Mental health in Michigan

The election cycle can be emotionally draining, but there are steps people can take to protect their mental health, including limiting news consumption and putting an end to doom-scrolling.

“When I was a teacher, I felt like I connected so much with the kids who were struggling, I felt like I took that home with me,” said Becky Halamka, a Negaunee Public Schools counselor and founder of Superior Educator Wellness Services.

Mental health problems in a male-dominated industry – construction – are often overlooked, and its workers have disproportionately high suicide rates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Michigan joined the nationwide 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline initiative in 2022. In the last year, over 88,000 calls have been answered.

We can apply the same approach that helped Michigan through the pandemic: Prioritizing access to care and resources, investing in making high-quality care attainable for all residents, and building awareness about the support that’s available.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, antidepressant dispensing has increased by 64% among adolescents, thanks to an increase in anxiety and depression diagnoses.

The board voted 6-1 to seek funding. Some parents objected to the clinics because in addition to mental-health support they would offer a range of physical health services for which students may not need parental consent.

At a board hearing in Northville, some parents objected to putting health clinics in schools, echoing concerns in other districts based in part on parental rights. Clinic supporters say the centers are critical to student health.

Too many people in a mental health crisis end up in a hospital ER, where they rarely get the one-on-one or follow-up care they need. New mobile vans are designed to bring better care to people in distress before they spiral further.

Child psychiatrists oversee the care and medication of some of the most complex mental health cases. And yet Michigan has only about half the specialists it needs amid a surge in anxiety and depression among young people.

Despite a 2008 federal law that requires insurers to cover mental health and substance abuse treatment like other illnesses, families say insurers continue to deny such coverage, making new state laws essential.

Michigan schools, mental health agencies and hospitals fight over too few social workers. Could relaxed licensing, better pay help?

After months of opposition from some neighbors, the parents of a young man who died by suicide won approval for a residential center on 75 wooded acres for struggling young adults. They say nature, and peer support, will help in the healing.

The 18-bed psychiatric unit in Cheboygan is scheduled to serve 22 northern Michigan counties this summer, where there is an acute shortage of mental health professionals.

The state wants to limit the number of seriously ill children placed in institutional settings. But it’s getting pushback from some parents whose children are too volatile to stay at home and need longer-term residential care that’s in short supply.

Michigan’s thread-bare mental health system fails children in crisis. Can a new committee filled with lawmakers who have experience in healthcare or first-hand knowledge of mental health challenges bring focus?

Dexter is one of a number of districts joining a federal suit against the developers of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, YouTube and others, contending their ‘addictive’ algorithms target vulnerable children and teens.

Advocates endorse national panel guidelines to screen children aged 8 to 18 for anxiety disorders.

The rate of opioid overdose deaths doubled among Black residents over a recent five-year period. Suicide rates jumped 88 percent. Advocates say isolation, treatment disparities and the ubiquity of fentanyl in street drugs are behind the increases.

Michigan’s new three-digit hotline has produced a jump in calls by people in mental health distress since it began last summer. But advocates say the next step – continued treatment for those callers – is fraught with delays because of a shortage of trained professionals.