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

Today, we’re breaking down:

• How the government shutdown impacts quality healthcare

• All your latest news headlines in under two minutes

Let’s dive in.

- Claire

P.S. I’d love to write about something more cheery, but alas, such is the life of a ✨behavioural health newsletter writer in 2025✨.

What we’re watching this week 

🏥 Healthcare funding is in jeopardy during ongoing shutdown

The government has shut down due to a budget dispute. Here’s how it’s impacting access to care:

On October 1st, the government shut down—and depending on the solution, millions of Americans could see their healthcare premiums more than double.

Extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the sticking point for this whole debacle—and if they aren’t, there’s a lot on the line:

• Over 24M Americans on ACA could see their healthcare premiums increase by a staggering 114%.

• An additional 4M+ people who would otherwise have insurance won’t by 2034.

And, to top things off, while we wait for the verdict:

• All non-essential government services have been suspended.

• Rural hospitals are losing essential funding, with budget claims going unresolved.

• 41% of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers are furloughed, freezing research, oversight, and grant progress.

(So, yeah. If you didn’t realize how big this was before, now you do).

Regardless of how this shutdown is resolved, it has already caused significant shake-ups,

And while we wait to learn our fate, behavioural health specialists need to start preparing for potential funding and resource cuts that could be coming our way.

Now, let’s get your news headlines. 

Catch up quick

This week’s top stories

Latest news

💼 Bernie Sanders warned AI could remove 100M jobs from the American economy, stressed this could happen in the next 10 years.

👜 Women spent 50% more on mental health medications than men in 2024, poorer insurance coverage and higher prescription rates being potential causes.

❤️‍🩹 Rates of opioid use disorder rose 40% in commercially insured patients since 2021, with patients aged 31-40 having the highest diagnosis rate.

🧠 New research found autism has unique subtypes that are genetically distinct from each other, each with different causes.

😔 Multiple novel lawsuits alleged AI chatbots are responsible for encouraging minors to commit suicide and self-harm.

🥪 Nearly half of Americans and one third of Republicans report everyday expenses and groceries are more expensive under Trump.

💊 The FDA requires opioid drug manufacturers to update labels, include direct call-out to risk of overdose, addiction, and withdrawal symptoms.

♥️ Also related: the FDA approved generic version of abortion drug Mifepristone, causing outrage from anti-abortion groups.

💵 Pfizer agreed to reduce drug prices in US to match international levels, working with the “most favoured nation” pricing model.

😞 The Supreme Court to debate state regulation control over conversion therapy bans, despite medical associations advocating for its harmful outcomes.

💔 Suicide rates in young adults aged 18-27 increased nearly 20% from 2014-2024, rise in the country’s mental health crisis to blame.

🌧️ 170 hospitals (nearly 30,000 patient beds) across America at risk of flood damage, with the potential to significantly jeopardize care.

🤖 OpenAI explores creating a network of mental health professionals, give users direct access through ChatGPT platform.

📊 New model outlining life satisfaction shows that increases in mental health are the biggest predictor of life satisfaction.

🎶 K-pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER launched mental health campaign with UNICEF, label pledged $1.4M to the cause.

🥰 New York state expanded mental health care, adding 13 new certified clinics offering trauma-informed care.

Funding rounds & investor moves

💸 Hipp Health, an AI-native platform for behavioural health providers, secured $6.2M in seed funding.

💰 Blossom Health, a virtual psychiatry and AI platform, raised $18M during investment round.

🤝 Empatica acquires PKG Health, plans to use movement disorder algorithms to improve health wearables.

Studies & opinion pieces

🤔 The autism epidemic isn’t the biggest public health problem right now, the recent rise in ableism is (opinion).

🥗 Menorexia, the tendency for middle-aged women to develop eating disorders, is a health crisis we aren’t paying attention to (opinion).

🧑‍💻 Privacy-perserving machine learning models show promising results in early detection of autism by reviewing children’s speech transcripts (study).

🧠 This isn’t the first time mothers have been blamed for autism, and it won’t be the last (opinion).

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

- Claire :)

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