Recovery Update

Senators mulled legislation recently that would authorize an expansive study of Texas' inpatient psychiatric facilities, capacity and needs. Senate Bill 719, authored by Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, would direct the Health and Human Services Commission to conduct a study of the current use and future projected needs for inpatient psychiatric beds, including beds for juveniles, adults, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and people waiting in jail for competency restoration so they can proceed with their criminal cases.

California under Gov. Gavin Newsom has made sweeping changes to its behavioral health system, pouring billions of dollars into new services and support programs. But the state's ambitious plans face a looming threat: the proposed federal spending cuts that Congress is currently considering are seen as all but certain to impact Medicaid and could bring to a halt some of the headway the state has made in responding to its behavioral health crisis.

In many ways, it was the usual protest scene. Dozens of striking mental health care workers chanted and marched recently outside a Kaiser Permanente medical center on a busy strip of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Passing cars honked in support. People vigorously waved homemade signs.

Panic, fear, uncertainty, and anger. Those are the emotions mental health clinicians who work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs describe as they prepare for the VA's mandatory return-to-office directive.

Day-to-day behaviors such as diet, exercise and sleep profoundly affect health, but primary care doctors rarely have enough time to discuss such behavioral health changes to inspire improvement. A Rutgers Health study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine has identified six critical strategies for doing better and successfully integrating behavioral health services into primary care settings and improving patient lives.

Research by Katerina Johnson and Laura Steenbergen published in the journal npj Mental Health Research shows that taking probiotics can help reduce negative feelings. They also investigated which people benefit most from these "good" bacteria.