Indiana Moms Win Injunction Against Loss of Caregiver Pay
Plus: Children in mental health crisis wait days in emergency rooms, worsening their condition; New report shows family caregivers under increasing strain
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From National Public Radio: “Children in a mental health crisis can spend days languishing in the ER”
Children who go to emergency departments in a mental health crisis and need to be hospitalized often end up stuck there for days, a new study finds. That happens in roughly one in ten of all mental health emergency visits for children enrolled in Medicaid across the country.
The most common mental health crises that led to such extended stays, or boarding, were depressive disorders and suicidal thoughts and attempts, according to the study published in JAMA Health Forum.
"So a child shows up at an emergency department with a mental health condition, [and] about one in ten times, they're staying for three days or longer," says lead study author John McConnell, director of the Center for Health Systems Effectiveness at Oregon Health and Science University.
McConnell and his colleagues also found that in a handful of states, including North Carolina, Florida and Maine, as many as 25% of mental health visits led to kids boarding at the emergency department for 3-7 days.
[…]Many states have a shockingly low number of psychiatric beds for kids, [says Dr. Rebecca Marshall, an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at OHSU, who wasn't involved in the new study]. For example, Oregon has only 38 beds for highest need pediatric psychiatric cases.
[…]And when children in mental health crises end up stuck in ERs for days, their symptoms can worsen even if there's a psychiatrist on staff.
Most of these children boarding in an ER end up stuck in "one small room," says Marshall, sometimes a windowless room. "They're not able to leave the room. They can't exercise. They're not able to interact with other kids, which is a really important part of development. And often there are not any kind of additional therapeutic activities that you would find in an inpatient unit."[…]
• From Indiana Capital Chronicle: “Appeals court sides with mothers in attendant care case”
A federal appeals court affirmed a lower court’s preliminary injunction Wednesday, allowing two Hoosier mothers to continue providing state-reimbursed caregiving services to their medically fragile children.
Plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and Indiana Disability Rights, argued that the children’s care was too intensive to transition from attendant care to another state program last August. With a statewide shortage of nurses, mothers also said they couldn’t use state services to hire an outside caretaker and had to take on the 24/7 responsibilities themselves.
“We are grateful that the courts have once again recognized that these children deserve to live at home with their families, not be forced into institutions,” said Gavin Rose, the ACLU’s deputy legal director. “Our clients have dedicated themselves to becoming specially trained in the needs of their children, and no one is better qualified to provide the round-the-clock care they require.”[…]
• From Disability Scoop: “Family Caregivers Under Increasing Strain”
The number of family members providing ongoing care for loved ones with complex medical conditions or disabilities is on the rise and a new report finds that they are struggling to hold it all together.
[The report did not include data on family caregivers of minor disabled children, only adult children.]
There are 63 million Americans serving as family caregivers — accounting for nearly 1 in 4 adults — a figure that’s up almost 50% since 2015.
The report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving finds that family caregivers are coping with poor health, financial strain and isolation.
“The data reveals a portrait of ordinary Americans providing extraordinary care,” said Jason Resendez, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving. “This research makes painfully clear that family caregiving is no longer a looming crisis — it’s a daily reality that 63 million Americans shoulder every day.”
[…]Many are financially impacted by their family caregiving responsibilities, with nearly half saying that they have taken on debt, stopped saving or had another major impact on their finances. About 60% of family caregivers are employed and many say they’ve gone into work late, left early or needed other accommodations as a result of their care obligations.
The report found that nearly a quarter of family caregivers struggle to care for their own health and many lack training to perform the care they provide. What’s more, the vast majority are unpaid and they increasingly report feeling emotionally stressed and socially isolated.[…]
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