Melvin Mario James Landry, 42, of San Jacinto allegedly killed Gilbert Wah in 2020.

A Banning jury deliberated two days in January before deadlocking, after which Riverside County Superior Court Judge Rene Navarro declared a mistrial.

The case was transferred a week ago from the Banning Justice Center to the Riverside Hall of Justice, where Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz began summoning panels of prospective jurors for screening as to their availability and qualifications.

The judge is expected to swear in a panel Monday afternoon, with opening statements possible Tuesday morning.

Landry, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail, is charged with murder and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.

According to a trial brief filed by the prosecution, on the night of July 23, 2020, Wah, his wife, Octavia Wah, and Landry got together at the victim’s house at 801 S. Camino Los Banos to “drink alcohol and smoke marijuana.”

The defense said in its brief Landry was in the midst of a divorce from his wife, Sylvia Joshua, because “he was caught cheating” on her. He was also suffering depression from the recent death of his mother and was upset that his sister had moved out of the area.

As he, the victim and Octavia Wah drank and smoked long into the night, tensions escalated due to Gilbert Wah’s references to Landry as a “pussy” and “bitch” — demeaning terms used to describe the defendant’s relationship with his wife, according to the prosecution’s brief.

Shortly after 3 a.m. on July 24, Wah became aggressive, slapping Landry across the face, the brief stated.

The defendant did not hit back, but instead went to his Dodge Durango pickup parked in front of the house, grabbed a semiautomatic handgun, then returned to the house and confronted Wah, firing a single shot into his heart, prosecutors allege.

The victim died on the spot.

His wife struck Landry and attempted to stop him from leaving, but he got away from her in his pickup. She called 911, and patrol deputies converged on the location.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Thurm said as personnel were gearing up to begin a search, Landry “returned to the scene and surrendered.”

Court records show the defendant has a prior misdemeanor conviction in Riverside County for driving under the influence. He has a felony conviction in another jurisdiction, but the offense wasn’t listed.

Court papers indicated Wah, too, had a record, including battery on a peace officer in another state, as well as a fraud conviction locally.

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The research also finds that casual cannabis use puts teens at risk for problem behaviors, including poor grades, truancy, and trouble with the law, which can have long-term negative consequences that may keep youth from developing their full potential in adulthood.

Co-author Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said, “The new findings suggest that the roughly 2.5 million young people in the United States who casually use cannabis are at increased risk for a range of adverse events from depression to poor school performance.  This group is almost four times larger than those who meet formal criteria for cannabis use disorder. Contrary to the growing public acceptance of moderate cannabis use, these new results suggest that clinicians should screen, evaluate, and, when appropriate, treat adolescents who casually use cannabis.”  

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By Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

Increases in depression without commensurate increases in treatment are widespread, reports a study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and City University of New York. In 2020, past 12‒month depression was prevalent among nearly one in ten Americans and almost one in five adolescents and young adults. The findings are published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Data were drawn from the 2015−2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a nationally representative study of U.S. individuals aged 12 years and older. Major depression is the most common mental disorder in the U.S. and is the strongest risk factor for suicide behavior. Previous findings show an increase in depression in the U.S. population from 6.6 percent in 2005 to 7.3 percent in 2015.

“Our study updates the depression prevalence estimates for the U.S. population through the year 2020 and confirms escalating increases in depression from 2015 through 2019, reflecting a public health crisis that was intensifying in the U.S. even before the onset of the pandemic,” said Renee D. Goodwin, PhD, an adjunct professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, professor of epidemiology at The City University of New York, and lead author. “The net effect of these trends suggests an accelerating public health crisis and that parity and public-service announcement efforts have not achieved equity in depression treatment.”

In 2020, 9 percent of Americans aged 12 or older experienced a past-year major depressive episode. Depression was more common among young adults aged 18 to 25 years at slightly more than 17 percent, and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (17 percent). Depression increased most rapidly among adolescents and young adults and increased among nearly all gender, racial/ethnic, income, and education groups. However, depression prevalence did not change among adults aged 35 and over. Overall, prevalence of help seeking remained consistently low. 

“Our results showed most adolescents with depression neither told or talked with a healthcare professional about depression symptoms nor received pharmacologic treatment from 2015 through 2020,” noted Goodwin.

The prevalence of depression among non-Hispanic white individuals exceeded that of all other race/ethnic groups. Depression also was consistently higher among women compared to men, and among adults who were not currently or previously married. While there was an increase in depression from 2015 to 2019 among those in each income group, the highest prevalence of depression was evident among those with the lowest household income. 

“The elevated level and concentration of untreated depression among adolescents and young adults are especially problematic because untreated depression early in life is predictive of an increased risk of subsequent additional mental health problems,” said Goodwin. “The short- and long-term consequences of the pandemic on depression are not yet clear, but these estimates are a requisite starting point for quantifying the mental health impact of the pandemic. Expanding evidence-based, community-based, public-facing campaigns that promote help-seeking, early intervention, prevention, and education about depression are urgently needed.”

Co-authors include Lisa Dierker, Wesleyan University; Melody Wu, Columbia Mailman School; Sandro Galea, Boston University School of Public Health; Christina Hoven, Columbia Mailman School, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia; and Andrea H. Weinberger, Yeshiva University, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. 

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A multinational survey of healthcare providers in the Americas found high rates of depression and suicidal ideation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Less than one third of those who said they needed psychological care received it.

The COVID-19 HEalth caRe wOrkErs Study (HEROES) Regional Report from the Americas is available at the website of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which co-led the study with Columbia University and the University of Chile. Ezra Susser, professor of epidemiology and psychiatry at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and New York State Psychiatric Institute, Franco Mascayano, a PhD student of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman, and Ruben Alvarado, a professor at the University of Chile launched HEROES in 2020. Dozens of institutions collaborated across the globe: this report pertains to those in Latin America. 

A survey of 14,502 health care workers in 11 countries and territories (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela) found that between 15 and 22 percent of health care workers presented symptoms that led to suspicion of a depressive episode, with Chile accounting for the highest rate. The figures for suicidal ideation ranged between 5 and 15 percent of respondents, with the highest rates in Chile and Bolivia. Data data collection was done between July 2020 and May 2021.

The most important risk factors included the need for emotional and economic support, concern about infecting family members, conflicts with family members of infected persons, and changes in usual job duties. The most important protective factors were trusting that the health care institution and the government could handle the pandemic, having children under 18, having the support of coworkers, and considering oneself a spiritual or religious person.

The HEROES report finds no evidence of specific mental health policies developed by Latin American governments in the participating countries. Policy analysis was carried out by the Ibero-American Network of Health Studies and Public Policies (RESPI), formed by members of HEROES and collaborators.

The report recommends the creation of healthcare policies for the mental health, particularly for health care workers, including caregivers. The authors write that early detection of mental illness is key, and support for health teams is needed within and beyond the workplace, including reducing barriers to access, such as privacy concerns.

The International Network of Mental Health Care Practices and Experiences (RIPEC-SM), currently comprised of representatives of universities, social organizations, State institutions, and trade unions is highlighting and sharing practices, experiences, and resources for mental health care online.

The report concludes: “Protecting the mental health of health teams should be an important component of countries’ strategies for dealing with the post-pandemic period, in which health care providers will continue to play a key role in addressing delayed care and physical and psychosocial rehabilitation needs.”

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The program began in March and will run through the fall of 2022.

Members who elected to participate were invited to download the Pyx App on their smart phones or tablets, which immediately connects to Pyx-ir, an interactive robot. Pyx-ir will regularly converse, ask wellness questions and connect Members to IEHP services and call centers, depending on need.

The program’s services rolled out to English and Spanish speaking Members who receive both Medicare and Medi-Cal benefits (Cal MediConnect Members), as well as Medi-Cal Members who are seniors with a disability or have been identified as unable to leave their homes and are at a greater risk for loneliness.

“Isolation and stay-at-home orders have tremendously impacted these populations in the last two years,” said Anna Edwards, IEHP’s Care Management Clinical Director. “Our partnership with Pyx Health will extend care beyond the health plan’s usual business hours and truly meet the Members where they are.”

For continuity of care, Pyx Health will provide the health plan with comprehensive reports based on Member screenings to connect Members with additional resources at the plan level. If needed, Members will also have the option to connect with Pyx Health’s Compassionate Call Center representatives who will be able to route information and reports to IEHP’s Care Management Team.

“In addition to usual health plan services, we believe our partnership with Pyx Health will provide Members a unique aspect of personalized care,” said Dr. Takashi Wada, IEHP’s Chief Medical Officer. “We’re eager to learn how this pilot program and type of service can engage Members in their own health and how it will positively impact their overall wellness.”

About IEHP

With a mission to heal and inspire the human spirit, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) is one of the top 10 largest Medicaid health plans and the largest not-for-profit Medicare-Medicaid plan in the country. In its 25th year, IEHP is supporting nearly 1.5 million residents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties who are enrolled in Medicaid or Cal MediConnect Plans and has a growing network of over 7,500 providers and nearly 2,500 Team Members. Through dynamic partnerships with Providers and Community Organizations, paired with award-winning service and a tradition of quality care, IEHP is fully committed to their vision: We will not rest until our communities enjoy optimal care and vibrant health. For more information, visit iehp.org.

Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) | Contributed

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The program began in March and will run through the fall of 2022.

Members who elected to participate were invited to download the Pyx App on their smart phones or tablets, which immediately connects to Pyx-ir, an interactive robot. Pyx-ir will regularly converse, ask wellness questions and connect Members to IEHP services and call centers, depending on need.

The program’s services rolled out to English and Spanish speaking Members who receive both Medicare and Medi-Cal benefits (Cal MediConnect Members), as well as Medi-Cal Members who are seniors with a disability or have been identified as unable to leave their homes and are at a greater risk for loneliness.  

“Isolation and stay-at-home orders have tremendously impacted these populations in the last two years,” said Anna Edwards, IEHP’s Care Management Clinical Director. “Our partnership with Pyx Health will extend care beyond the health plan’s usual business hours and truly meet the Members where they are.”

For continuity of care, Pyx Health will provide the health plan with comprehensive reports based on Member screenings to connect Members with additional resources at the plan level. If needed, Members will also have the option to connect with Pyx Health’s Compassionate Call Center representatives who will be able to route information and reports to IEHP’s Care Management Team.

“In addition to usual health plan services, we believe our partnership with Pyx Health will provide Members a unique aspect of personalized care,” said Dr. Takashi Wada, IEHP’s Chief Medical Officer. “We’re eager to learn how this pilot program and type of service can engage Members in their own health and how it will positively impact their overall wellness.”

About IEHP
With a mission to heal and inspire the human spirit, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) is one of the top 10 largest Medicaid health plans and the largest not-for-profit Medicare-Medicaid plan in the country. In its 25^th year, IEHP is supporting nearly 1.5 million residents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties who are enrolled in Medicaid or Cal MediConnect Plans and has a growing network of over 7,500 providers and nearly 2,500 Team Members. Through dynamic partnerships with Providers and Community Organizations, paired with award-winning service and a tradition of quality care, IEHP is fully committed to their vision: We will not rest until our communities enjoy optimal care and vibrant health.  For more information, visit iehp.org.

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After the 2007-09 financial crisis, the imbalances and risks pervading the global economy were exacerbated by policy mistakes. So, rather than address the structural problems that the financial collapse and ensuing recession revealed, governments mostly kicked the can down the road, creating major downside risks that made another crisis inevitable. And now that it has arrived, the risks are growing even more acute. Unfortunately, even if the Greater Recession leads to a lackluster U-shaped recovery this year, an L-shaped “Greater Depression” will follow later in this decade, owing to ten ominous and risky trends.

The first trend concerns deficits and their corollary risks: debts and defaults. The policy response to the COVID-19 crisis entails a massive increase in fiscal deficits – on the order of 10% of GDP or more – at a time when public debt levels in many countries were already high, if not unsustainable.

Worse, the loss of income for many households and firms means that private-sector debt levels will become unsustainable, too, potentially leading to mass defaults and bankruptcies. Together with soaring levels of public debt, this all but ensures a more anemic recovery than the one that followed the Great Recession a decade ago.

A second factor is the demographic time bomb in advanced economies. The COVID-19 crisis shows that much more public spending must be allocated to health systems, and that universal health care and other relevant public goods are necessities, not luxuries. Yet, because most developed countries have aging societies, funding such outlays in the future will make the implicit debts from today’s unfunded healthcare and social-security systems even larger.

A third issue is the growing risk of deflation. In addition to causing a deep recession, the crisis is also creating a massive slack in goods (unused machines and capacity) and labor markets (mass unemployment), as well as driving a price collapse in commodities such as oil and industrial metals. That makes debt deflation likely, increasing the risk of insolvency.

A fourth (related) factor will be currency debasement. As central banks try to fight deflation and head off the risk of surging interest rates (following from the massive debt build-up), monetary policies will become even more unconventional and far-reaching. In the short run, governments will need to run monetized fiscal deficits to avoid depression and deflation. Yet, over time, the permanent negative supply shocks from accelerated de-globalization and renewed protectionism will make stagflation all but inevitable.

A fifth issue is the broader digital disruption of the economy. With millions of people losing their jobs or working and earning less, the income and wealth gaps of the twenty-first-century economy will widen further. To guard against future supply-chain shocks, companies in advanced economies will re-shore production from low-cost regions to higher-cost domestic markets. But rather than helping workers at home, this trend will accelerate the pace of automation, putting downward pressure on wages and further fanning the flames of populism, nationalism, and xenophobia.

This points to the sixth major factor: de-globalization. The pandemic is accelerating trends toward balkanization and fragmentation that were already well underway. The United States and China will decouple faster, and most countries will respond by adopting still more protectionist policies to shield domestic firms and workers from global disruptions. The post-pandemic world will be marked by tighter restrictions on the movement of goods, services, capital, labor, technology, data, and information. This is already happening in the pharmaceutical, medical-equipment, and food sectors, where governments are imposing export restrictions and other protectionist measures in response to the crisis.3

The backlash against democracy will reinforce this trend. Populist leaders often benefit from economic weakness, mass unemployment, and rising inequality. Under conditions of heightened economic insecurity, there will be a strong impulse to scapegoat foreigners for the crisis. Blue-collar workers and broad cohorts of the middle class will become more susceptible to populist rhetoric, particularly proposals to restrict migration and trade.1

This points to an eighth factor: the geostrategic standoff between the US and China. With the Trump administration making every effort to blame China for the pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime will double down on its claim that the US is conspiring to prevent China’s peaceful rise. The Sino-American decoupling in trade, technology, investment, data, and monetary arrangements will intensify.

Worse, this diplomatic breakup will set the stage for a new cold war between the US and its rivals – not just China, but also Russia, Iran, and North Korea. With a US presidential election approaching, there is every reason to expect an upsurge in clandestine cyber warfare, potentially leading even to conventional military clashes. And because technology is the key weapon in the fight for control of the industries of the future and in combating pandemics, the US private tech sector will become increasingly integrated into the national-security-industrial complex.

A final risk that cannot be ignored is environmental disruption, which, as the COVID-19 crisis has shown, can wreak far more economic havoc than a financial crisis. Recurring epidemics (HIV since the 1980s, SARS in 2003, H1N1 in 2009, MERS in 2011, Ebola in 2014-16) are, like climate change, essentially man-made disasters, born of poor health and sanitary standards, the abuse of natural systems, and the growing interconnectivity of a globalized world. Pandemics and the many morbid symptoms of climate change will become more frequent, severe, and costly in the years ahead.

These ten risks, already looming large before COVID-19 struck, now threaten to fuel a perfect storm that sweeps the entire global economy into a decade of despair. By the 2030s, technology and more competent political leadership may be able to reduce, resolve, or minimize many of these problems, giving rise to a more inclusive, cooperative, and stable international order. But any happy ending assumes that we find a way to survive the coming Greater Depression.

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Psychoanalysis, often stereotyped in arts and literature as patients reclining on couches and talking about their mothers, is enjoying renewed scientific support. Studies have found that psychoanalytic therapies are evidence-based and lead to significant improvements in mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress.

According to recent research, psychoanalytic therapies achieve lasting results by exploring underlying causes of one’s mental health issues. This deeper exploration gets to the root of a person’s symptoms and sets psychoanalysis apart from more superficial therapies that only treat symptoms. By looking closely at each person’s life, psychoanalytic therapies help one feel more understood as a unique individual, improve personal relationships, relieve painful emotional symptoms, and change life-long ways of coping.

This is not your father’s psychoanalysis. In fact, in a 2019 survey conducted by PsychoanalysisNow, 400 psychoanalysts in the United States highlighted the realities of psychoanalysis and how it works. Almost all the professionals surveyed (96 percent) said they regularly conduct therapy either once or twice per week, which is feasible for most patients’ schedules. The stereotype of lying on a couch during therapy is an option – but only if the patient chooses it for relaxation and comfort. Otherwise, patients and their analysts are seated facing each other in chairs. Roughly, 73 percent of analysts surveyed report that they also conduct therapy sessions remotely, via telephone or through Internet video connections.

“Psychoanalysis is often indicated when other less intensive therapies have failed to achieve the desired results,” according to the website of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

“It truly offers something different and more comprehensive, and is a good place to turn when symptoms remain or behavioral or relationship patterns continue after one or two attempts at less intensive, shorter term psychotherapy.”

However, one’s problem need not be too severe to benefit from psychoanalysis. Individuals struggling in the workplace, who have long-term relationship issues with family members, or who simply want a new perspective on their lives can benefit. Through psychoanalysis, one can unlock the past, inform the present, and expand the future to reach their full potential.

Children and teens can also benefit as some psychoanalysts specialize in working with children in partnership with parents.

For more information and to find a psychoanalyst near you, visit apsa.org.

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