Recovery Update

There is little evidence to support the increasing use of surveillance technologies on inpatient mental health wards, according to a new study involving UCL researchers.

On an unseasonably warm fall afternoon, Frank "The Tank" Watkins welcomes me to one of his favorite places: the skatepark at Pier 62 in Manhattan. "This is my community, my sanctuary, my second home," says Watkins, 28, who's currently a psychology graduate student at the New School.

The Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Tuesday, Dec. 3, passed a resolution to request the Texas legislature allocate funding to build a state mental health facility to serve county residents. The court "strongly urges the State of Texas to fund the development of a state mental health facility in Tarrant County," said County Judge Tim O'Hare, who read the resolution text aloud before it passed unanimously.

The state has allocated $9 million to community wellness centers in all 21 counties, officials said recently. The money will be used to expand services, train staff and provide transportation to help in underserved areas across New Jersey, announced the Department of Human Services.

The state Department of Health and Human Services is soliciting bids to create Maine's first psychiatric residential treatment facility for adolescents with severe behavioral health needs. The legislature has dedicated $2 million in state funding to support the effort.

Maryland needs to increase the number of behavior health care workers by about 50% to meet current demands, a "significant problem" that only gets worse in coming years unless the state finds ways to boost the workforce.

Exposure to lead in gasoline during childhood resulted in many millions of excess cases of psychiatric disorders over the last 75 years, a new study estimates. Lead was banned from automobile fuel in 1996. The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, looked at its lasting impact in the U.S. by analyzing childhood blood lead levels from 1940 to 2015.