Brought to you by:

Welcome to The Census, your biweekly roundup of what matters in behavioral health care.

Today, we’re breaking down:

• The rise in abuse of rural care practitioners

• All your latest news headlines in under two minutes

Let’s dive in.

- Claire

What we’re watching this week 

🤬 Rural doctors are on the frontlines of the misinformation epidemic

Medical misinformation is everywhere—but as our healthcare system continues to be attacked, rural doctors are the ones taking the heat.

Look. Being a healthcare professional has never been easy—but recently, things have taken a turn:

• The spread of medical misinformation has led to a rise in verbal and physical violence against caregivers.

• Up to 76% of healthcare workers report experiencing violence at work, with over 80% experiencing verbal abuse from patients.

It’s clear that the patient-provider relationship is strained across the board—but it’s even worse for rural doctors facing the brunt of medical misinformation rage alone.

• A rural oncologist was called a “liberal b*tch” by a patient’s spouse because she asked him to wear a mask.

• The same doctor has also been called a “pharma whore,” and was told that sunscreen is full of “cancer-causing chemicals.”

To make things worse, rural providers are few and far between, with only 30 doctors per 100,000 people, compared to 263 in urban centers.

It’s a concerning time for both sides. 

Rural healthcare workers are burnt out and undersupported. Patients are confused, angry, and increasingly misinformed.

So until we see larger-scale movement to tackle medical misinformation and fund rural healthcare initiatives,

Behavioral health specialists shouldn’t be shocked if we experience increased patient confusion and possible hostility, regardless of where we work.

Now, let’s get your news headlines. 

Catch up quick

This week’s top stories

Latest news

😔 40% of Gen Z use Chatbots for at least an hour a day, many relying on AI for mental health support.

😞 LGBTQ+ people have higher amounts of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation than before, non-binary and trans people having the highest risk.

🎰 The president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine warned of impact of funding cuts to treatment, rising threat of gambling popularity.

🍄 Psilocybin and mindfulness therapy found to provide significant relief of depression symptoms of frontline healthcare workers.

🧑‍⚕️ Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz concerned that “Dr. Google” will be replaced by “Dr. AI” as more patients rely on AI for health advice.

🤖 A Google roundtable revealed 46% of healthcare executives are allocated more than half of their future AI budgets to exploring AI agents.

❄️ Pacific Mind Health launched its Mood and Emotions Tracker, a free resource for patients to reflect on their mood during winter months.

❌ The HHS claimed it can fire almost 1000 workers, despite judge pausing layoffs during continued government shutdown.

🙄 RFK. Jr claimed children given Tylenol after circumcision were more likely to develop autism, despite no scientific evidence.

🍎 Millions of Americans at risk of losing SNAP food benefits as Trump administration threatens cuts during government shutdown.

▶️ YouTube launched mental health section for teens, making it easier for teens aged 13-17 to find resources on anxiety, depression, ADHD, and more.

📱Tampa Bay General Hospital partnered with Krew Social, a map-based social well-being app to tackle member loneliness and burnout.

⌚️ California county rolled out program to use smartwatches to help track missing patients with dementia, autism, and Alzheimer’s.

🍟 Ultra-processed foods may be addictive, with addiction-like behaviours being more common in middle-aged people 50-80 years old.

🧠 Healthcare company Health Net settled with California Attorney General for $40M, mislead consumers with inaccurate mental health directories.

Funding rounds & investor moves

💰 Marble Health, a virtual youth mental health company for students, secured $15.5M in Series A funding.

💸 Lila Sciences, a company aiming to create an AI-based supercomputer, raised $350M in Series A funding.

💵 MD Integrations, a telemedicine API platform to improve virtual patient care, secured $77M in funding from partners.

Studies & opinion pieces

🏥 Involuntary hospitalization for mental health may be more destabilizing than good, removes patient from supports (opinion).

♥️ Outcomes of autism care may not be connected to the amount provided, symptom severity and socioeconomic status have a bigger impact (study).

🖥️ AI can be easily convinced to share medical misinformation, including fake studies about vaccines and autism (opinion).

👾 Regulating AI use in behavioural health will be a massive challenge due to lack of maturity in analytics (opinion).

That’s it for this week! I’ll catch ya next time with more headlines.

- Claire :)

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help.

• 📈 Grow your healthcare or wellness business on autopilot. Apply to work with Quantum Leads. 

• ✨ Take all the stress out of hosting your perfect behavioral health event. Chat to the Turn Productions team.

• 📣 Promote your brand to 5k+ behavioral healthcare executives. Sponsor The Census.

• ✍️ Need something else? Reply to this email. We read every response.

Did someone forward you this mail? Wow, you have cool friends. Join us!