouns regardless of internal emotions.

There is a lot of misinformation about sexual orientation and gender identity and that can lead to some parents rejecting their child when they come out.

Read more at CNN.com.

The intensity of life’s daily tasks under the weight of depression and other mental illnesses can be devastating. On a good day, it might manifest as internal chats over why showering and brushing your teeth is a good idea. On other days, the delayed act of opening your laptop and logging in to take care of unanswered emails and deadlines can fill you with a crushing sense of dread over what is surely the pending collapse of your world.

The heaviness, no matter how insignificant it might seem on the outside, is real, and the toll it takes on the person and those in their circle is overwhelming.

For communities of color, where stigma around mental illness intersects with several other inequities, silence creates cracks, crevices, and sometimes canyons of suffering.

In the Latinx community, for example, 16 percent reported struggling with mental illness, and only an estimated 33 percent received treatment. Are these numbers, however, which are self-reported, an accurate snapshot of how mental illness manifests itself in our community, or do they represent the tip of an iceberg that threatens our well-being on different fronts?

Many who work in the mental health arena feel these figures are low, partly because many of our families do not know what symptoms look like in everyday life and subsequently label the behaviors in terms of shortcomings or inadequacies. It’s not uncommon to hear folks describe people struggling with mental health as “not right,” “damaged,” or even worse, “weak.”

The idea of collective identity, where one’s actions are seen as a reflection of the entire family, plays into this as well, especially in the Latinx community. Speaking honestly about our “defects” is seen as a negative while suffering stoically for the good of the family is an honorable act. The song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto opened the door to speaking more openly about this phenomenon.

The overall shortage of affordable and accessible mental health services in the U.S. can make finding help feel like an impossible quest. Plus culturally appropriate mental health is difficult to obtain, and finding a mental health professional who speaks our language and understands the cultural nuances behind our beliefs and mores adds a layer that makes this feel insurmountable.

Read more at LatinoRebels.com.

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) are among the fastest-growing racial groups in California and nationwide. In response to a wave of attacks on AANHPIs, California passed the API Equity Budget in 2021 that included a three-year investment of over $166 million to better serve communities experiencing hate and barriers to various government services.

Today, AAPI Data, in partnership with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, released a groundbreaking study that highlights disparities in the access and utilization of health, mental health, and social services by Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.

In the report, the team found that the shortage of physicians in the Inland Empire shows up in the California Health Interview Survey in the lower percentage of people who were able to get timely medical appointments. Asians have been disproportionately impacted by the shortage, compared to the same measures at the statewide level.

Some of the report’s key findings include:

• Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were slightly less likely to be enrolled in public programs such as CalFresh, Medicare and Medi-Cal compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Enrollment among detailed Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander groups showed wider variation, including much larger gaps among groups such as Indians, Japanese and Taiwanese.
• Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were less likely than whites to have a usual source of care, have visited a doctor in the last 12 months, and be able to schedule a doctor’s appointment in a timely manner.
• While Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities reported the lowest rates of suicide ideation overall, disaggregated data reveal Japanese, Korean, and U.S.-born Asians are more likely to have said they had ever thought of committing suicide

Read more at News.UCR.edu.

College campuses are a microcosm of racial strife happening across the nation. From 2018 to 2021, the Southern Poverty Law Center identified 1,341 incidents of white supremacist pamphleteering on college campuses. The Anti-Defamation League recorded around 630 incidents of white supremacist propaganda being distributed on campuses in 2019.

Black students at predominantly white institutions report everything from instances of thinly veiled racism, homophobia, and sexism to outright racial hostility and intimidation.

Experiencing such incidents has consequences that go well beyond feeling uncomfortable. A growing body of research has documented the detrimental health effects of both interpersonal and structural racism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that centuries of racism have had a profound and negative impact on the mental and physical health of people of color. The American Public Health Association calls racism a barrier to health equity and a social determinant of health akin to housing, education, and employment.

Racist incidents can take a toll on students’ overall health and well-being, undermine their self-confidence, and affect academic performance, said Dr. Annelle Primm, senior medical director for the Steve Fund, a nonprofit focused on supporting the mental health of young people of color.

“These kinds of feelings go hand in hand with students at predominantly white institutions, where they may feel isolated or like they don’t belong,” she said. “The experiences are associated with issues such as depression, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.”

Read more at NorthCarolinaHealthNews.org.

As Juneteenth approaches, Black healthcare workers are thinking about the behavioral health of Black communities. Overall, mental health conditions occur in Black and African American people in America at about the same frequency as white Americans.

However, the historically Black and African American experience in America has, and continues to be, characterized by trauma and violence more often than for their white counterparts. This impacts the emotional and mental health of both youth and adults.

What are the stressors that impact the Black community, especially young people, and how can they be addressed?

Read more and watch the video at TheSouthEnd.Wayne.edu.