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Recently
Poor access to mental health care leaves Georgia children who need a psychiatrist in the lurch
From Georgia Public Broadcasting
When Layken Edenfield was little, her moods would switch quickly, her mother, Teresa Edenfield remembers.
“One minute she’d be happy and laughing, and the next minute she’d be crying her eyes out,” Edenfield said. “She was really hypersensitive about certain things around, or really terrified.”
Arizona’s anti-immigrant policies foster a culture of fear and create barriers to mental health care for undocumented communities
From Cronkite News
Ileana Salinas has to renew her immigration status this year. If she misses the deadline or doesn’t get approved, she doesn’t know what will happen to her job, her family, or her life in the United States. Living each day in survival mode has taken a toll on her mental health, and the ever-changing slew of immigration policies are compounding the problem.
Alcohol addiction treatment is available in Colorado, but people struggle to get the help they need
From The Denver Post
Some people with addiction face insurance hurdles, unaware of options beyond AA or rehab.
Beer and wine became more widely available in Colorado even as drinking deaths rose
From The Denver Post
Five years ago, a workgroup tasked with finding ways to reduce Colorado’s rate of drinking-related deaths — among the highest in the country — issued a simple recommendation: cut back on when and where people can buy alcohol.
Colorado has some of the lowest alcohol taxes and highest drinking deaths. That’s no coincidence, experts say.
From The Denver Post
Colorado’s taxes on alcohol are among the lowest in the country, and even though the state consistently ranks as one of the worst for drinking deaths, lawmakers have shown little interest in making beer, wine and spirits more expensive.
Colorado alcohol deaths surged 60% in 4 years, but there’s been no public outcry or push to save lives
From The Denver Post
Fatal drug overdoses had been slowly rising for a decade, but when the number of Coloradans killed by fentanyl soared during the first two years of the pandemic, state leaders, law enforcement officials, public health managers — even ordinary people — called for drastic action.
Colorado’s quiet killer: Alcohol ends more lives than overdoses, but there’s been no intervention
From The Denver Post
Colorado consistently has one of the worst rates of drinking-related death in the country, but alcohol hasn’t gotten nearly the attention devoted to other drugs. In this four-part series, The Denver Post investigated why so many Coloradans are dying from drinking, and what the state could do in an effort to reduce the number of people lost.