Kickstart: Helping mental health professionals who want to help kids

Pipe maker Advanced Drainage Systems Inc. wants to help fill a big gap in pediatric medicine: children's mental health.

The company, based in Hilliard, Ohio, is donating $3 million from its ADS Foundation to Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Children's Hospital. The money will create the ADS Behavioral Health Professional Development Fund, providing financial support for professionals interested in working with pediatric mental health.

"Creating a behavioral health fund really is working to solve the aggregate problem, which is not having enough behavioral health professionals to service what is an overwhelming need today," Kevin Talley, ADS executive vice president and chief administrative officer, says in a video from the company about the project. "Seventy percent of the U.S. counties don't have one child psychiatrist."

The fund will also expand existing internship programs, support undergraduate internship opportunities and help those seeking a graduate degree in a behavioral health-related field, ADS said in a news release.

"As we talk about this donation, it gives us an avenue to talk about mental health — not just children's mental health but also employees' or adults' mental health," ADS President and CEO Scott Barbour said in the video.

Business conditions are expected to remain rough for auto suppliers, according to consultants at PwC. In a new report, PwC says that 42 percent of suppliers reported some level of financial distress in the first half of 2022, up from 27 percent in the same period of 2021, John Irwin from our sister paper Automotive News writes.

"The squeeze is really being applied to suppliers right now because of the drop in sales volumes, as well as the rising raw material and labor costs that continue," Paul Carrannanto, a principal in the industrial manufacturing and automotive sector for PwC, told AN.

The 2022 number nearly matches the statistics from the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when 45 percent of suppliers reported financial struggles.

Michael Robinet, executive director of automotive advisory services at S&P Global Mobility, added that while some key issues such as inflation and microchip shortages have improved, the problems are far from over.

"To think we're completely out of the woods is a bit Pollyannaish," he said.

Alaska Airlines has eliminated plastic cups on its flights.

The carrier announced Jan. 25 it had completed its "transition to paper cups for in-flight beverages," eliminating 55 million plastic cups annually.

"This is another important step in our journey to eliminate single-use plastics and an important step for the industry to see how product innovations can chart a course to a greener future," Todd Traynor-Corey, managing director of guest products for Alaska Airlines, said in a news release.

Most passengers will now receive beverages in Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper cups, although first-class passengers will have reusable glassware.

In 2018, Alaska Airlines removed plastic straws and stir sticks from in-flight service.