Health and Human Services

Point-in-time counts show government officials how and where homelessness impacts communities, informing the equitable distribution of resources. GIS tech and new processes are improving the accuracy of these counts.

Offerings from companies like Lyssn and Biobot Analytics have the potential to majorly change not only how people access physical and mental health services, but how government responds to those needs.

The state’s Department of Health Care Services is also working with K-12 districts to make the Soluna and BrightLife Kids digital mental health apps available on school-issued devices and in school wellness centers.

In a discussion about the near future, the writers and editors at Governing walk through the legislative issues to keep an eye on this year. Technology, budget and transportation top the list.

As part of California's $4.7 billion program to address the teen mental health crisis, Los Angeles Unified School District will make free mental health services accessible to all its K-12 students through Hazel Health.

Students aged 13 and up at Baltimore County Public Schools have free access to the online therapy messaging platform Talkspace, which will give them an assessment and match them with a licensed therapist.

A junior at Indiana University built an app that checks in with users daily and learns more about them as they talk to it, referring them to therapists if needed. He sold the app to a Silicon Valley tech firm.

A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; Galea; and 10 other researchers lays out ways that society can help improve teens' interactions with social media.

Data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicates that the average U.S. hospital experiences nearly five falls per 1,000 patient days, but some hope new tech can address that.

After many years of predictions about the rise of telehealth, the vast changes in health care brought about by the pandemic are giving it momentum like never before in this current moment.

At Syracuse University, professors from two different academic departments are developing an AI-powered treatment method they hope will weaken heroin or oxycodone cravings caused by neurophysiological stress.

The affected health-care systems were hit by the cyber attack on Thanksgiving Day, and they were forced to divert ambulances in the aftermath, according to officials with Ardent Health Services.

Conemaugh Township Area High School will use a federal grant to buy classroom technology such as interactive projectors, laptops and display boards, and to implement a telemedicine system with two Telemed Carts.

The state of Pennsylvania has announced the addition of select resources to the electronic Power Library, providing constituents with tools to learn new languages, learn about their heritage and more.

The breach affected more than half of the data held by state’s Department of Health and Human Services, as well as data from other agencies. The incident affects 1.3 million people, in some cases exposing Social Security numbers.

Harris County officials are investigating the extent of a recent ransomware attack on the county's provider for mental health services. They noted that some employee files have become inaccessible because of encryption.

Although several uses of artificial intelligence in mental health are showing some success, experts say the jury is still out on the technology’s capabilities for more extensive use.

Dallas County Health and Human Services is continuing to enhance the public health platform that it centralized several years ago to monitor and improve the health of county residents and prepare for any future health crises.