‘I felt like I was dying’: How women with postpartum depression fall through the cracks of U.S. health care By Katharine Gammon

https://www.statnews.com/2023/06/26/i-felt-like-i-was-dying-how-women-with-postpartum-depression-fall-through-the-cracks-of-u-s-health-care/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_N99j8NrC3DbpYk-ZbAhkLzx10y3kIFU62uvRgw41P8USfmoirAV1NnmlsceOss5ulHW4GXQ28nYEOuC7DP1G1Ib-6Qg&_hsmi=304405281&utm_content=304405281&utm_source=hs_email How the U.S. could take mental health care out of the E.R. If you’re having a heart attack, a hospital emergency room is a great place to be. But if you’re having a mental health emergency? “You’ve got to sit in this room, maybe they won’t give you water, maybe you’re not wearing clothes. It’s loud, it’s bright, there’s a lot of noise, there’s other sick people freaking out, and it’s just too much,” said one patient who lives in Cambridge, Mass. And standard hospital protocols often make patients feel like they lack agency, he added. The E.R. has become America’s default front door to psychiatric crisis care, despite rarely being designed or equipped to serve that role. But conditions across the country may be ripe for change. Advocates see the launch of 988 — like 911 but for mental health emergencies — as an opportunity to spotlight the massive unmet mental health need and build a system of care around it. Read more from STAT contributor Grace Rubenstein on the early initiatives to build these systems, in the sixth and final story in a series on the U.S. mental health system. Mental health crisis centers and EmPATH units: offering care that busy ERs can’t By Grace Rubenstein https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/26/crisis-centers-empath-units-er-alternative-for-mental-health/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_lyTWayrpBQvHajnmhRzHuyZGlOtni70h9-I-4dEDQBHDUZP72Fm0f2lVi6qxzh6uuxQHTwNvGv_a-tTV_eGWzwEe4TA&_hsmi=304405281&utm_content=304405281&utm_source=hs_email