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©Lisa Kurian Philip/WBEZ: Isabelle Dizon contacted her campus counseling center when she hit a low point during her sophomore year of college, but never heard back. Now a junior at the University of Illinois at Chicago, she hopes the school hires someone at the center to, at the very least, pick up the phone.

She called the number on her syllabus offering counseling. No one picked up.

WBEZ by Lisa Kurian Philip, March 21, 2024: Isabelle Dizon describes her transition to college as “messy.” She went from a public high school to a private art school that was far less diverse and cost too much, she said. The expense was stressful and she couldn’t connect with her…

©Navya Shukla/The Oglethorpe Echo: Katie Edwards, a counselor at Oglethorpe County Elementary School, helps third-grader Londyn Wilson with a work- sheet during a guidance lesson last month. The lessons are regularly held to guide students' empathy, emotion regulation, perseverance and more.

High need, low accessibility: Oglethorpe County residents face barriers to mental health care, even as teens and schools are willing to have the conversation

The Oglethorpe Echo/the Cox Institute’s Journalism Writing Lab at the University of Georgia by Navya Shukla and Sydney Rainwater, March 21, 2024: Sonja Thompson Roach remembers the moment last year when a photographer took photos and interviewed her son and his friends for a Time magazine story on mental health…

©Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian: Sickle cell patient Alexis Tappan, right, is checked out by Rana Cooper on at the Methodist Hospital Cancer Institute and Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center. Memphis is home to one of the nation’s largest populations of adults living with sickle cell disease.

For many Black sickle cell patients, care must reach deeper

The Daily Memphian,  by Aisling Mäki March 5, 2024: In Memphis, Black patients with an inherited blood disorder carry trauma from the dismissal of their chronic pain and severity of symptoms. “Sickle cell is a very aggressive, traumatizing and difficult disease to live with,” said April Ward-McGrory, 42, a lifelong…

Carmen Heredia, head of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System stands behind a microphone, making an announcement. The U.S. and Arizona flags are behind her.

State leaders misled public about scope of Medicaid fraud crisis

Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting by Hannah Bassett, March 14, 2024: In the 10 months since Arizona officials announced an investigation into massive Medicaid billing fraud, they’ve maintained the abuse was mostly limited to a small share of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System: behavioral health providers that exploited the…

©Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian: April Ward-McGrory is a sickle cell patient, double amputee and advocate for those living with sickle cell disease.

Mental health issues complicate treatment for sickle cell patients

The Daily Memphian,  by Aisling Mäki March 5, 2024: April Ward-McGrory is a sickle cell patient, double amputee and advocate for those living with sickle cell disease.Black patients in Memphis with sickle cell disease often report being misdiagnosed or treated as drug seekers when they show up in emergency rooms…

©Lisa Buser/Courtesy Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital: Since January 2021, the University of Memphis BRAIN Center has provided free mental health services for trauma patients at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. The trauma care team includes (from right) Dr. Kiersten Hawes, Dr. Eraina Schauss, Dr. Regan Williams, graduate students Caitlynn Frazier and Sydnie Roberts.

When children are rushed to the hospital in Memphis, trauma counselors are there waiting for them

The Institute for Public Service Reporting, by David Waters, March 6, 2024: An errant bullet fired from a street in South Memphis last year hit 16-year-old Evan sitting inside his home watching TV. The bullet tore a hole through his arm and leg. Instantly, before anyone could call 911 —…