From Our Newsroom Partners
‘Not knowing where to go’: Montana’s sparse landscape for alcohol detox
From Montana Free Press
Thirty-three-year-old Whitefish resident Melanie Seefeldt has decided to stop drinking before. But, like many Montanans, Seefeldt knows a core truth about alcohol addiction. Wanting to stop is the easy part.
Gaps in mental health training, rural access to care compound Arizona’s maternal mortality crisis
From AZCIR
Within hours of giving birth to her first child, Araceli Aquino-Valdez was engulfed by an intense sadness. She sobbed for days after arriving home, grieving the loss of her life before motherhood and feeling dismissed by her care providers.
Black farmers face specific, outsized challenges in rural mental health crisis
From NPR affiliate KOSU
Oklahoma State Highway 7 runs by the Mary T. Tatums Municipal Building in one of Oklahoma’s historic All-Black towns, Tatums.
Bonnie Hooks sits with her neighbors at one of the round tables inside the building. Like her grandmother, Hooks is a farmer in Tatums, where she raises pigs.
Arizona cracked down on Medicaid fraud that targeted Native Americans. It left patients without care.
From the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
Before her fifth birthday, Rainy had experienced a lifetime of trauma. As an infant, she witnessed violence at home before child welfare authorities intervened and her parents were incarcerated. Night terrors followed. Then, she endured the death of her great uncle who had taken on the role of dad.
Despite efforts to close gap, parity in mental health care remains elusive
From The Center for Public Integrity
In recent years, mental health care has become a mainstream issue.
President Biden proposed an expansion of services nationwide. Lawmakers and celebrities speak openly about their struggles. States are providing incentives to expand the behavioral health workforce. Companies are recognizing the need for mental health leave. Telehealth care is rapidly expanding.
You Report an Unhoused Person in a Mental Health Crisis. This Is What Happens Next
From the San Francisco Public Press
In San Francisco, it is not uncommon to cross paths with a person experiencing homelessness in the throes of a mental health crisis. The scene can be tragic, confusing and sometimes might feel dangerous.
Bystanders might wonder how to summon help from the city — and what will happen if they do.
The Often Vicious Cycle Through SF’s Strained Mental Health Care and Detention System
From the San Francisco Public Press
On a windy day last fall, a slender man stood on a corner of the bustling intersection at Van Ness Avenue and Market Street, anxiously seeking help. He flagged us down, asking that we call an ambulance. He said the dead leaves on the ground were out to hurt him and that his legs were bleeding. We didn’t see any blood. He told us his name was Jay and that he was unhoused.
Deadly Failure: A Sailor Was in Crisis. Her Command Kept the Pressure on Anyway
From the Voice of San Diego
March 6, 2018, was another mild and sunny day in San Diego. Petty Officer 2nd Class Tiara Gray, who was 21 years old, was somewhere off the coast, onboard the USS Essex, writing in her journal. It was 27 days before she died.
She called the number on her syllabus offering counseling. No one picked up.
From the WBEZ
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 new classmates, most of whom were more well off. Navigating the social scene over Zoom and from behind masks at the height of the pandemic made her feel even more disconnected.
High need, low accessibility: Oglethorpe County residents face barriers to mental health care, even as teens and schools are willing to have the conversation
From The Oglethorpe Echo/the Cox Institute’s Journalism Writing Lab at the University of Georgia
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 and teens.
The photo and interview shoot in her Northeast Georgia home required absolute quiet for the audio and the right time of day for the lighting.
For many Black sickle cell patients, care must reach deeper
From The Daily Memphian
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 resident of this city on the Mississippi River in southwest Tennessee.
State leaders misled public about scope of Medicaid fraud crisis
From the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
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 agency’s fee-for-service plans.
Mental health issues complicate treatment for sickle cell patients
From The Daily Memphian
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 during pain crises.
When children are rushed to the hospital in Memphis, trauma counselors are there waiting for them
From The Institute for Public Service Reporting
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 — even before the teenager was fully aware of what had happened — first responders in his brain and body rushed into action.
Oklahoma sends a growing number of kids with complex needs out of state for treatment
From The Frontier
Amber Boyer spent early mornings last spring crawling out of her bedroom window and into her garage to make breakfast and gather medications for her then 14-year-old son Davin.
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.