Week of April 7–11, 2025

General Mental Health

• Mental health is now ubiquitous in national headlines. Americans are more depressed, anxious, and stressed than ever before. The pandemic left many of us grappling with its lasting effects, underscoring the urgent need for robust mental health support. Meanwhile, the nation's already overburdened mental health workforce is struggling to meet the surging demand for care. Enter Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). President Trump's MAHA Commission has taken aim at Americans' diets and lifestyles, vowing to go after ultra processed foods and tackle chronic disease. Read more here.

Youth Mental Health

• Two teenagers are spearheading an initiative to expand mental health education in Illinois schools. Abhinav Anne and Sai Ganbote, both juniors at Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, took their pitch to Illinois State lawmakers, and now House Bill 2960 is making its way through the Illinois General Assembly. The bill aims to amend the school code so that comprehensive mental health instruction is part of health class. Read more here.

Suicide Prevention

• Health care systems can reduce suicides through patient screening, safety planning, and mental health counseling, a new study suggests, an important finding as the U.S. confronts its 11th leading cause of death. The “Zero Suicide Model” was developed in 2001 at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, where the focus on people considering suicide included collaborating with patients to reduce their access to lethal means, such as firearms, and then following up with treatment. Read more here.

Research

• A new study indicates that long-term exposure to air pollutants could directly correlate to an increased risk of depression. The study published in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology and conducted by Harbin Medical University and Cranfield University examined the link to depressive symptoms in a Chinese adult population and six common air pollutants over seven years. Read more here.
• As work proceeds on the Sixth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-6), the opportunity exists to include specifiers that address putative mechanisms of specific psychiatric disorders. Specifying mechanisms in the DSM-6 may not only help guide clinical care but may also facilitate research by reducing heterogeneity of the disorders, ultimately supporting the development of targeted therapeutics and precision psychiatry. One such mechanism that has strong support from both basic and clinical research is inflammation in major depression. Read more here.

Medicaid

• Ohio plans to add work requirements for some, and red tape for others, covered under the state's Medicaid expansion. The move is expected to take health insurance from tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of the lowest income residents in the state, a group that already has poor health outcomes. Lawmakers are moving forward, even after hearing that efforts to take similar action in other states did not lead to more employment, just less access to health care. Read more here.
• A majority of Americans who voted for President Trump oppose cuts to Medicaid funding, according to a recent poll. Two-thirds of surveyed swing voters oppose cutting Medicaid spending to pay for tax cuts, as do 51% of surveyed Trump voters, according to the poll conducted by the firm Fabrizio Ward. Read more here.
• California, under Gov. Gavin Newsom, has made sweeping changes to its behavioral health system, pouring billions of dollars into new services and support programs. However, the state’s ambitious plans face a looming threat: the proposed federal spending cuts that Congress is currently considering are seen as all but certain to impact Medicaid and could bring to a halt some of the headway the state has made in responding to its behavioral health crisis. Read more here.

Federal and State Policy

• About 10,000 people across the United States Department of Health and Human Services were laid off this week as part of a massive restructuring plan. In a post on X, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the layoffs represented "a difficult moment for all of us" but that "we must shift course" because Americans are "getting sicker every year." An official at the National Institutes of Health with knowledge on the matter, who asked not to be named, told ABC News that the layoffs were an "HHS-wide bloodbath," with entire offices being fired. Read more here.
• States facing budgetary pressures have few good options to keep millions of people from losing health coverage if Congress lets federal funding for Obamacare expire at the end of the year. That isn’t stopping health officials from trying. Read more here.