Thirty-nine grants totaling $25 million will head out to Cook County organizations to expand anti-violence programming in vulnerable communities, local and state agencies announced Tuesday. [Health News Illinois]

The funds, a partnership between the Department of Human Services’ Office of Firearm Violence Prevention and Cook County’s Justice Advisory Council, will support 74 groups focused on supporting residents at high risk of experiencing gun violence as either a victim or a perpetrator.

"This funding demonstrates a commitment among Illinois leaders to cooperate and eliminate bureaucratic hurdles so that qualified violence prevention providers can quickly receive the resources that they need to adequately address firearm violence, one of our state's most significant public health challenges," Chris Patterson, DHS’ assistant secretary, said in a statement.

The announcement builds on $75 million in grants issued last year by the council to address the issue. 

 See the full list of recipients here.

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One in seven in-hospital delivery stays for non-Hispanic White women included a diagnosis of a mental health disorder in 2020 (14 per 100 delivery stays), the highest rate among any race/ethnicity group. In-hospital delivery stays for Asian/Pacific Islander women included the lowest diagnosis rate, at just 3.6 per every 100 stays (Source: AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #302,

Highlights: 

• In 2020, White non-Hispanic women had the highest rate of delivery stays involving mental health disorders (14.0 per 100 delivery stays), and Asian/Pacific Islander non-Hispanic women had the lowest (3.6 per 100 delivery stays).
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• Between 2017 and 2020, the rate of delivery stays involving mental health disorders increased 52 percent, with the lowest rate of increase among Black non-Hispanic women (47 percent) and the highest rate of increase among other non-Hispanic race/ethnicity women (71 percent).
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• Anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders were the most common type of mental health disorder among delivery stays in 2020, with the highest rate among White non-Hispanic women and the lowest rate among Asian/Pacific Islander non-Hispanic women (9.6 and 2.2 per 100 delivery stays, respectively).
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• The rate of delivery stays involving anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders increased 74 percent between 2017 and 2020.
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• Select obstetric risk factors were more common among delivery stays involving at least one mental health disorder than among delivery stays with no mental health disorders (79.1 vs. 62.5 per 100 delivery stays, respectively).

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Millions of Americans mired in medical debt face difficult financial decisions every day — pay the debt or pay for rent, utilities and groceries. Some may even skip necessary health care for fear of sinking deeper into debt. [Modern Healthcare]

To address the problem, an increasing number of municipal, county and state governments are devising plans to spend federal coronavirus pandemic relief funds to eliminate residents' medical debt and ease those debt burdens.

Related: 18% drop since 2020 in people with reported medical debt

... Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, and Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Toledo, Ohio, are among more than a dozen communities that have set into motion or are considering similar plans. Democratic Connecticut governor Ned Lamont last week proposed spending $20 million in ARPA funds to eliminate as much as $2 billion in state residents' medical debts.

Unlike credit card or loan debt, medical debt is not a choice, advocates said.

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The proposed action levels — which are not legally set limits — would result in reduced exposures to lead and lessen potential health effects for babies and toddlers, the agency said. [Chicago SunTimes]...

How much lead would be allowed in processed baby food?

The processed foods covered by the draft proposal, entitled Action Levels for Lead in Food Intended for Babies and Young Children, includes foods in jars, pouches, tubs and boxes and intended for babies and young children less than 2 years old.

Proposed action levels:

• Fruits, vegetables, mixtures, yogurts, custards/puddings and single-ingredient meats: 10 parts per billion (ppb).
• Single-ingredient root vegetable foods: 20 ppb for root vegetables (single ingredient).
• Dry infant cereals: 20 ppb.

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• Rural, critical access and safety net hospitals have not expanded initiatives to address social determinants of health in vulnerable patient populations, and some are implementing fewer such strategies, according to an analysis of survey data collected during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts to develop community partnerships especially have lagged.
• Insufficient financial and community resources, workforce constraints, limited institutional partnerships and a lack of incentives were among the possible explanations for the stalled momentum offered by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
• For state and federal policymakers looking to alleviate health inequities by implementing programs focused on social needs, addressing resource barriers that hospitals serving vulnerable populations face should be a priority, the researchers said in a report published in JAMA Health Forum.
• Read both articles. 

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Meeting patient needs for mental healthcare access will require industry leaders, clinicians, and healthcare policymakers to focus on giving clinicians the tools needed to meet patients in any care setting, as well as enable more ample access to mental healthcare providers, according to a new paper from the Alliance for Patient Access (AfPA). [Patient EngagementHIT]

More patients than ever are seeking mental healthcare, with AfPA citing figures that 53 million Americans now live with some kind of mental illness. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this prevalence of mental illness has pushed the mental health space to face unheard-of patient demand.

But patients don’t always look for mental health treatment in a traditional mental health setting, the report authors noted. While some still seek care from a mental health professional, many others find the most accessible pathway is through their primary care provider. Some find themselves in a mental health emergency and accessing the emergency department.

“In some cases, these spaces and their providers don’t have access to the tools needed to provide mental health patients with the services to effectively treat their conditions,” the report authors noted. “It is imperative that policymakers, insurers and clinicians collaborate and adapt to provide accessible, affordable services by meeting mental health patients where they are.”

CHALLENGES, LIMITATIONS IN PRIMARY CARE

Four in 10 mental health visits happen in a primary care setting, the AfPA report noted, potentially because of the longitudinal relationships patients have with their primary care provider. Primary care providers have had the opportunity to build a strong baseline of trust with patients, and that trust may make it easier for patients to disclose mental healthcare needs.

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The City of Chicago shares the increase in mental health clinics. The increase of support help is compared to 2019.  The mental health challenge is a silent, internal struggle.   Too often, dealing with a mental health challenge is a silent, internal struggle – but it doesn’t have to be. Even though the moments in which we need help the most can be the hardest ones to ask for it, you’re not alone. We understand that sometimes you need a shoulder to lean on, which is why the City of Chicago is committed to supporting your mental health with the resources it takes to keep our communities well. 

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A five-year experiment aimed at improving care for some of California’s most at-risk Medicaid patients — including homeless people and people with severe drug addictions — resulted in fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits that saved taxpayers an estimated $383 per patient per year, according to a review released Wednesday. [AP Associated Press] 

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research said that for every 1,000 people enrolled in California’s Whole Person Care pilot program, there were 45 fewer hospitalizations and 130 fewer ER visits when compared with a similar group of patients who were not in the program.

California has the largest Medicaid program in the country, with about 13 million people getting free health care from the government. That’s about one-third of the state’s population.

In 2016, the state launched an experiment focused on the most at-risk Medicaid patients, those who were prone to expensive, repeated hospital visits but whose conditions rarely improved. These included people who were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, people recently released from prison, people with multiple chronic health conditions and patients with severe drug addiction or mental health problems.

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