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‘Not knowing where to go’: Montana’s sparse landscape for alcohol detox

December 20, 2024
An emergency department sign in Missoula, Montana on Thursday, December 12, 2024. With very few treatment options available in Montana, hospital emergency departments are often the only place people can go when they are experiencing alcohol withdrawal. However, patients often end up leaving without the medication they need to manage withdrawal symptoms and they typically aren’t referred to inpatient or outpatient treatment programs. Credit: John Stember

Gaps in mental health training, rural access to care compound Arizona’s maternal mortality crisis

December 20, 2024
Araceli Aquino-Valdez, shown at her Yuma home on Dec. 17, 2024, struggled to find mental health care after experiencing postpartum depression following the birth of her first child. Photo by Izabella Mullady | AZCIR

Black farmers face specific, outsized challenges in rural mental health crisis

October 1, 2024
Two road signs in Tatums, Oklahoma. One reads "TATUMS: The friendly people make the difference," and the other "Tatums, Okla: Home of T-Okie."

CARE Court Aims To Help People Living With Serious Mental Illnesses. Would It Bring New Solutions Or More Problems?

©Alborz Kamalizad/LAist
©Alborz Kamalizad/LAist

KPCC, July 20, 2022, by Robert Garrova: There’s a bill making its way through the state legislature that aims to create new avenues for people living with a serious mental illness to get life-saving treatment.

The plan, first introduced by Governor Gavin Newsom in the spring, is called the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Act — or CARE Court for short.

But the proposal, which has seen broad support so far from California lawmakers, remains very controversial, even as it clears major milestones in Sacramento.

The bill cleared the Senate unanimously in May and easily advanced out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The measure is expected to hit the governor’s desk this fall.

Here are the basics of the bill as it stands now: People living with a serious, untreated mental illness could be referred for a court-ordered care plan that would, after psychiatric screenings, last up to two years. The court intervention could be initiated by a family member, county behavioral health workers or even first responders. If the care plan fails, the person could be hospitalized or referred to a conservatorship. That might mean forced treatment and a stripping of individual rights.

Read more from KPCC here.