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In approving the state’s education budget early Friday morning, the GOP legislature and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also added investment in school safety measures and the teacher pension system, thanks to unexpectedly high state revenues this year.
The pandemic intensified a long-festering youth mental health crisis and left schools searching for answers. In Michigan, 600 schools have adopted a social-emotional learning curriculum known as TRAILS – Transforming Research into Action to Improve the lives of students. It is poised to grow further – if the Legislature approves $150 million in new funding.
The 15 Michigan counties with the highest suicide rates from 2005 through 2020 were all rural. Experts point to isolation, job loss and lack of mental health care as key contributors to rural despair.
The pandemic exacerbated a slow-burning mental health crisis in Michigan’s schools. Whitmer wants to open 40 centers to help. Advocates say that’s not enough.
An unprecedented $6 billion in federal COVID relief money has come to Michigan to help schools, with mental-health support one of its pillars. It’s a lot of money, but young students will need a lot of help.
Some argue the state should shift responsibility of managing care and costs to Michigan’s for-profit insurers; others say money motives of insurance companies would cut into care for the most vulnerable.
At Michigan Medicine, hospitalizations of young people, nearly all female, more than doubled. Possible links to the pandemic were also noted at Beaumont Health in metro Detroit and at a children’s hospital in Grand Rapids.
Two GOP lawmakers say their plans cut bureaucracy and save millions of dollars. Some worry, though, that any reform that shifts care to the private sector or distant agencies will compromise vulnerable patients.
Experts already recognize that treating severe mental illness among young people is a problem in the state. But kids showing signs of pandemic-related isolation, depression and other conditions also struggle to find help.
More psychologists and social workers in schools. Early screening. Loan forgiveness for child psychiatrists serving rural areas. Fixing a strained system will take time. But COVID stimulus funds can speed up efforts across the Midwest.
Hospital ERs are being upended by a surge of children and adolescents in mental distress during COVID. Staff bring in snacks or queue up Netflix to keep them occupied as they seek beds in psychiatric centers. Private insurance can make the task harder.
Across the Midwest, there are not nearly enough psychiatrists, therapists or direct-care staff to treat a rising tide of young people spiraling into crisis. For these families, the strain can seem unbearable.
From psychiatrists to counselors to direct care workers, health agencies are unable to fill jobs as depression and substance abuse cases increase. Some state and federal programs could help nudge more doctors and therapists to underserved regions of the state.
Mental health advocates highlight a rise in anxiety from the pandemic and economic disruption in Michigan, as experts devise ways to help health care workers and ordinary residents in an extraordinary time.
An Upper Peninsula sheriff went to Facebook to get state help for a delusional man in his jail. His post highlights severe shortages in the state for violent or severely mentally ill people caught up in the criminal justice system.
Postpartum depression afflicts about one in seven moms. Diagnosis and treatment lag, especially among low-income, African-American and Latino mothers. Here’s a primer on where to turn.
Hundreds of foster children have found support and triumph through a scholarship program tailored to foster kids at WMU. For one young woman, the program may have saved her life.
A study involving Grand Rapids researchers and Columbia University seeks to identify links between certain blood markers and people at greater risk of attempting suicide.