Last Week In Mental Health
I'm curious to hear if advocates, philanthropists, researchers, and policy makers would find a weekly digest like this helpful!
Hello Readers —
Today’s post is a new format. I’m piloting a first edition of “Last Week in Mental Health” — a recap of advocacy and philanthropy developments related to our brains.
This digest contains updates on bills moving through state legislatures, what’s happening in Washington, philanthropy announcements (including opportunities to apply for funding!), open jobs, news clips, and more.
Why? As I have begun to navigate the mental health movement in the United States over the last six months, I could not find something similar. I think that a “trade publication” that is not tied to one organization can add value — by surfacing a comprehensive body of updates.
I have seen friends do this really well, including Rachel Leven who writes “This Week in Abortion” and Gabriel Lerner who writes “Democracy Notes.” This type of publication may be less interesting for all my family and friends reading (hi, all!). But, I hope it will be useful for a critical mass of advocacy, research, philanthropy, and public policy professionals working on mental health.
Yesterday was World Bipolar Day. 25 organizations earned $112M in grant funding. Therapy and coaching are available, for free, to laid off federal workers. Yascha Mounk published a scathing critique of the World Happiness Report (see, One Big Thing, below). All that and more in the first edition of “Last Week In Mental Health.”
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Tyler
📜 State Legislative Momentum
NEW MEXICO Governor Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 1 which establishes a dedicated trust fund to provide sustainable, long-term financing for behavioral health programs. She also signed Senate Bill 3 which established a behavioral health executive committee to coordinate statewide reform efforts through a regionalized approach based on local needs assessments.
COLORADO became the latest state to guarantee mental health parity when Governor Polis signed a bill that had strong bipartisan support.
GEORGIA students will have access to more school psychologists if the Governor signs HB 81, which was approved by the legislature.
MARYLAND’s budget restored $60M in funding for school mental health services, according to Inseperable.
UTAH law now makes more clear the differences between therapy and coaching. I have benefited from both, but they are different. This consumer protection initiative is a step in the right direction.
NEW YORK lawmakers received a letter from 36 local and county elected officials endorsing Governor Hochul’s mental health agenda on involuntary commitments and programs meant to address the ways in which criminal justice and homelessness intersect with psychotic events.
🏛️ Mostly Doom in Washington
The Trump administration cancelled $11.4 billion grants linked to addiction and mental health programs. Nonprofits and state/local governments are scrambling to respond (NPR).
Also, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is being restructured with 20,000 employees being cut (NPR). The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) may be “weakened or possibly eliminated;” SAMHSA funds the 988 crisis line, distributes naloxone, and provides funding for addiction treatment. (AP)
According to KFF, the potential $880B in federal Medicaid cuts would represent 29% of state-financed Medicaid spending — the equivalent of spending on 14 million American adults.
The planned closing of the Department of Education would have a devastating impact on youth mental health (from yours truly).
The cuts in Washington are taking a toll on employees. According to The Detroit News, “Studies have shown that people who are unemployed experience greater anxiety, depression, and suicide risk. The longer the period of unemployment, the worse the effects.”
It’s not all gloom. Inseparable is encouraging supporters to email Congress about the reauthorization of the SUPPORT Act, which they say President Trump and Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr. want done. Johns Hopkins researchers explain the impact the 2018 law has had since it invested in opioid treatment programs and required Medicaid to cover three FDA approved medications to treat addiction.
🧠 Philanthropy in Action
ICONIC Impact announced $112M in grants to 25 organizations working on youth mental health! Eight funders contributed to the pooled fund. The grants are unrestricted over five years, which is awesome!
Wellcome, a global charity, has an open RFP to create a "Living evidence synthesis platform for common metrics in mental health.” Applications are due May 9th and there is a webinar this Thursday about the opportunity.
The San Diego Foundation opened applications for a $500,000 fund. Applicants doing work with youth, Asian Americans, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander may apply for up to $50k by April 18.
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has invested $5M over three years to the Trevor Project, which will run a public awareness campaign addressing suicide among LGBTQ+ young people in rural communities.
The University of Mississippi received a three-year, $2.6 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to provide counseling services to youth across the state and expand access to evidence-based preschool curriculum for teachers.
18 organizations in the Chicago area earned a total of $265k from the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation. For the first time, all of the foundation’s grantees are focused on mental health.
💼 JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
Senior Program Officer, Mental Health and Well-Being, Arthur Blank Foundation (Atlanta, GA; no $$$)
Director, Innovation Pipeline, NAMI (Arlington, VA; $100-$115k)
Director, Data Analysis & Evaluation, NAMI (Arlington, VA; $98-$115k)
CEO, Confidential Series B AI Mental Health Startup (San Francisco, no $$$)
US Communications Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Remote, $124-$171k)
Manager, Events, Mindful Philanthropy (Remote; $70-$85k)
Marketing & Communications Assistant, Baszucki Group (San Mateo, CA; $80-$100k)
Senior Power and Movement Building Officer, Grantmakers in Health (Columbia, MD; $80-$100k)
Director of Business Development & Community Engagement, Jefferson Center (Wheat Ridge, CO)
Director, Government & Regulatory Affairs, Hims and Hers (Remote; $210-240k)
Coach, TRAILS (Colorado, Independent Contractor)
Budget Manager, Colorado Behavioral Health Administration (Denver, $94-$122k, See State Website)
Program & Research Internship, Mindful Philanthropy
Plus: 3,400+ jobs on Mental Health America’s job board — which primarily has open roles for providers
Bonus: Federal workers or others impacted by funding cuts can get three free coaching sessions from a group of volunteer coaches. Sign up.
📺 In the Media
Top National Coverage
NAMI’s Barb Solish appeared on CBS Mornings to discuss the importance of workplace mental health.
Associated Press: The fate of addiction treatment hangs in the balance with Kennedy’s HHS overhaul
NPR: The Trump administration restructures federal health agencies, cuts 20,000 jobs
Dr. Helen Ouyang thoughtfully covered the complexities of mental health in the aviation industry for the New York Times Magazine: How Airline Pilots are Incentivized to Hide Their Mental Illness.
Frequently in the news and on the radar of President Trump, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) is modifying rules to make it more likely pilots will be forthcoming about their diagnoses. Meanwhile Congress may act.
I had thoughts. Laws and regulations should fully incentivize pilots to be transparent about their illnesses and enthusiastic about getting care for them.
Other Clips
For the Free Press, Jonathan Haidt summarizes how kids, parents, and schools are reclaiming their digital world, one year after the publication of his highly acclaimed book The Anxious Generation.
Congratulations to Jonathan and his team for a year of significant impact.
A group of licensed therapists is offering free therapy sessions for federal workers (Axios)
Marvel star Hayley Atwell credited Tom Cruise’s advice on overcoming anxiety. The advice: “If you’re scared of something, just keep looking at it, and it will often give you information about what to do to overcome it.” (Indian Express)
A new mental health crisis center and psychiatric hospital opened in Salt Lake City, Utah — thanks to state and local lawmakers from both parties, and generous philanthropy. (KSL)
🏔️ Colorado Corner
I am a proud Coloradan, as are many of my readers. This section is specific to the state I love, and will illustrate the types of activities in other states. In addition to the good news on mental health parity at the top…
Mile High United Way received a $1.84M grant from Nashville-based HCA Healthcare!
The grant will launch United for Healthy Starts, a collaborative with other United Way chapters to increase services for families.
The Colorado Sun reported that nearly 500 mental health workers in the state have been laid off since December.
The closure of West Springs, which has operated on the western slope for 20 years, leaves many Coloradans without easy access to mental healthcare.
West Pines in Wheat Ridge and Johnstown Heights Behavioral Health are also closing.
All this despite Colorado not having nearly enough providers (Denver Post).
All the more reason reformers should be celebrating SB25-042 which became law last week. It requires the Department of Public Safety and Behavioral Health Administration to convene a stakeholder group and report on best practices and shared resources for in-patient hospitalizations by the end of this year.
Last week, the house and senate sent HB25-1003 to the Governor’s desk; it would streamline Medicaid waivers for children with complex health needs.
Related, a new colleague & collaborator, Hannah Nichols of Big Picture Impact, published an 18 page report on “Using Medicaid to Support Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health in Colorado.” The research is a snapshot on how Colorado and other states are utilizing and paying for children’s mental health services — with practical recommendations for improvement.
📊 New Research
“Scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility … Armed with this information, physicians may soon be able to develop more precise treatment strategies for neurological and psychiatric disorders.” (Science Daily)
A study from Kings College London researchers finds a biological difference in the brains of girls and boys that may explain why the former experience more depression in teenage years.
🔍 One Big Thing
Have you heard that Nordic countries are the world's happiest? It is almost common knowledge that the people in Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden live happier than the rest of us.
What if the data that claim was based on was wholly insufficient, or perhaps completely flawed?
Yascha Mounk says so. In Persuasion, Yascha — an expert on democratic crises and philosopher of liberal values — writes:
Every March 20th the United Nations publishes the World Happiness Report.
According to this year’s report: “The happiest countries in the world are in Scandinavia; this year, Finland is followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. America, despite being one of the richest large countries in the world, persistently underperforms: this year, the United States only comes in 24th out of the 147 countries covered in the report, placing it behind much poorer countries like Lithuania and Costa Rica.”
Yascha writes: “But upon closer examination, it turns out that the World Happiness Report is not based on any major research effort; far from measuring how happy people are with some sophisticated mix of indicators, it simply compiles answers to a single question asked to comparatively small samples of people in each country…
“Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top. Suppose we say that the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. If the top step is 10 and the bottom step is 0, on which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time?”
Yascha points out several problems with allowing the world’s happiness ratings to rest on just one question. He also summarizes the work of Danny Blanchflower and Alex Bryson who evaluate world happiness based on eight questions.
The result, “the overall ranking constructed by Blanchflower and Bryson looks totally different to the more famous version published by the UN. Finland, for example, falls to 51st place. Conversely, countries like Japan, Panama and Thailand, none of which do especially well on the official ranking by the UN, suddenly appear a lot happier; all of them are ranked above Finland and other supposed top performers. Another surprise suggests that the story about happiness in the United States is not nearly as bleak as is usually suggested. Once you break the United States into its component states, it becomes clear that parts of the country really are doing quite badly.”
Read Yascha’s whole piece for more information and to see what US states are doing best.
Yascha goes so far as to call this research “elite misinformation.” Interesting.