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More than half of mental health appointments — 55 percent — are being conducted remotely, mainly via videoconferencing rather than in-person visits, according to a brief research report in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Telemedicine, also known as telehealth, enables patients to obtain care via technology, most often a cellphone, video chat, computer or tablet. (Searing, 2/12)

Harvard public health researchers recruited social media influencers who discuss mental health issues, and trained them to present better information to audiences. (Muraskin, 2/12)

Derry Oliver was in fifth grade when she first talked to her mom about seeing a therapist. She was living in Georgia with her uncle and grandparents while her mom was in New York scoping out jobs and apartments ahead of moving the family. It was a rough year apart. Oliver, now 17, was feeling depressed. A school staffer raised the idea of a therapist. Oliver’s mom, also named Derry Oliver, questioned the school’s assessment and didn’t give consent for therapy. “You’re so young,” the mom recalled thinking. “There’s nothing wrong with you. These are growing pains.” (Elsen-Rooney, 2/10)

John Clair, the police chief of a small Appalachian town in southwest Virginia, spends his days consumed by a growing problem: the frequency with which his officers are tapped to detain, transport and wait in hospitals with people in the throes of a mental health crisis. Officers from Clair’s 21-member Marion Police Department crisscross the state to deliver patients for court-ordered treatment, sometimes only to discover the hospital where they were sent has no available beds. Patients end up boarding in waiting rooms or emergency rooms, sometimes for days on end, while under the supervision of Clair’s officers. (Rankin, 2/12)

When Drew Dummit’s mental illness worsened in 2017, he was admitted to Mind Springs Health in Grand Junction, the largest behavioral health services provider on the Western Slope. Three days later, staff deemed him stable enough to go home. Soon after, Dummit’s hallucinations worsened, he attempted suicide twice and began assaulting his mother, Sandra Sharp, more severely and frequently. “If I could have afforded inpatient care at the time, he would have gone,” said Sharp, who lives in Denver. (Flowers, 2/9)

For decades, thousands of Californians struggling with mental health and addiction have languished on the street. Now, voters will decide whether a March 5 ballot measure is the solution to get them the care they desperately need. Proposition 1, the only statewide measure on the ballot, would raise almost $6.4 billion in bonds for more than 11,000 new treatment beds and homeless housing units. The two-part measure would also use money already in the mental health system to expand intensive care programs and build supportive housing, potentially leaving fewer funds for early intervention or other services. It would do both without raising taxes. (Varian, 2/11)

Johns Hopkins researchers say they’re getting closer to developing a blood test that would identify changes in the brain associated with psychiatric and neurological disorders — an advancement that could enable doctors to detect the early signs of mental health emergencies. (Roberts, 2/9)

The University of Michigan released a study on the effects of ketamine in cases of severe or treatment-resistant depression among veterans. Half of the study participants experienced significant relief after undergoing six weeks of ketamine therapy, according to a Michigan Medicine press release. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, looked into the data of 215 veterans receiving intravenous ketamine therapy at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. (Stabile, 2/10)