Human Services

We conducted a landscape analysis to understand the characteristics, impacts, and costs associated with medical device shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. Among health systems, nursing homes and rural hospitals were the most impacted by medical device shortages due to high demand and supply transportation issues.

Shifting spending and delivery of long-term services and supports (LTSS) from institutions to the home and community is often referred to as rebalancing. This report and brief describe variation in LTSS rebalancing between 2016 and 2019 by enrollee age, health condition, and demographic factors.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released a report examining trends in prevalence of Long COVID among different types of workers and among individuals who were not working. Workers in different occupations face different risks of COVID infection, and, potentially, Long COVID, depending on the nature of their work.

Older adults with behavioral health disorders often experience worse health and functional outcomes, have higher rates of emergency department visits, use more medications, and have higher health care costs than those without a behavioral health disorder. There is need for a greater understanding of the extent to which older adults experience behavioral health disorders.

This Issue Brief provides a descriptive analysis of postpartum health care use among the Medicaid population before and during the PHE, when the continuous enrollment condition was in effect.

The 2025-2028 Draft Action Plan for Addressing Shortages of Medical Products and Critical Foods and Strengthening the Resilience of Medical Product and Critical Food Supply Chains (“Draft Action Plan”) presents coordinated and strategic actions that the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS,” or “Department”) plans to take from 2025 through 2028.

This brief summarizes results of interviews and focus groups with participants in human services programs about how they view extreme weather and other environmental hazards and their effects on families and communities. Participants discussed acute hazards such as flooding, as well as more chronic problems such as widespread trash, heat, poor air and water quality, and lead.

The National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) call for a sustainable infrastructure to respond to behavioral health crises, through crisis services that are accessible to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Interviews were held with key informants from harm reduction organizations or similar programs from across the United States, to better understand how they are responding to the presence of xylazine in their communities. All participants noted an increase in xylazine prevalence in their communities, ranging from a years-long problem to first being identified in early 2023.

This two-pager presents knowledge gaps and research opportunities elevated during a national convening of child support and child poverty experts. The questions under each topic are opportunities where research can support child support program decision-making surrounding current issues elevated during the convening, though they do not cover the only important questions for study.