Category: Healthy

A grandmother calls a mental health crisis line for help after her grandson with intellectual disabilities and a history of mental illness attacked her.

The crisis can’t be resolved over the phone. A mobile crisis unit swings into action.

Crisis counselor Cedric McNear gathers paperwork and looks up the address. His colleague Teralynn Turner reaches out to the grandmother for more information. Along with two other mental health professionals, they rush into a white van.

Their mission is to defuse a mental health crisis. They don’t have sirens or flashing lights. Unlike police, they don’t have handcuffs and guns.

“Come on, let’s go help some people,” McNear tells team members, every time, as they head out.

In July, a three-digit national mental health hotline was launched to make it easier to get help in a mental health crisis. Finally, it will replace a harder-to-remember 10-digit number known as the National

CNN
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The US government is awarding more than $266 million from the American Rescue Plan to expand the nation’s community and public health work force, officials will announce Friday.

The plan’s overall investment in community health, outreach and health education workers – totaling more than $1.1 billion – is one of its “crown jewels,” said Gene Sperling, coordinator of the American Rescue Plan and a senior adviser to President Joe Biden.

The funding comes as some public and community health workers have faced intense workloads, backlash and burnout during the Covid-19 pandemic and throughout other overlapping health emergencies, including record-high drug overdose deaths, the monkeypox outbreak and the re-emergence of polio.

Most of the funding to be announced Friday, $225.5 million, will go to 83 recipients as part of a new training program for community health workers, who specialize in local efforts to help people find care and facilitate

Participants in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) will see a significantly larger increase to their health premium costs in 2023, compared with the last few years.

Federal employees and retirees, on average, will pay 8.7% more in health premiums, the Office of Personnel Management announced on Sept. 30.

This year’s upcoming open season runs Nov. 14 to Dec. 12. During that time, FEHBP participants can make changes to their health, dental

Roughly a quarter million Texans benefit from home health services each year. But now the federal government is threatening the ability of seniors to access this preferred method of care. Unless Medicare works to protect home health, many older Texans may lose their ability to choose where they want to heal after hospitalization.

Medicare home health care enables older Americans and people with disabilities to recover from serious injuries or illnesses in the safety of their own homes. It allows them to be surrounded by their loved ones and regain their health in a familiar environment, making recovery a more comfortable journey. And it’s no secret that patients would rather recover in their home. According to a new national poll from Morning Consult91% of older Americans and Medicare beneficiaries expressed the highest preference for receiving short-term recovery or rehabilitation health care at home.

Not only is home health care