Suicide became the 10th-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2024, up from No. 11 in 2023, according to final mortality data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Suicide deaths fell 1% over the same period, from…
Mental Health
The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded $111.9 million to 191 community organizations to support suicide prevention services for veterans nationwide. The grants are part of the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program, with funding becoming available at…
The Children’s Hospital Association, Speak Our Minds, Children’s Healthcare Canada and Children’s Hospital Alliance UK launched an international effort aimed at improving how pediatric health systems identify and support children and adolescents at risk of suicide. The Global Preventing Youth…
More than 100 national, state and local organizations have joined the National Maternal Mental Health Accelerator, an initiative launched by the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health to address gaps in maternal mental healthcare. The initiative, which launched Sept. 29,…
OpenAI released MentalHealthBench, an open benchmark that measures how AI systems respond in realistic mental health conversations, on Sept. 23. The company built the benchmark with more than 80 licensed psychologists and psychiatrists from 22 countries. The cohort speaks 19…
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The CDC released new data Sept. 21 showing improvements in several mental health, suicide risk and dietary indicators among U.S. high school students from 2023 to 2025. The findings are included in the CDC’s Youth Health in Focus report, which…
The Labor Department is narrowing its enforcement focus on health plans’ compliance with federal mental health parity requirements, prioritizing three areas it considers highest-risk for participants while easing enforcement of newer requirements tied to ongoing litigation. The department’s Employee Benefits…
The VA Office of Inspector General identified deficiencies in acute inpatient mental healthcare at the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital, part of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio. The findings ranged from gaps in medication…
In 2019, a social worker at Kansas City, Mo.-based Children’s Mercy came off a 14-hour shift and left behind a note at 3 a.m.: “Five kids with nowhere to go because of mental health needs. Can Children’s Mercy do something?” …
A 13-item Mental Wellness Tool detected common or severe mental disorders, substance use disorders and suicide risk among patients receiving psychiatric emergency department care at a New York City hospital, according to a Sept. 17 Medscape report. Existing mental health…