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Federal Resources
Now Available: Children's Mental Health Awareness Day Webcast
The 2015 Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day national event recorded webcast is now available. The event highlighted the needs of youth and young adults with mental or substance use disorders and their families, while demonstrating how these needs can be best met through integrated care. The event also introduced cutting-edge community strategies for integrating behavioral health care with primary health care, education, and child welfare.
Is it ADHD or Trauma Symptoms?
This podcast describes how children exposed to traumatic events can exhibit symptoms that overlap with ADHD and, in some cases, could result in inaccurate diagnoses. It also provides suggestions for ways to talk about impulsive and disruptive behaviors with school staff and pediatricians to make sure that children receive the services they need.
Behavioral Health Equity Barometer
The “Behavioral Health Equity Barometer” (PDF, 20 pages) report is a one-year snapshot of the state of behavioral health of youth and adults by demographics and insurance status. Highlights of the findings show there are gaps in treatment for some behavioral health conditions among racial/ethnic minority populations and people without health insurance.
Quick Guide for Clinicians Based on TIP 57: Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services
This resource equips care providers and administrators with information on caring for people who have experienced trauma or may be at risk for developing trauma stress reactions. It addresses prevention, intervention, and treatment issues and strategies.
You Make SAMHSA Rock!
In this blog post, SAMHSA's Pamela Hyde announces her resignation and recounts SAMHSA’s accomplishments and its federal partners during her tenure.
IOM Recommendations Reflect Importance of Improving Quality of Behavioral Health Services
As highlighted in a recent blog post by HHS officials, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a new report, “Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders.” The report is a result of a collaboration to identify key steps to ensure individuals receiving mental health and substance use services receive evidence-based, high-quality care. It details the reasons for the gap between what is effective and what is currently practiced, and it offers recommendations for how best to address this gap. It proposes a framework to establish standards for psychosocial interventions. The HHS blog post addresses how SAMHSA, ASPE, and other HHS agencies will implement the recommendations in the report.
Improving Attachment Between Mothers and Children
This article describes a recent study on whether new mothers dealing with past trauma would be able to develop an attachment to their babies. If the mothers could develop an attachment, the study examined if addressing the mother’s issue would help with bonding. The results show that all the mothers in the study who were dealing with past trauma had trouble bonding with others and over 75% of the mothers with unresolved trauma had insecurely attached infants. The researchers found that being in the process of dealing with past trauma can help mothers form secure bonds with their children, despite the mothers themselves having difficulty attaching to others around them.
Share With Youth: Stay Informed — It Could Save A Life
CDC shares the risk and protective factors, warning signs, and sources of help for suicide.
2014 NSDUH Report on Mental and Substance Use Disorders
SAMHSA’s 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health report shows progress in reducing substance use, especially among adolescents. However, it also indicates that adolescents are experiencing higher levels of depression than in past years.
How We Talk about It Matters
This blog post describes the Resource Guide for Reporting on Behavioral Health: How You Talk About It Matters, which provides information to the media about mental illness and substance use disorders. It also includes tips and supporting facts that can help ensure representations of mental illness and substance use disorders are fair, balanced, and accurate.
Handbook for Recovery after a Suicide Attempt
A Journey Toward Health & Hope: Your Handbook for Recovery After a Suicide Attempt is available to order or download from the SAMHSA Store. This booklet helps people who have attempted suicide take their first steps toward healing and recovery. Tools and stories in the booklet come from first-hand experiences of individuals who have survived a suicide attempt and their supporters.
Traumatic Stress and Suicide after Disasters
This report highlights research on disasters (PDF, 21 pages) and their relationship to traumatic stress, suicide rates, and suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts. It examines rates of suicide and suicidal thinking and behaviors following disasters as well as the populations that may be at risk for traumatic stress and suicide after disasters.
5 Tips for Providing Trauma-Informed Sex Education
This article highlights the work of two researchers who are pioneering changes in sex education that bridge the gap between sex education and trauma-informed care by better understanding how sex education could be more sensitive to students’ traumatic experiences. This article also offers tips, based on this research, for implementing a trauma informed approach to sex education.
Sports and Mental Health
This blog post describes the benefits of participating in sports, as well as the risks. It highlights many of the programs and resources available to support athletes who may be struggling with mental illness or substance abuse.
Suicide and Race
This blog post highlights recent research which found that from 1993 to 2012, school-aged suicide trends stayed constant, but suicide incidence in black children significantly increased. The post describes the need for more research into risk and protective factors for African American children and the experiences that put them more at risk for depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. It also provides resources for individuals who want to learn more about suicide prevention or who may know someone who is at risk of harming themselves.
Slideshow: 5 Collaborations to Ensure Trauma-Informed Care for Youth and Families
This slideshow highlights five types of professionals that runaway and homeless youth program managers can collaborate with to support youth who have experienced trauma.
Blog: Everyday Trauma in our Communities: A Critical Mental Health Issue — A Public Health Crisis
This blog post describes the impact of experiencing and/or witnessing violence or traumatic events and the effect it can have on mental health and daily functioning. The post also highlights SAMHSA’s efforts to better understand how communities respond to violence and protect the safety and well-being of citizens.
Resource: Anniversaries and Trigger Events
An anniversary of a disaster or tragic event can renew feelings of fear, anxiety, and sadness in disaster survivors. This resource provides tips for survivors and their families for coping with renewed stress as an anniversary approaches or when trigger events suddenly occur.
Resource: SAMHSA eBooks
SAMHSA offers many of its resources in an eBook format, allowing readers to access these materials more easily on mobile devices, tablets, and e-readers.
Resource: Social Media as a Tool for Addressing Behavioral Health
This article describes SAMHSA’s efforts to use social media to provide information and participate in the conversation about behavioral health issues through popular social networks. It lists examples of how SAMHSA has used blogging, Twitter, and Facebook to respond quickly to trending stories and engage with the public.
QuickStats: Percentage of Children and Adolescents Aged 5–17 Years with Diagnosed Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), By Race and Hispanic Ethnicity — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 1997–2014
This Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report illustrates the trends in ADHD diagnosis among children and adolescents, ages 5-17, between 1997 and 2014. Results show that the percentage of young people overall with diagnosed ADHD increased significantly among non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic children, while Hispanic children were the least likely to have diagnosed ADHD
Brief: Developing a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System
This issue brief provides an overview of trauma and its effects, and describes some of the primary areas of consideration for state or county child welfare systems as they design and implement approaches that are more responsive to trauma.
Reports: Regional Behavioral Health Barometers
SAMHSA released a series of behavioral health barometers presenting data for each of the 10 HHS regions of the United States. Each report uses data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health related to youth and adult mental health and substance use and treatment.
Report: Racial and Gender Disparities in Suicide Among Young Adults
Using mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System, this report examines suicide rates and methods among young adults aged 18–24, by sex and race and Hispanic origin. Results show that young adult males were more likely than young adult females to commit suicide across racial and ethnic groups. The suicide rate was highest among the American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) population, and likely to be underreported. Non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white young adults were most likely to use firearms, followed by suffocation. Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander (API), and AI/AN young adults were most likely to use suffocation, followed by firearms.
Resource: Understanding Child Trauma
This infographic provides key statistics and information to help the public recognize the signs of child traumatic stress. This infographic can be downloaded as a whole or by the three key subject areas and will also be available for Spanish-speaking audiences later in 2016.