Here’s What The State And Advocates Have In Mind To Change CA’s Mental Health Care System

California bills would make insurers cover more mental health

California legislators on Tuesday introduced two bills aimed at improving access to mental health and addiction treatment by requiring health insurance companies to authorize some forms of treatment more quickly and to cover more comprehensive mental health services.

SB855 would require insurance companies to cover all forms of mental health and substance use treatment that a patient’s doctor deems “medically necessary” — not just emergency or urgent services that existing federal and state parity laws require insurers to cover. The bills’ Read More

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

The National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center provides many resources in English and Spanish.  This link provides information about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  It “is a type of depression that comes and goes with the seasons, typically starting in the late fall and early winter and going away during the spring and summer. Depressive episodes linked to the summer can occur, but are much less common than winter episodes of SAD.”

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Florida high school football star’s death highlights rising suicide rates among black youth

In a study last year, the Journal of Community Health found that suicide rates are disproportionately higher among black adolescents. From 2001 to 2017, the rate for black teen boys rose 60 percent, according to the study. Among black teen girls, rates nearly tripled, rising by an astounding 182 percent.

The Congressional Black Caucus in a report last month, “Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America,” found that African American adolescents are less likely than any Read More