You are here
Recovery Update features the most recent articles from throughout the field of psychiatric rehabilitation. Stay up to date on all the latest mental health news through this weekly newsletter.
Current Issue
After spending 16 years moving away from a psychiatric care system centered on institutionalization, state officials are preparing to build Georgia's largest state hospital in decades. More than 700 Georgians in the criminal justice system are currently waiting for a spot in a state psychiatric facility, according to Kevin Tanner, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
Unlicensed phone operators and algorithms directing patients to inadequate telehealth services. Controversial artificial intelligence technologies are increasingly deployed at clinics. Distraught patients who can't get an appointment with a human for weeks. Those were some of the alarms raised by Kaiser Permanente clinicians who told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors the healthcare giant has failed to significantly improve its mental-health services, even after recent sanctions by state and federal regulators for denying or delaying care.
In July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) mandated significant health care funding cuts and policy changes related to low-income health insurance programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) administration.
For families of people with severe mental health needs, a frustrating pattern emerges. Mobile crisis teams come to the home repeatedly. Trips to the emergency room add up. Involuntary commitments lead to short psychiatric hospital stays. And the cycle repeats itself.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-area courts have a new tool for people in mental health crisis: the power to order treatment instead of incarceration or hospitalization. Between 2015 and 2022, more than 5,000 people a year were evaluated for involuntary hospitalization in Allegheny County, and roughly 3,700 were committed.
Mental disorders among young adults have surged, with new research showing the proportion of young Australians meeting diagnostic criteria for anxiety, mood or substance disorders increased from 23.4% to 36.2% from 2007 to 2022.
The study, by North Carolina State University researchers, compared the experience of hearing different types of sounds in natural and urban environments to determine their effects on the listeners' emotions. Study participants were asked to wear noise-cancelling headphones while sitting in either a reclaimed nature trail isolated from development or a busy urban area.
Children who grow up in unpredictable environments may face elevated risks for depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and other mental health challenges, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, Chapman University and Rady Children's Hospital Orange County, formerly called Children's Hospital of Orange County.
While more women globally are using medication to have abortions, a University of Maryland-led study published recently in JAMA Psychiatry found no evidence that a first medication or procedural abortion caused an increase in mental health medication use.
Although adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increase risk for mental illness at the population level, existing ACEs screens are less helpful in forecasting individual outcomes, suggesting they may not capture significant elements of childhood adversity. We have previously identified unpredictable parental and household experiences as an ACE that portends poorer cognitive and mental health.
Follow Us
New to PRA?
Create a free account to access our online store and courses. Upgrade to a paid membership at any time for full benefits.