Quarterly Topic

Mental health

Content Type:

  • Quarterly Opinion

    Medicaid Cuts Will Heighten the US Mental Health and Substance Use Crisis

    August 2025 Beth McGinty Magdalena Cerdá

    The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)’s cuts to Medicaid will heighten the nation’s behavioral health crisis. Nationally, each year an estimated… More

  • A Case Study of Maine’s Risk-Based Firearm Removal Law

    Quarterly Article

    A Case Study of Maine’s Risk-Based Firearm Removal Law

    August 2025 David B. Joyce Jeffrey Swanson

    Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) are an effective legal tool for reducing firearm suicide by temporarily removing access to firearms for certain individuals who exhibit dangerous behavior. Unlike most state laws restricting access to firearms based on status, ERPOs are predicated on the assessment of future risk of harm to self or other, as determined by civil court file finding. Emerging research indicates that separating those in crisis from lethal means reduces firearm mortality. We assess Maine’s unique approach and consider whether it is a replicable policy option for other states or should be modified to comport with other states’ more broadly applicable model. More

  • Integrating Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment With Emergency and Primary Care: The Case of Opioid Use Disorder and Suicide

    Quarterly Article

    Integrating Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment With Emergency and Primary Care: The Case of Opioid Use Disorder and Suicide

    July 2025 Noa Krawczyk Hillary Samples

    The United States is facing an ongoing mental health and substance use crisis. In 2023, 58.7 million US adults had a past-year mental illness, 46.3 million had a substance use disorder (SUD), and 20.4 million had both. More

  • US State Policies Regarding Social Media: Do Policies Match the Evidence?

    Quarterly Article

    US State Policies Regarding Social Media: Do Policies Match the Evidence?

    June 2025 Marco Thimm-Kaiser Katherine Keyes

    The potential adverse effects of social media use for adolescents have received substantial attention. In response, a growing number of state-level social media regulations are emerging in the United States. These policy interventions are being implemented in the context of mixed scientific evidence, forcing policymakers to weigh the need for proactive regulation against the limitations of extant research. We explore policymakers’ publicly stated rationales for social media regulations and contextualize their claims within extant scientific literature. More

  • Facilitators of, Barriers to, and Innovations in the Implementation of the Trauma Recovery Center Model for Underserved Victims of Violent Crime in Los Angeles County

    Quarterly Article

    Facilitators of, Barriers to, and Innovations in the Implementation of the Trauma Recovery Center Model for Underserved Victims of Violent Crime in Los Angeles County

    June 2025 Annette M. Dekker Adrian Yen Andrea Larco Canizalez Yesenia Perez David Salazar Bita Ghafoori Dorit Saberi Breena R. Taira

    The Trauma Recovery Center (TRC) model brings comprehensive care to underserved victims of crime, with improvements in PTSD symptoms and quality of life. Funding concerns were the central limitation in model implementation according to TRC staff. More

  • Medicaid’s Role in Addressing the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Challenges of Its Members

    Quarterly Article

    Medicaid’s Role in Addressing the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Challenges of Its Members

    May 2025 Kate McEvoy Hannah Maniates

    Medicaid has both greatly advanced the scope and integration of mental health and substance use disorder services among payers and remains a work in progress with respect to scaling and funding these services across the country. More

  • Mapping Mental Health Across US States: The Role of Economic and Social Support Policies

    Quarterly Article

    Mapping Mental Health Across US States: The Role of Economic and Social Support Policies

    April 2025 Rachel Donnelly Mateo P. Farina

    Mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression) continues to be a major public health concern in the United States that impacts millions of individuals, their families, and communities. Approximately 21% of adults 18 years and older, or 55 million adults, reported symptoms of recent depression in 2022, demonstrating the wide reach of mental health challenges. More

  • Review of Emergent Financing Models for Mental Health Crisis Systems

    Quarterly Article

    Review of Emergent Financing Models for Mental Health Crisis Systems

    April 2025 Jonathan Purtle Amanda I Mauri David Frederick

    In this article, we provide an overview of emergent models for funding crisis systems in the United States and the policy and service contexts related to these models. Our review assesses the status of crisis system financing recommendations proposed by Hogan and Goldman proposed in 2020 and complements prior reports about financing crisis services. More

  • State Policy Strategies to Promote the Recruitment and Retention of the Behavioral Health Workforce

    Quarterly Article

    State Policy Strategies to Promote the Recruitment and Retention of the Behavioral Health Workforce

    April 2025 Briana S. Last Jane M. Zhu

    See all articles in the special issue, Mental Health and Substance Use Challenges Facing the United States: What Can State Policymakers Do? Access… More

  • Reported Strategies by Medicaid Managed Care Organizations to Improve Access to Behavioral Health Services

    Quarterly Article

    Reported Strategies by Medicaid Managed Care Organizations to Improve Access to Behavioral Health Services

    April 2025 Jane M. Zhu Ruth Rowland Inga Suneson Deborah J. Cohen K. John McConnell Daniel Polsky

    Behavioral health access gaps are well documented in Medicaid, in which managed care now covers most enrollees, and for which there are typically fewer options for going out-of-network for care. Despite the growing role of managed care organizations (MCOs) in financing and delivering behavioral health services, little is known about MCO levers that can improve access to care. More