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A recent state report about mental health in the Latinx community showed that while Latinx youth are seeking mental healthcare at high rates, there is still a lack of services in rural areas like Malheur County, where 33% of the population is Latinx.

Malheur County has the second-highest ratio of Latinx to other residents by county in Oregon. Of counties with a high population of Latinxs, it has the third-highest ratio of residents to mental healthcare providers – 1,223 to 1. Experts say that this isn’t enough.

“Access to any mental health providers, especially culturally specific mental health providers, is particularly scarce” in rural counties, the report said.

“Access in and of itself is a challenge,” said Gustavo Morales, the executive director of EUVALCREE, a nonprofit based in Ontario that works with the Latinx community. “We have limited behavioral and mental health providers, and even with those providers, waitlists go between three to six months. Those disparities are even more exacerbated with communities that have challenges with linguistic and cultural access.”

Local educators say that they are working to intervene with youth through school-based mental health resources.

Factors such as language contribute to what Malheur County Health Department Director Sarah Poe identified as “social determinants of health.” The term refers to social factors, like English proficiency, income level, and access to prevention education, that can affect health from mental health to teen pregnancy.

Read more at MalheurEnterprise.com.

Low-income middle-aged African-American women with high blood pressure very commonly suffer from depression and should be better screened for this serious mental health condition, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The researchers found that in a sample of over 300 low-income, African-American women, aged 40-75, with uncontrolled hypertension, nearly 60% screened positively for a diagnosis of depression based on a standard clinical questionnaire about depressive symptoms.

Recent research suggests that hypertension and depression often occur concurrently. Darrell Gaskin and colleagues note that the connection has not been well studied in African Americans, but should be, given they have relatively high rates of hypertension. Moreover, women in general have much higher rates of depression compared to men and depression is often underdiagnosed and untreated.

The nearly 60% prevalence of apparent depression among these hypertensive, low-income middle-aged African American women suggests that these women should be routinely screened for, and, if need be, treated for depression, Gaskin and colleagues emphasize.

They note, however, that 85% of the women with depression-level CES-D-10 scores reported receiving some treatment for depression within the prior six months—implying that much of the depression among these low-income middle-aged, hypertensive African-American women is already treated, albeit inadequately.

Read more at HUB.JHU.edu.

Nearly 29 percent of some 1,000 people surveyed online in the US in March and April reported experiencing depression, and just over 18 percent reported substance use increase or initiation as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Feb. 5.

And, the report said, survey respondents of color, particularly Hispanic participants, reported higher rates of mental health concerns.

“Racial and ethnic minority groups have experienced disparities in mental health and substance misuse related to access to care, psychosocial stress, and social determinants of health,” the report said, adding that addressing “psychosocial stressors, mental health conditions, and substance misuse among U.S. adults during the COVID-19 pandemic is important, as are interventions tailored for racial and ethnic minority groups.”

The report stated additional public health measures are necessary to address the mental and behavioral health consequences of the pandemic.

“Addressing barriers or disruptions to access to and delivery of mental health and substance use services during the COVID-19 pandemic, including considerations for health care systems, practices, and providers using telehealth coverage; consideration of parity in insurance coverage for mental health and substance use services; and use of virtual mental health treatment and substance use recovery groups, is important,” the report said.

Read more at BostonGlobe.com.

As documented incidents of harassment, assault, and discrimination against Asian Americans have escalated during COVID-19, many groups within the community have also faced heightened financial strain. Advocates say it’s beyond time to acknowledge and take action on both.

John C. Yang, the president and executive director of the advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), said he had heard “palpable” fear within the Asian-American community about being attacked, harassed, or targeted with racial epithets. COVID-19 has also wreaked economic havoc on many Asian Americans, hobbling businesses and leaving scores of workers jobless. While a variety of different factors have driven these twin crises, advocates and experts point to some overlap between the two — including xenophobic stigma that continues to impact many Asian-run businesses, barriers to accessing COVID-19 relief, and mounting mental-health concerns.

Asian-American immigrants have historically been targeted by racist narratives related to lack of cleanliness. In the context of an infectious-disease outbreak, this kind of xenophobia gets wrapped into people’s fear of contamination and easily translates into anti-Asian racism, said Sumie Okazaki, a professor of applied psychology at New York University who has researched racism and mental health in Asian-American communities.

Many Asian Americans — including those who own small businesses or who work in nail salons, restaurants and other disproportionately impacted industries — may be experiencing multiple stressors, including their financial situation, COVID-19-generated racism and the virus itself, Okazaki suggested.

“We do know that a number of Asian Americans, even if they’re not directly receiving xenophobic or racist attacks … are quite affected by the news of such attacks,” she added. “It’s anxiety-provoking. It’s fear-raising.”

The Crisis Text Line reported survey results last May that Asian Americans were “experiencing 3x higher rates of racism and discrimination compared to other texters.” Asians and Asian Americans “have experienced higher levels of mental disorders” than their white counterparts, and are twice as likely to report experiences of coronavirus-related discrimination, according to one study published in December.

Read more on MarketWatch.com.

On International Women’s Day and throughout Women’s History Month, it’s worth considering and reflecting on the triumph and tragedy of the current state of affairs. As people celebrate the many achievements of women who have broken through to lead and succeed in extraordinary ways, people should also reflect on how far we are from gender parity and commit to doing what it takes to become a more gender equal nation.

There are many successes worth celebrating this year. Top among them is the ascension of America’s first woman vice president ― a historic and powerful representation of how far women have come 100 years after we first won the right to vote. Also in the win category is the record number of women CEOs in the Fortune 500, now more than 8 percent, including more women of color than ever before. And in science, women have been instrumental in developing Covid-19 vaccines and helped NASA land a rover on Mars. And in the sports world, women are breaking new ground as coaches and leaders, including Kim Ng being named the new general manager of the Miami Marlins to Katie Sowers becoming the first female coach to make it to the Super Bowl in 2020 and more.

Despite all the success, however, the U.S. is still far from achieving true equity. As much as women are succeeding, they are struggling.

Even before the pandemic there were serious issues facing women. Women were already disproportionately in poverty, facing mental health stress, more likely to toil in low wage jobs, and struggling through an ongoing childcare crisis that was pushing them out of the workforce.

The 2019 Global Gender Gap report ranked the United States 53rd in the world for gender equity (behind Bangladesh, South Africa and Mexico among others). Now, in 2021 the picture is even bleaker. As the Covid-19 crisis drags on, women across American economic and social strata are being crushed and pushed to the brink

How is it possible that the U.S. is behind so many other nations in achieving equity?

For generations, the concerns of American women have been ignored in the public policy and priority making arenas. Beginning in the 1970s, as the feminist movement surged and women began entering the labor force in larger and larger numbers, there were mass calls for investment in social and policy infrastructure to support them, which were never completely heeded.

On International Women’s Day and every day, people must work to create a society where the contributions, struggles, experiences and lives of women are valued. It’s time to start responding in real and urgent ways to the needs of 51 percent. Women cannot afford another 30 years of inching along. It’s years past the time for action.

Read more on NBCNews.com.

With COVID-19 impacting Native Americans at a higher rate than any other community in the country, the effects of the pandemic have been particularly devastating for children in Native communities in the United States. “It’s taking such a toll on mental health and spiritual health, … not being able to connect with loved ones or friends or community or have tribal gatherings or ceremonies,” psychologist Victoria O’Keefe told the Navajo Times.

A member of the Cherokee and Seminole Nations of Oklahoma, O’Keefe works with the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health (JHCAIH), which partnered with UNICEF USA and Johns Hopkins Alliance for a Healthier World to publish a storybook that helps Native American children better understand the pandemic and its effect on their communities. Written by Crystal Kee and illustrated by Joelle Joyner, “Our Smallest Warriors, Our Strongest Medicine: Overcoming COVID-19” teaches children how to protect themselves from the novel coronavirus and encourages strength-based coping skills.

As the pandemic moves into its second year, protecting the mental health of children and young people must be a global priority.

Read more on Forbes.com.