Advocacy E-News December 2, 2019
December 2, 2019
HUD AWARDS $3 MILLION TO PROVIDE AFFORDABLE HOUSING TO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN NEW JERSEY
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $131.3 million to 325 local public housing authorities across the country to provide affordable housing to approximately 15,363 additional non-elderly persons with disabilities. In New Jersey, HUD awarded $2,999,862 to housing authorities in Newark, Elizabeth, North Bergen, Pleasantville, Morris County, Somerville, Manville, and Collaborative Support Programs of NJ.
AT THE STATE HOUSE, A ROUNDTABLE ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF NJ’S YOUTH
Stakeholders joined six lawmakers during a three-hour roundtable at the State House on what is increasingly being seen as a mental health crisis among young people here and across the nation. Lawmakers empaneled the roundtable discussion to gather information on how best to address the physical, social and psychological well-being of youths across the state, who they said are increasingly beset by mental illness, substance abuse and suicide.
COLLEGES STRUGGLE WITH SOARING STUDENT DEMAND FOR COUNSELING
More college students are turning to their schools for help with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and many must wait weeks for treatment or find help elsewhere as campus clinics struggle to meet demand, an Associated Press review of more than three dozen public universities found. Long waits have provoked protests at schools from Maryland to California, in some cases following student suicides. Meanwhile, campus counseling centers grapple with low morale and high burnout as staff face increasingly heavy workloads.
RENT SUBSIDIES, MENTAL HEALTH CARE TIED TO HOUSING STABILITY FOR HOMELESS
Homeless adults with mental illness may have an easier time finding and keeping stable housing when they receive rent supplements and mental health support services. Researchers focused on the effectiveness of Housing First, a program that’s different from traditional approaches to housing for homeless adults with mental illness that require aid recipients to achieve sobriety and or undergo psychiatric treatment. Housing First provides immediate access to housing and mental health services without any preconditions.
3 SUICIDES IN 2 MONTHS JOLT A COLLEGE CAMPUS
At Rowan University, a state school in southwest New Jersey, there have been at least three suicides in just over two months, a sober statistic officials acknowledge is the most ever in a single semester. The trauma on campus escalated on Thursday.
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
FIND YOUR LOCAL NAMI
