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Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Gov.'s administration tabs veteran health care official to lead implementation of new law
Apr. 29—SANTA FE — With New Mexico set to launch a new regionalized approach to providing mental health and substance abuse services in June, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's administration is taking steps to prepare. The state Health Care Authority on Tuesday announced the hiring of Kristie Brooks to guide the implementation of the new law, which was passed by lawmakers during this year's 60-day legislative session and signed by Lujan Grisham. Brooks, a former regional director of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, will fill a new job post created to oversee implementation efforts, an HCA spokeswoman said. As the agency's director of behavioral health transformation and innovation, Brooks, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, will receive a $150,000 annual salary. She said Tuesday she was looking forward to starting the new job at a pivotal time. "New Mexico is leading the way in rebuilding behavioral health services, and I'm excited to partner with communities across the state to strengthen systems of care, elevate culturally responsive treatment models, and improve health outcomes," Brooks said in a statement. Under the legislative plan, Senate Bill 3, the state judiciary will take on a larger role in approving regional behavioral health plans, while the Health Care Authority will remain in charge of overseeing funding. Health Care Authority officials have been in contact with top executives at the Administrative Office of the Courts to ensure the new law's requirements are met, HCA spokeswoman Marina Piña said Tuesday. Overhauling New Mexico's system for providing mental health and substance abuse treatment was a major focus during this year's session, amid concerns about the difficulty in finding providers and the current system's ineffectiveness. In addition to the new regional approach that allows local officials to craft plans identifying funding priorities, lawmakers also approved the creation of a new behavioral health trust fund. A $100 million start-up appropriation for the new fund was included in a separate budget bill. The changes come more than a decade after former Gov. Susana Martinez upended New Mexico's behavioral system in 2013, freezing Medicaid funding to 15 providers over fraud and overbilling. All the accused providers were later cleared of wrongdoing. Under the new law, initial standards and evaluation guidelines for behavioral health services must be established by June 1. Monthly updates on the status of the regional behavioral health plans must also be provided, starting next month.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Young women now binge drink more than young men
Young women ages 18 to 25 in the United States are now binge drinking more than their male peers, a reversal of prior trends, according to a new research letter published Wednesday. Binge drinking is defined as a man having five or more alcoholic drinks or a woman having four or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting, or within two to three hours. Heavy drinking refers to men having 15 or more drinks per week and women having eight or more drinks per week, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, researchers found that women ages 18 to 25 reported higher rates of binge drinking than men in the same age group from 2021 to 2023, a reversal of patterns seen in 2017 to 2019. While men in older age groups still drink more heavily overall, this shift among young adult women is raising alarms in the medical community. "That has big implications just for health down the line … [including] the progression to alcohol related liver disease," said Dr. Bryant Shuey, lead author of the study, which was published in JAMA, and a physician at the University of Pittsburgh. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over time, drinking alcohol has been linked to several types of cancers, and excessive alcohol use can lead to heart disease, liver disease and alcohol use disorder. One standard drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. But Shuey said even the same amount of alcohol could affect women differently than men. "We need more education around the harms of alcohol use and how the same amount can pose greater health risks for women than men," Shuey said. 6 taboo facts women should know about alcohol and their health The study only looked at two snapshots in time and didn't follow the same people over time, so they can't say whether these results are due to faster declines in drinking among young men or increasing rates among women, but Shuey pointed to several possibilities, including cultural changes around alcohol use, the likelihood of drinking among the young professional workforce and targeted alcohol marketing toward women. Still, the overall picture is clear: The gender gap in risky alcohol use is narrowing and in the case of young women is flipping. Alcohol linked to greater risk of cancer in women: What to know The findings underscore the need for better screening and intervention strategies, said Shuey. He noted that brief counseling interventions during routine medical visits can reduce alcohol consumption by up to 30% in a six to 12-month period. But many patients are never asked about their drinking. "Screening should be a standardized process in all clinical encounters for risky alcohol use," Shuey said. He noted that asking about alcohol is already recommended in federal medical guidance, but not enough doctors ask the question. Beyond screening, doctors can connect people to treatment, whether that's therapy, mutual support groups, or medications. As for next steps, Shuey said he hopes this research prompts not just clinical action, but public awareness. "There needs to be more education around the harms related to alcohol use, the normalization and the kind of heightened risk that alcohol has specifically to females relative to males," he said. Dr. Jay-Sheree Allen Akambase is a family medicine and preventive medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit. If you or someone close to you needs help for a substance use disorder, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit SAMHSA's Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator. Young women now binge drink more than young men originally appeared on
