Advocacy E-news December 10, 2019
December 10, 2019
TASK FORCE: SAFE SCHOOLS NEED MENTAL HEALTH TEAM
Every school district should have a team of professionals dedicated to providing mental health services for students—including a mental health professional—and creating these teams will be the focus of training and possible funding throughout 2020. That’s one of multiple recommendations likely in the second Bergen County Prosecutor’s Safe Schools Task Force report, anticipated in early 2020.
ROWAN FORUM FOCUSES ON MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN WAKE OF STUDENT DEATHS
A forum at Rowan University, spurred by several student deaths on campus this semester, aimed to communicate students’ experiences with on-campus mental health services. The meeting, though, felt more like group therapy — a raw and brave discussion of mental illness, criticism of Wellness Center Services, and grief for the 10 members of the school community who died this semester. Three of those deaths were suicides, school officials confirmed last week.
BLACK MOTHERS GET LESS TREATMENT FOR POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION THAN OTHER MOMS
A recent study found that only 1 in 10 women who screened positive for postpartum depression at the hospital’s urban medical practice sites sought any treatment within the following six months. A study examining three years’ worth of New Jersey Medicaid claims found white women were nearly twice as likely to receive treatment as were women of color. The consequences of untreated postpartum depression can be serious.
Go to the Kaiser Health News story
TOWNSHIP CALLS ON GOVERNOR TO CLOSE MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY PLAGUED BY PATIENT DEATHS, FILTHY CONDITIONS
The mayor of a New Jersey township has called on the state’s governor to shut down a filthy mental health facility where six residents in its care have died due to incompetent workers, officials said. Manalapan Township Mayor Susan Cohen and four other community officials sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy claiming that cockroaches, bedbugs, terrible toilets and an inept staff at Manalapan Manor have plagued residents with mental health issues for years.
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