Public/Private Solution to COVID-Suicide Increase & Opioid Deaths

By Anthony Grower

1 min read

Mar 28, 2021

mdlogix, with its partners from Drexel and Thomas Jefferson Universities, asked Biden administration leaders and select congressional members this week to adopt the Behavioral Health Learning Collaborative (BHLC) solution to reduce youth suicide, depression, and opioid deaths nationally.

“It is criminal that lives are being lost when we, as public health professionals, have a proven solution to stem this tragic national tide. Your administration has the ability to drastically reduce suicide and opioid death rates with a public/private collaboration with us. Together, we can immediately launch a national model for improving the quality and coordination of mental health services. That will result in saving many lives,” reads a Feb. 16 letter.

Behavioral health prevention and treatment can be improved in every state with a BHLC by creating shared resources, procedures, and vision about health care coordination. The program serves as a learning community to help overcome challenges in this time of COVID (e.g. moving to telehealth).

Pennsylvania has screened over 100,000 youth and identified over 4,600 people with suicide ideation since using the model. The network has helped disseminate best practices and 1 high-quality research results that have greatly benefited Pennsylvania, and could be a resource in all 50 states. More information about our learning collaborative can be found at BHLCofpa.org.

mdlogix listed six potential areas where it could work with the federal government to address mental health issues. A copy of the full letter is here.

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