Almost three dozen leading groups representing a range of doctors, specialists, and other health workers have called on the Biden Administration to deal urgently with the long-running but increasing and dangerous practice of hospitals allowing their emergency care facilities to be overwhelmed because they also are parking patients waiting for rooms and treatment. This “boarding”….
Continue ReadingMental Illness
U.S. Surgeon General’s novel prescription? Healthier jobs and workplaces
Although the still-chugging U.S. economy is providing workers with more employment opportunities than many economists expected, it is always tough to leave a job, even with the highly publicized trend of “quiet quitting” supposedly in full force. Still, no less an authority than Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, has warned Americans that too….
Continue ReadingMDs should screen most adults for anxiety, top U.S. advisory panel says
Americans live such nerve-wracking, glum, stressful lives that not only young people but also adults up to age 65 would benefit from regular screening during their doctor visits for anxiety and depression. That’s the draft recommendation, newly issued and up for public comment, by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, blue-ribbon group that….
Continue ReadingU.S. launches 988 hotline for callers with mental health emergencies
Federal officials have launched a new 988 number for callers with suicidal thoughts or other mental health emergencies, hoping that the public adopts this three-digit alternative and finds it as familiar and useful as 911 has become for medical and other urgent help needs. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which those in distress could reach….
Continue ReadingA posthumous diagnosis forces soccer to reconsider risk of head harms
In 2015, public attention galvanized around the significant risks of head trauma and the sport of football with the disclosure that Andre Waters, 44, a hard-hitting, onetime Philadelphia Eagles player, had been diagnosed after his suicide with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Has soccer — one of the most popular pastimes on the planet and….
Continue ReadingHospitals also become sites of lethal gun violence
In Tulsa, Okla., a 45-year-old patient angry over what he claimed was the pain he suffered after a back operation, bought a handgun and an assault rifle. He stormed into the office of his orthopedic surgeon, killing him, another doctor, a receptionist, and an office visitor, police say. The man then killed himself. In Dayton,….
Continue ReadingAn advanced democracy can’t shrug at mass deaths, especially kid killings
Experts fear the country is veering dangerously into a widespread acceptance of mass death as just a regular part of life — not only by moving on with little more than faint acknowledgement of more than 1 million coronavirus pandemic fatalities but also with a tragic resignation about fatal shootings at schools, groceries, movie theaters, and….
Continue ReadingPatient safety’s new perils: Lack of medical staff and their mental wellness
The coronavirus pandemic and the wrenching demand this public health nightmare has put on the U.S. health care system and its people have become such a worry that staffing shortages and workers’ mental health have become top safety concerns in 2022. That is the evidence-based view of ECRI, aka the nonprofit, independent Emergency Care Research….
Continue ReadingHead trauma: A hidden harm for battered women
Women suffer significant, sustained damage from head traumas inflicted on them during domestic abuse, and victims themselves, doctors, law enforcement, and too many others have underestimated the severity of this problem. Here is the harsh reality of too many women’s terrifying experiences, as reported in a tough-to-read but important New York Times magazine article that….
Continue ReadingPandemic is taking terrible toll on mental health, with links to road deaths, overdoses and homicides
Not all grievous injuries are apparent to the eye, as anyone who has experienced catastrophic illness or injury can attest. And now we’re learning a lot more about the hidden costs — mental, emotional, social, and spiritual — inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic. Reporters Emily Baumgartner and Russ Mitchell of the Los Angeles Times surfaced….
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