Good morning!

It’s April already?! The year is flying by.

In other news, did you know that April is National Brunch Month (bring on the Mimosas without a 2-hour time limit), National Financial Literacy Month, National Autism Awareness Month, and National Pecan Month?

Today’s question is a simple one: How many social workers are employed in the United States?

News

Social media and mental health

We constantly blame technology, and in particular social media, for our society’s plague of mental illness. This is underscored by recently launched investigations across the U.S. into the potentially harmful effects that TikTok has on its young users.

The relationship between technology and mental health, however, is not so clear.

The Tsimane are a remote Amazonian tribe that obtains ninety percent of their diet from growing maize, rice, and plantains. They supplement this with fish, fruits, and honey. A small minority have electricity and very few have access to television or electrical appliances. They also live in small and intimate communities, share food, interact face-to-face, and walk at least 15,000 steps per day. All of this contributes to them having “the ‘lowest reported’ levels of coronary artery disease of any population recorded to date.”

Yet despite their seemingly blissful lifestyle, they are just as susceptible to depression as isolated and sedentary Americans. Why do the Tsimane feel depressed? The main two reasons appear to be related to physical injury and social conflict, which makes sense given their lifestyle. If a person has a physical injury and their productivity goes down, they may feel useless. And because they live in such small and intimate communities, there may be extra pain and sensitivity associated with social conflict.

All of this points to the notion that mental health and mental illness are innate to the human condition, regardless of whether we live in Eden or in 21st-century New York City. It also leads us to question just how much influence social media has on our mental health.

Other social work-related news

• How is the Ukraine war affecting children’s mental health?

• Cuomo set out to “transform” mental health care for kids. Now they can’t get treatment

• Alaska Airlines launches gender-neutral uniform policy for flight attendants and other staff

Policy

Biden’s 2023 Budget

President Biden’s 2023 budget includes investments of over $50 billion over 10 years to improve mental health. Where will this money be allocated?

• $7.4 billion will go towards the new Mental Health Transformation Fund, which aims to expand access to mental health

• $35.4 billion will be used to improve mental health access in Medicaid

• $4.1 billion will go towards permanently extending funding for Community Mental Health Centers

• $1.2 billion to improve access to behavioral health services in the private insurance market, including a proposal to require coverage of three behavioral health visits with no enrollee cost-sharing

• $11 billion, including $10.4 billion in discretionary funding, in programs addressing opioids and overdose-related activities across HHS

Other reads on policy

• How Marijuana taxes could fund mental health care for millions

• 'I cannot teach in Florida': LGBTQ educators fear fallout from new school law

Reads on research

• Social media might be bad for teens’ mental health at certain age windows

• Is music beneficial for mental health?

• Why women's health research needs to move on from "bikini medicine"

Answer: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were an estimated 680,000 social workers employed in the United States in 2016. This number has only increased since then.

P.S. Make sure that the newsletter is hitting your inbox and not your spam/junk mail. If you need help on how to do this, you can reference this article.