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A New Executive Order and the Intersection of Homelessness and Mental Illness

This brief examines data on homelessness and mental illness against the backdrop of President Trump’s executive order aimed at removing unhoused people from the streets and enabling more involuntary civil commitments for psychiatric institutional care. This approach could reverse a decades-long shift in treatment approaches for people with serious mental illnesses that moved people away from long-term psychiatric institutions toward community-based treatment settings.

At the Three-Year Mark, Demand for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Continues to Grow

How Might Changes to the ACA Marketplace Impact Enrollees with Mental Health Conditions?

The Impact of Gun Violence on Children and Adolescents

Mental Health and Substance Use State Fact Sheets

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  • Proposed Mental Health Parity Rule Signals New Focus on Outcome Data as Tool to Assess Compliance

    Issue Brief

    Proposed updates to federal mental health parity rules would make wide ranging changes to current standards that apply to private insurance and coverage provided by most employers. This issue brief focuses on one aspect of the new proposal---a requirement that plans perform an “outcome analysis” before they can place certain restrictions on behavioral health coverage. This would require that plans evaluate specific data to determine the impact of certain restrictions on behavioral health access, such as prior authorization rules or limited provider network access. The use of data analysis as an oversight tool would be new for federal insurance regulators. The brief discusses this new proposed tool and the key policy questions that it triggers.

  • Will Availability of Over-the-Counter Narcan Increase Access?

    Policy Watch

    Making Narcan available OTC has the potential to expand access, but several obstacles may limit its reach. Decisions by pharmacies on whether to stock OTC Narcan, the product's placement within stores, and lingering stigmas can impact accessibility. Furthermore, public knowledge plays a role; many people may not realize that OTC Narcan is available without a prescription from a doctor and that insurance may help cover the costs.

  • A Look at the Latest Suicide Data and Change Over the Last Decade

    Issue Brief

    CDC’s provisional data for 2022 show a record high of 49,369 suicide deaths, coming after modest declines in 2019 and 2020. In 2022, provisional data indicates the highest number of gun-related suicides on record; increases in firearm suicides are driving the increases in overall suicide deaths in recent years. Suicide death rates in 2021 were highest among American Indian and Alaska Native people, males, and people who live in rural areas. Suicide deaths are increasing fastest among people of color, younger people, and those who live in rural areas with many groups seeing increases of 30% or more from 2011 to 2021. Suicide death rates varied considerably by state in 2021, as did the rate of change between 2011 and 2021.

  • Child and Teen Firearm Mortality in the U.S. and Peer Countries

    Issue Brief

    Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations. This puts the U.S. far ahead of peer nations in child and teen firearm deaths.

  • Addressing the Opioid Crisis: A Look at the Evolving Landscape of Federal OUD Treatment Policies

    Issue Brief

    Federal policies governing substance use disorder treatment have undergone rapid changes during the pandemic; however, the extent to which these changes can address the surge in opioid overdose deaths is unclear. Some of these policy adjustments are permanent, while others could revert to pre-pandemic regulations. In this brief, we examine the following 5 key federal policies and implications for access and treatment for OUD.