From Our Newsroom Partners
Overwhelmed with mental health calls, six rural sheriffs make their own plan for better response
Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) by Sofi Gratas, September 13, 2023: Eurie Martin, 58, was walking alone on a rural two lane road in Washington County in 2017, when three deputies from the county sheriff’s office encountered him, responding to a suspicious person call. They didn’t know Martin had a history…
Cover-up Alleged in Pottawatomie County Jail Deaths
Oklahoma Watch, by Whitney Bryen, September 6, 2023: Pottawatomie County jail officials apparently defied state laws and a judge’s order when they concealed information on the unexplained deaths of seven vulnerable detainees. All seven people arrived at the jail with medical and mental health or substance use complications that required…
This Harris County program serves the most vulnerable. But it won’t bail them out of jail.
Houston Landing, by Alex Stuckey and Marie D. De Jesús: This story is the third in a broader series, “Deadly Detention,” investigating jails across Texas. You can read the first story here and the second here. When a Houston police officer arrived at Richelle Morris’ group home in a quiet…
People with mental illness are more likely to die in jail. A new Oklahoma County program puts them in treatment instead
The Frontier, by Kayla Branch, August 31, 2023: There have been nine suicides at the Oklahoma County jail in three years. Another six people with documented mental health issues died of other causes. One woman’s death has helped jumpstart a diversion program. After her arrest for a small amount of…
How San Diego Is Rolling Out CARE Court
Voice of San Diego, by Lisa Halverstadt, August 24, 2023: San Diego County is up against the clock to implement a new state-mandated system that compels people with certain mental illnesses into care. It’s a herculean task, and one with many obstacles. San Diego County officials have until October to…
LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado are struggling. Finding the right therapist is yet another hurdle.
KUNC, by Leigh Patterson, August 21, 2023: Colorado’s LGBTQ+ youth are living with high rates of depression, stress and thoughts of self-harm, but finding treatment in Northern Colorado can be a challenge. This has been the experience of 15-year-old Maddie Maes. Her mental health has been up and down for…
Mental Health Care Is Critical for Survivors of Violence. Access Is Another Story.
Mental Health Care Is Critical for Survivors of Violence. Access Is Another Story., by Claudia Boyd-Barrett, August 3, 2023: Lisbet wondered if the victim advocate had made a mistake. Lisbet was at the Family Justice Center in San Diego, a social services agency for domestic violence survivors, trying to get…
Families take drastic steps to help children in mental health crises
The Center for Public Integrity, by Christine Herman, March 16, 2023: An insufficient mental health care system pushes some families to give up custody of their children for care. States look for better solutions. When Lisa Norris adopted her daughter Hannah out of foster care as a toddler in 2010,…
Proven Schizophrenia Treatments Keep People in School, at Work and off the Street. Why Won’t Insurance Companies Cover Them?
KQED, by April Dembosky, March 1, 2023: What if, instead of telling patients with schizophrenia to prepare for a lifetime of disability, we asked them what they want and worked with them toward full recovery? When Yvonne was walking across campus and heard someone calling her name, she stopped and…
Jails fail to accommodate people with mental illness. In some cases, it’s a civil rights violation.
WITF, by Brett Sholtis, November 14, 2022: As a note of disclosure, WITF and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press are challenging in court Bucks County’s refusal to release a video of an incident involving Kimberly Stringer while she was in Bucks County Correctional Facility. Months before her…
Healing Through Culture: Increasing access to Native American practices to treat mental health
Cronkite News, story and video by Laura Bargfeld, audio story by Natalie Skowlund, November 4, 2022: HOUCK – In a remote hogan near the southern edge of the Navajo Nation, Wayne Wilson lights a fire, lays out eagle feathers and remembers his grandfather’s teachings. “He would talk to me and…
California is trying to house the homeless through a health insurance program. It worked for this man.
Los Angeles Times, by Lila Seidman, October 19, 2022: On a blistering hot Friday in August, Donald Winston, 56, lugged black trash bags stuffed with belongings up four flights of stairs to what had just become his first-ever home of his own. Winston sweated profusely as the plastic bags began…
Uvalde prompted Texas to start taking mental health funding for schools seriously. Is it enough?
Texas Public Radio, by Bonnie Petrie, September 27, 2022: [Petrie Dish Podcast] On a sweet, sunny spring Tuesday, children across the state were preparing for summer break, feeling that giddy rush that comes to kids in those last, loose days of the school year when unstructured hours of summer fun…
Texas bans many proven tools for helping drug users. Advocates are handing them out anyway.
The Texas Tribune, by Sneha Dey, October 11, 2022: HOUSTON — Thirty minutes before a punk show this summer, Claudia Dambra set up a table and taped to it a tablecloth she had hand-painted with broad, white brushstrokes. The banner read, “PUNK NOT DEATH.” As people flooded into the Houston…
“It’s destroying me”: Storm after storm, climate change increases strain on Texans’ mental health
The Texas Tribune, September 8, 2022, by Erin Douglas: HOUSTON — The first thing Dana Jones, 61, tells you to do when you enter her gray-blue house in Melrose Park is walk along the off-white tile, up and down, through her dining room, while she watches carefully for your reaction….
There’s Free Mental Health Help For Crime Victims, But Providers Say Bureaucracy Gets In The Way
SCPR/KPCC, Sep 9, 2022, by Robert Garrova: About three years ago, a Southern California resident we’ll call Jane —we’re not using her real name because of a pending trial and security concerns— and her husband found out their child had been assaulted. “Your world is rocked. We couldn’t sleep for…
Youth access to mental health care improved under Jake’s Law, but persistent barriers hamper its reach
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting (AZCIR), September 1, 2022, by Shaena Montanari and Maria Polletta: In March 2020, Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law a sweeping set of measures designed to help curb rising rates of suicide and expand access to mental health treatment for Arizona residents with and without…
Why is it so hard to find therapists who take insurance in Illinois?
Chicago Tribune, August 21, 2022, by Lisa Schencker: Meena Thiruvengadam faced a choice when her therapist stopped taking health insurance about a year ago. She could try to find someone else who would take her insurance, or she could pay her therapist — whom she trusted and had already been…
How Georgia’s new mental health law works
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 3, 2022, by Katherine Landergan: There’s a new law on the books that should make accessing treatment for mental illness and addiction much easier. But some proponents of the new law fear that many Georgia residents may not know about the change. That means patients could…
How researchers are getting farmers to talk about mental health
Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), August 9, 2022, by Riley Bunch: Christina Proctor spent many hours during her childhood on the front porches of neighborhood farms in Madison County. She had a rough upbringing, she said, and lived in a house scarred by substance abuse. “But we lived on this road…