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Former staff at Spokane youth psychiatric unit blame Providence for closure

January 17, 2025
Austin Turley became depressed and suicidal after a classmate died following an accident at school. Turley's mother took him to Inland Northwest Behavioral Health for help but instead of admitting Austin, staff called the police when he told them he had thoughts of hurting others. Austin was arrested and spent weeks in juvenile detention. ©Erick Doxey/InvestigateWest

Some Oklahoma parents turn kids over to the state after struggling to get mental health care for them

December 22, 2024
The sign outside of Youth Services of Tulsa. The non-profit agency runs an emergency youth shelter. DYLAN GOFORTH/THE FRONTIER

Lack of oversight, coordination hinder efforts to reform Arizona’s rise in maternal mortality

December 22, 2024
AZCIR Staff

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

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
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

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 worse health outcomes for young people as they grow up.

Troop 5596 gathered around tables at the Methodist church in Justin, a community about 25 miles north of Fort Worth, one afternoon in late April. Groups of two and three girls were huddled over worksheets, talking about mindfulness and stress—and there was plenty to say.

Sydney Judge, 9, wrote “sisters” and “state testing” as her top stressors. Audrianna Guerrero, 10, asked her how she feels when she’s stressed.

“Like I’m gonna blow up,” Sydney said. “I feel frustrated. Sometimes I feel like no one believes in me.”

Her troop leaders, Rebecca Bartolomeo and Michelle Smith, asked her what she does when she feels that way.

“I go up to my room and play with my giant stress ball,” said Sydney, “or I go down to the garage and punch my punching bag.”

As the night continued, the Girl Scouts assembled mindfulness kits: plastic pencil cases filled with candy, colorful stickers and small books with activities to do when they feel anxious.

Read more here at KERA.