Checking In With CMH

By Molly Candon, PhD and Oluwatoyin Fadeyibi, PharmD, MPH Between 2014 and 2018 in Philadelphia, the number of children with Medicaid who received an antipsychotic prescription fell by nearly 50%, as we described recently in BMC Psychiatry. The reduction was larger for children who were less than 10 years old and for youth enrolled in […]

By Sonam Saxena Like many people and organizations, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) made a few New Year’s resolutions for 2021, and some focused their hopes for the ways America’s behavioral health system needs to improve. With 2022 well underway, let’s see how we did.   Goal 1: Improve access to behavioral health services […]

By Sonam Saxena Efforts to stop Asian-American hate are far from over. On November 30, hundreds of Philadelphians rallied to demand “justice and safety” for Asian-Americans. This comes in response to increasing violence, with the recent example of an 18-year old girl assaulted by four teenagers on the SEPTA in a racially-charged attack. Events like […]

By Sonam Saxena “It is always hard for me because I don't have the words that normal people have to communicate with. I don't always know how to respond properly to questions from health care providers.” This sentiment is not uncommon for autistic people, who are predisposed to more physical, mental and social health problems [...]

Cross-posted from Penn LDI’s Blog By Megan McCarthy-Alfano Screening tools for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often fail to identify ASD among children from low-income families and racial/ethnic minority groups, particularly when English is not the family’s primary language. A new visually-based tool may reduce these disparities at a pivotal point in children’s development. In Pediatrics, Zuleyha Cidav, David Mandell, and […]

Cross-posted from Penn LDI’s Blog Rebecca Stewart, PhD The opioid epidemic is in its fourth and possibly deadliest wave, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and disproportionately killing people of color. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD)—including methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone—are effective in combatting the epidemic, but sorely underused. Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disability Services (DBHIDS) recently enacted […]

Molly Candon, PhD The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overturned their longstanding requirement that physicians must receive approval and undergo training to prescribe buprenorphine, the topline treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). This is an historic shift in policy, and its importance cannot be overstated. Last week, there were fewer than 100,000 waivered providers. Now, over one […]

Cross-posted from Penn LDI's Blog Rachel French, BSN, RN, Nicole O'Donnell, and Utsha Khatri, MD Fatal overdoses remain staggeringly common in Philadelphia, and challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic have only served to exacerbate the crisis, especially for Black residents. Following the stay at home order in March 2020, the weekly number of emergency medical service calls for [...]

Sonam Saxena The killing of Walter Wallace brought home, among other things, the desperate need to reform mental health crisis response programs. Too often, calls to the police end in injury or killing of the person in need.  The Washington Post has recorded every fatal shooting by police since 2015. One in five killings are […]

Cross-posted from Penn LDI’s Health Policy$ense Polina Krass, MD As we approach the sixth month of widespread community transmission of COVID-19 in the United States, our focus must shift beyond acute management of disease to the broader effects of this pandemic on health and wellbeing. In particular, it is important that we understand the consequences […]