A California jury on March 25 found Meta and Google liable for a woman's depression and anxiety tied to compulsive social media use during her childhood, awarding her $6 million in damages, NPR reported. Jurors ordered $3 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages, with Meta responsible for 70% of the total. While the financial impact is negligible for the companies, the ruling is significant as the first jury verdict to treat social media platforms as defective products engineered to exploit the developing brains of children and adolescents. The Los Angeles decision came a day after a jury in a separate New Mexico trial ordered Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect young users from child predators on Instagram and Facebook, finding that the company misled consumers about platform safety and violated state consumer protection laws. That case will move to a second phase in May, when a judge will determine whether Meta created a public nuisance and whether additional penalties are warranted.

Kaiser Permanente's long‐simmering labor tensions over mental health care resulted in picket lines last week when roughly 2,400 therapists staged a one‐day unfair labor practice strike, joined by thousands of registered nurses and stationary engineers in a show of cross‐union solidarity. The walkout on March 18 centered on concerns that Kaiser's expanding use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies was undermining clinical judgment, eroding patient trust and prioritizing efficiency over care.

As the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee examined the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) efforts to combat Medicare and Medicaid fraud during a March 17 hearing, national mental health and addiction organizations emphasized the need to preserve Medicaid's core role in providing access to care while addressing improper payments.

As the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline experiences record demand, many states still lack a plan for its long‐term funding, leaving call centers struggling to keep up with the rising volume, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), which points to 19 million contacts, including 13 million calls since the program's 2022 launch.

The House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 20 released its Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS) spending bill for FY2026, which level‐funded or slightly increased key behavioral health programs funding by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The bill is part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 7148).

Adolescents with treatment‐resistant depression may benefit from magnetic seizure therapy (MST) more quickly — and with fewer drawbacks — than their adult counterparts, according to new research examining age‐based differences in the therapy's effects. The study looks at how young people respond to this emerging neuromodulation technique compared to adults who typically face a longer and more complicated course of illness.

Could an integrated, evidence‐based system of mental health care that has shown results in impoverished and war‐torn countries abroad be ready to flourish across the United States? The co‐developer of the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA) believes there is so much unmet need right now, and dim prospects to reverse the situation under the present framework, that it could be the right time to bring a new model of care to scale.

The need to emphasize public policy work at a critical time in the advocacy community has resulted in another leadership change at the national association Mental Health America (MHA). Mary Giliberti, who had served as MHA's interim president and CEO for three months, is returning to her former role as the organization's chief public policy officer.

The New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies, Inc. , is holding its annual conference, “Evolving Behavioral Health, Advancing Together for 75 Years,” April 14–15, 2026 in Iselin, N.J. For more information, visit http://www.njamhaa.org .