Teens Archives - LeapZine

$102,000 was the bill for her teen’s stay in a state mental hospital : Shots

July 20, 2023 Dania

Bridget Narsh at her home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Narsh’s son has autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and ADHD. In 2020, he spent more than 100 days at Central Regional Hospital, a state-run mental health facility. The state billed the family nearly $102,000 for the hospitalizations.

Eamon Queeney/KFF Health News

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Eamon Queeney/KFF Health News

Bridget Narsh’s son, Mason, needed urgent help in January 2020, so she was offered the chance to send him to Central Regional Hospital, a state-run mental health facility in Butner, North Carolina.

The teen, who deals with autism and post-traumatic stress and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders, had started destroying furniture and running away from home. His mother worried for the safety of Mason and the rest of the family.

But children in crisis in North Carolina can wait weeks or months for a psychiatric bed because the state lacks the services to meet demand. And when spots do become available, they are expensive.

The standard rate at Central Regional was $1,338 a day, which Narsh could not afford. So, when a patient relations representative offered a discounted rate of less than $60 a day, her husband, Nathan, signed an agreement.

Mason, now 17, was hospitalized for more than 100 days in Central Regional over two separate stays that year, documents show.

But when requests for payment arrived the following year, Narsh said she was shocked. The letters — which were marked “final notice” and requested immediate payment — were signed by a paralegal in the office of Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general. The total bill, $101,546.49, was significantly more than the roughly $6,700 the Narshes expected to pay under their agreement with the hospital.

“I had to tell myself to keep my cool,” says Bridget Narsh, 44, who lives with her husband and three children in Chapel Hill. “There is no way I could pay for this.”

Medical bills have upended the lives of millions of Americans, with hospitals putting liens on homes and pushing many people into bankruptcy. In recent years, lawmakers have railed against privately operated hospitals, and states have passed laws intended to make medical billing more transparent and limit aggressive debt collection tactics.

Medical debt upended their lives. Here's what it took from them

Some state attorneys general — as their states’ top law enforcement officials — have pursued efforts to shield residents from harmful billing and debt collection practices. But in the name of protecting taxpayer resources, their offices are also often responsible for collecting unpaid debts for state-run facilities, which can put them in a contradictive position.

Stein, a Democrat running for governor in 2024, has made hospital consolidation and health care price transparency a key issue during his time in office.

“I have real concerns about this

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PLANET FITNESS INVITES HIGH SCHOOL TEENS TO WORK OUT FOR FREE ALL SUMMER LONG TO IMPROVE THEIR MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH

May 3, 2022 Dania

High School Summer Pass was formally known as Teen Summer Challenge, which was the first program of its kind launched in 2019 and saw more than 900,000 teens sign-up and complete more than 5.5 million workouts over a three-and-a-half-month period. Starting today, high schoolers can visit PlanetFitness.com/SummerPass to pre-register, and get a reminder to formally sign up when the program officially kicks off on Monday, May 16. Teens under 18 must register with a parent or guardian online or in-club.

PLANET FITNESS EMPOWERS TEENS TO STAY ACTIVE

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, less than 15 percent of teens met the 60-minute daily physical activity recommendation during the pandemic.** And a national study*** commissioned by Planet Fitness found that 93 percent of American teens want to stay healthy and active over the summer months, but many lack motivation or access to do so. High School Summer Pass offers a solution for teenagers eager to stay active when school sports programs, gym classes and after school activities wind down.

“As the leader in fitness, we believe we have a responsibility to provide a welcoming, safe, and Judgement Free environment for high school students to improve their physical and mental wellness, particularly given the challenges they have and continue to face in the wake of the pandemic,” said Chris Rondeau, Chief Executive Officer at Planet Fitness. “Our study found that nearly all (92 percent) high school students agreed that when they are regularly physically active, they feel much better mentally. Fitness is about feeling good, too, and our hope is that High School Summer Pass empowers teens to create life-long workout habits to help them succeed in every aspect of their lives.”

To further motivate high schoolers to make fitness a priority, all participants who sign up starting May 16 are automatically entered into The Planet Fitness High School Summer Pass Sweepstakes. Planet Fitness will award one $500 scholarship in each state (and the District of Columbia), and one grand prize $5,000 scholarship at the end of the summer****. These scholarships can be used for academic or athletic activities or programs.

INSIGHT INTO TEEN HEALTH & FITNESS

To uncover how high schoolers view health and fitness today, Planet Fitness commissioned a national study in partnership with Material to shed light on mental and physical health from both teens’ and parents’ perspectives. Although negatively impacted by the pandemic, teens are ready to make a commitment to getting healthy, both physically and mentally.

Key findings include:

Physical Fitness for the Win. Despite three in five teens (60 percent) reporting their usual health and fitness routines were severely disrupted over the last two years, nearly all (89 percent) of their parents credit regular exercise and physical activity as helping their teens cope with the challenges of the pandemic. And nearly all (92 percent) teens agree that when they are regularly physically active, they feel much better mentally.

Although many teens make exercise and fitness a priority

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‘It’s Everyday living or Death’: The Mental Well being Crisis Between U.S. Teens

April 28, 2022 Dania

How the reporter Matt Richtel spoke to adolescents and mothers and fathers for this collection

In mid-April, I was speaking to the mom of a suicidal teenager whose struggles I have been intently adhering to. I requested how her daughter was carrying out.

Not nicely, the mother said: “If we just can’t obtain a thing drastic to assist this kid, this child will not be listed here extensive-term.” She started off to cry. “It’s out of our palms, it is out of our management,” she reported. “We’re trying all the things.”

She added: “It’s like waiting for the finish.”

Above practically 18 months of reporting, I obtained to know quite a few adolescents and their family members and interviewed dozens of health professionals, therapists and gurus in the science of adolescence. I listened to wrenching stories of pain and uncertainty. From the outset, my editors and I reviewed how best to take care of the identities of people today in crisis.

The Periods sets a substantial bar for granting resources anonymity our stylebook phone calls it “a final resort” for situations where by critical facts cannot be published any other way. Often, the resources may possibly deal with a risk to their profession or even their protection, whether or not from a vindictive boss or a hostile govt.

In this situation, the need for anonymity experienced a unique imperative: to protect the privacy of younger, susceptible adolescents. They have self-harmed and tried suicide, and some have threatened to consider all over again. In recounting their tales, we had to be aware that our 1st obligation was to their protection.

If The Periods published the names of these adolescents, they could be easily recognized several years later. Would that harm their employment prospects? Would a teen — a lawful minimal — later on regret acquiring uncovered his or her identification throughout a interval of ache and wrestle? Would looking at the tale released amplify ongoing crises?

As a result, some young people are discovered by very first preliminary only some of their mother and father are recognized by very first title or first. About months, I received to know M, J and C, and in Kentucky, I arrived to know battling adolescents I identified only by their ages, 12, 13 and 15. In some tales, we did not publish precisely where by the households lived.

Everyone I interviewed gave their very own consent, and parents ended up usually current for the interviews with their adolescents. On a few instances, a mother or father supplied to leave the area, or an adolescent questioned for privateness and the mum or dad agreed.

In these articles or blog posts, I listened to grief, confusion and a determined research for solutions. The voices of adolescents and their mom and dad, whilst shielded by anonymity, deepen an comprehension of this mental wellbeing crisis.

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Texas trans teens shut out from medical care amid GOP efforts

March 25, 2022 Dania

For LGBTQ mental health support, call the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 800-273-8255 or texting 741741.

Jennifer’s 15-year-old son had been on testosterone therapy for only two weeks when she got a call from his doctor. The exchange felt “very clandestine,” she said.

“He calls from his personal number, calls my personal number [and] doesn’t use my child’s name because he’s scared somebody is recording the conversation,” Jennifer said.

The doctor told her he could no longer prescribe her son’s treatment. The medical malpractice insurance carrier, he explained, had stopped covering doctors who offered hormone therapy to minors.

The doctor’s call came a week after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered investigations into parents and licensed facilities that provide standard medical care to transgender teenagers. Abbott’s order was based on a nonbinding interpretation from Attorney General Ken Paxton that classified puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical care as child abuse.

Jennifer asked The Texas Tribune not to disclose her last name because she fears the state could launch an investigation into her family for obtaining hormone therapy.

Leading medical organizations across the country say gender-affirming care is the best way to provide care for transgender children. It primarily involves choices around name, pronouns and clothing that align with a child’s gender identity. It can eventually include puberty blockers and hormone treatment. Surgical care is rarely, if ever, performed on teenagers.

On Monday, a state appeals court reinstated a lower court’s injunction temporarily halting the investigation of transgender kids’ parents and medical providers. The court says the injunction will remain in place while an appeal of the decision plays out.

But in response to the Texas GOP’s recent efforts to limit scientifically backed gender-affirming care, LGBTQ advocates say hospitals, insurance companies and pharmacies across the state had already started restricting critical treatment for fear of legal consequences.

Health care providers worry they could lose their medical licenses if they don’t abide by Abbott’s directive.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told the Tribune that Abbott’s directive has had a chilling effect on health care practitioners, hospital systems and clinics.

“What’s happening right now is the state inserting itself between doctors, patients and families,” Murthy said. “That runs counter to the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship.”

Transgender teenagers now are grappling with narrowing access to medical care in a state where adequate, inclusive health care is already hard to come by. The lack of access has driven some to secure a substandard quality of care and others to stop seeking care altogether.

Jennifer said the doctor’s decision to stop hormone therapy was devastating for her family. She had searched for months for a pediatrician who would use her son’s correct pronouns and respect his identity. She had combed through parent Facebook groups and left voicemails with multiple health care centers before she met

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How the reporter Matt Richtel spoke to adolescents and mothers and fathers for this collection

Latest in the series: Transgender Texans