iFoster released the Voice of Foster Care Community Report this week, which contains findings from over 1000 youth with experience in foster care, over 1100 caregivers, and 228 frontline workers from 49 states and D.C. The website houses all the data, searchable by state. The report finds that “the overwhelming consensus is that the child
A research letter published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics shows that adolescent suicide rates increased in the first year of the pandemic, according to research in 14 states. Researchers from Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston Children’s hospital sifted through death certificates of 85,000 people that died by suicide in 14 states and
A new Child Trends brief describes the harm inflicted upon gender-diverse children and youth when policies deny them access to gender-affirming care and supportive environments. Gender-affirming care provides developmentally appropriate supports to gender-diverse children and youth. When transgender children and youth feel that their identities are supported, they experience greater life satisfaction, fewer depressive symptoms,
On April 11, 2022, KHOU in Texas published an article detailing new ramifications of Governor Greg Abbotts’ directive that the Department of Family and Protective Services investigate parents of transgender children: employee resignations. “More than half a dozen child abuse investigators told The Texas Tribune that they either have resigned or are actively job-hunting as
The overdose death rate among U.S. adolescents nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020 — a climb that continued into 2021, a new study in JAMA shows. Researchers determined that it’s not a surge of 14- to 18-year-olds using drugs - survey data actually indicate that fewer teens experimented with drugs during the pandemic. Rather, a
On Tuesday, March 15th, 2022, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) rolled out a new website of resources for the upcoming launch of the 988 hotline in July. This new website includes a partner toolkit to help SAMHSA’s 988 implementation partners (crisis call centers, state mental health programs, substance use treatment providers,
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a statement on March 7, 2022, that it will consider granting deferred action to minors awaiting green cards through their Special Immigrant Juvenile Status but who can’t obtain a visa because of existing backlogs. Deferred action would protect those immigrants from deportation and allow them to work legally. “This
A new publication from the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends primary preventive services that reduce the perpetration of intimate partner violence and sexual violence among youth. Based on a systematic review of 28 studies, the CPSTF found evidence that prevention strategies that utilized one or more of three strategies were successful in reducing
On Tuesday, February 15th, 2022, the full Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on “Protecting Youth Mental Health: Part II- Identifying and Addressing Barriers to Care,” which continued the conversation and efforts of Congress to address the growing mental health crisis. CWLA previously reported on part one of this series. The witnesses called to testify
On Thursday, February 17th, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held an investigative hearing on ‘Americans in Need: Responding to the National Mental Health Crisis.’ The Energy and Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over Medicaid, making it a key committee in any significant effort to enact behavioral health