Martha Shultz News Today

With many people still struggling in the wake of the pandemic, this weeks National Depression Screening Day on Oct. 6 is a reminder to Illinoisans to take stock of their mental health. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports the average delay between the onset of mental illness symptoms and treatment is 11 years. ...

A study by New Mexico State University shows the number of suicides among U.S. Hispanics is on the rise, in part because they are buying more guns. Jagdish Khubchandani, public health sciences professor at New Mexico State and the studys co-author, said suicides by Hispanic adults in the group increased by more than 70% between 2010 and 2020, while their population grew only 25% over the same period. ...

Nonprofit social workers in New York are seeing a shortage of people coming into the field, abdicating it for telehealth work. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth began to fill the gaps for in-person visits. However, the shift to a semi-virtual landscape has left some nonprofits without applicants to fill open positions. ...

School districts across the state of New York are facing a shortage of social workers. According to an audit by the state comptrollers office, New York City schools are not providing enough social workers per school. The report showed 423 schools are without social workers, while most of the schools with at least one social worker do not meet the recommended ratio of one social worker to every 250 students. ...