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©Riley Bunch/GPB News: Stephanie Basey, a doctoral student at Mercer University School of Medicine, presents findings on the mental health of Georgia's farmers at a summit in Tifton on May 18. Industry experts seek to get resources to farmers, who don't always know where to turn for help.

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…

©Riley Bunch/GPB News: North Georgia farmer Drew Echols picks peaches in his field on July 11, 2022, at Jaemor Farms in Alto, Ga. Echols is from a line of farmers who, until recently, generally remained silent about mental health amid the stressors of farming. But experts are seeking to change that.

Farmers have silently struggled with their mental health for years. Are they ready to talk?

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), August 9, 2022, by Riley Bunch: Drew Echols doesn’t remember ever talking with his father about mental health. Or his grandfather. In fact, he doesn’t remember the last time he talked about his mental health at all. “We talked about work a whole lot more than…

©Ellen Eldridge/GPB News: Brent Moore is the founder of Redeemed Living, a faith-based nonprofit for men in addiction recovery. The group seeks to build transitional housing for men in recovery on a 23-acre site, but neighboring residents are against the effort.

It’s the most important part of addiction recovery — and often the most difficult to access

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), August 4, 2022, by Ellen Eldridge: Residents in rural South Georgia are adamantly fighting a zoning request — a faith-based nonprofit called Redeemed Living wants to build cabins for men in addiction recovery on 23 acres of local farmland. But the neighbors don’t want them living…

©Alborz Kamalizad/LAist: “I had all these flashes of something really awful happening either to my son while I was gone or to myself while I was driving,” one mom said as she recalled having a panic attack after birthing her son in the summer of 2020.

Why The Pandemic Took An Especially High Mental Health Toll On New Parents

KPCC, July 26, 2022, by Elly Yu: About six weeks after she gave birth to her son in the summer of 2020, Erin Sricharoon was driving to her local Starbucks in Yucaipa to get an iced chai latte when she had to pull over. “I had all these flashes of…

©Alborz Kamalizad/LAist

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

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…

©Roswell Gray/Roswell Gray, who's 17, has been troubled by the way Texas leaders have targeted gender-affirming care in the state. "I do wish that people would understand that trans youth aren't trying to harm anyone," Gray said. "It's not part of some like, secret agenda. It's just who we are."

For trans youth in North Texas, finding affirming mental health care can be a challenge

KERA, July 21, 2022, by Elena Rivera: Texas leaders have targeted trans youth, their families and gender-affirming care practices for months. It’s exacerbated feelings of anxiety and fear in trans youth, who already experience higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide than their cis peers. Mental health practitioners can help…

©Isaac Stone Simonelli | AZCIR: Zoe Edelstein, 13, poses for a photo in her family's home in Phoenix on July 17, 2022. Edelstein switched to online learning because she experienced severe anxiety after returning to in-person learning this past school year.

Permanent funding solution elusive as mental health provider shortage plagues Arizona schools—and students

Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting (AZCIR), July 21, 2022, by Maria Polletta and Shaena Montanari: At times, seventh grade felt like one long string of panic attacks to Zoe Edelstein. The Phoenix student, who’d been living with anxiety and panic disorder since early elementary school, had started in-person at a…

Christina Gerlach is a crisis services manager at UnityPlace, a Living Room managed by UnityPoint Health in Peoria, Illinois

Amidst a lack of mental health services, the ‘Living Room’ approach aims to plug gaps

Side Effects Public Media, July 13, 2022, by Carter Barrett: After a bad breakup, 19-year-old Benjamin Kowalczyk said everything felt like it was crumbling around him. He dropped out of college, and felt himself getting angry with his family. “I had fallen into a bad depression state,” said Kowalczyk, who…

Crisis ‘living rooms’ offer an alternative to emergency room visits and hospitalizations

WBUR: Here and Now by Carter Barrett, July 14, 2022: The following story deals with suicide. If you have suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889). For suicide prevention resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, click…

Nova Jaswan lost the tip of her middle finger when a cell door at Fulton County Jail closed on her hand.
Credit: Ellen Eldridge/GPB News

With few other resources, people with behavioral health issues find treatment in jails and prisons

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), July 8, 2022, by Ellen Eldridge: Nova Jaswan would like to stop using cocaine. And she’d like help with some of the other issues that feed into why she uses cocaine. “I’m schizoaffective; I have PTSD and I have mood disorder NOS — not otherwise specified,”…

©Adobe Stock/Photo illustration: Natasha Vicens/PublicSource

PA’s controversial mental health law on involuntary treatment stands to get a test run more than 3 years after its passing.

PublicSource, July 5, 2022, by Juliette Rihl: Paul and Christine, of Montgomery County, know what it feels like to helplessly watch their child’s mental health deteriorate. After two hospitalizations in 2020 and 2021 for mental health crises, their 30-year-old son stopped taking his medication and following other aspects of his…

©Bobbi Wiseman/Memorial Health: Barbara Wheatley takes phone calls as part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network. Wheatley is an alcohol and substance abuse counselor and the lead clinician for mobile crisis response for Memorial Behavioral Health in Springfield, Illinois.

A new national mental health crisis line launches soon. Some states aren’t ready.

Side Effects Public Media, June 13, 2022, by Carter Barrett: Staff at Memorial Behavioral Health in Springfield, Illinois, are on call around the clock to talk with people struggling with suicidal thoughts, drug addiction or other mental health crises. They provide a listening ear and help connect people to resources…

©Clare Sheedy/PublicSource: Elaine Houston sits in her East Liberty home where she takes her remote telehealth appointments.

PA eased telehealth regulations during the pandemic. What happens if the waiver expires?

PublicSource, June 9, 2022, by Jourdan Hicks: At first, the pandemic actually kept us in our homes. Y’all remember that? Being on lockdown? For many, COVID and the response to it only intensified the need for health care. And by health care, I mean physical and mental. But have the…

©Riley Bunch/GPB: News Officers from law enforcement departments that have already implemented co-responder units gather at the Georgia Capitol on May 9 to watch Gov. Brian Kemp sign Senate Bill 403.

Law enforcement enlists mental health experts to help save lives — ‘a paradigm shift in policing’

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), June 8, 2022, by Riley Bunch: SAVANNAH, Georgia — Sometimes when Savannah Police Department officers are called to a scene of a crisis, those who respond may not look like police at all. Officers arrive in an unmarked Ford Explorer, donning a simple blue polo and…

Latha Wright, a 16-year-old Atlanta student, says mental health is misunderstood. She posed for a portrait in her home on May 25, 2022. ©Arvin Temkar/AJC

Georgia students’ private battle: Anxiety disorders in the classroom

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 1, 2022, by Vanessa McCray and Eric Stirgus: Latha Wright studies Latin, draws her own comics and films videos with her little brother. The 16-year-old Atlanta student also battles anxiety. When her family sought help, they encountered obstacles that make it difficult for many Georgia teens…

McKinley Reid, Audrianna Guerrero and Sydney Judge are all part of Girl Scout Troop 5596. They started working on activities for their Okay to Say mental health badge in April. "We were learning about stress and empathy and gratitude," Judge explained. ©Trevon McWilliams/KERA

The Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas are tackling mental health, one patch at a time

KERA, May 19, 2022, by Elena Rivera: The COVID-19 pandemic worsened stress, anxiety and depression for young people—especially young girls. Those are things the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas have addressed through their mental health patch, called Okay to Say. It’s one part of a wider prevention effort to mitigate…

Kayode Martin, center, participates in a spiritual reflection group session at an Inner-City Muslim Action Network facility in Chicago Lawn on March 2, 2022. ©Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

In a pandemic, people might know they need food or housing. But how do you help them realize they also need therapy?

Chicago Tribune, March 30, 2022, By Alison Bowen: As the pandemic wore on, Kayode Martin felt stuck. He’d graduated virtually, a high school senior when COVID-19 arrived in Chicago. A year later, in 2021, he was working at a store but struggling to find a routine that felt on good…

©Chris Montgomery / Unsplash

Mental health care at work: Roundup of recent research on employee assistance programs

The Journalist’s Resource, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University May 24, 2022 Insurance makes seeking mental health care more affordable for those who have it, but workers often have access to an additional form of help at no cost: employee assistance programs. By Clark Merrefield The…

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Achieving mental health parity: The struggle to get insurance plans to improve coverage of mental health care

The Journalist’s Resource, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University May 11, 2022 Insurance companies have failed to follow a federal law that expands access to mental health treatments. But many factors, including clinician shortages, also affect progress. By Denise-Marie Ordway In a 54-page report to Congress…

©chenspec from Pixabay

Racial disparities in mental health care: An explainer and research roundup

The Journalist’s Resource, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University May 18, 2022 Little has changed since the office of the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report on mental health disparities two decades ago. Persisting structural racism is one of the key drivers of disparities but experts…