Solutions Lab
‘She Made Me Feel Seen and Heard.’ Black Doulas Offer Support That Can Help Mom & Improve Birth Outcomes
Many Black women say their pregnancy-related concerns are dismissed by doctors, undermining their mental health and contributing to higher death rates. Doulas aim to change all that.
This story was cross-published by USA Today and by CapitalB.
Mental health news
Tribute to Rosalynn Carter, a Tireless Voice for Mental Health
Over a span of span of six decades, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter was a tireless advocate who fought to transform the way that mental illness – and the people who experience mental health conditions – were viewed and treated. She died Sunday at the age of 96.
Cards to Cue Your ‘Well Self’ to Leave Breadcrumbs for your ‘Unwell Self’ – and Remind it to Remember the Light
Mental illness is a clever, hard-to-kill beast, and escaping it is akin to defeating a cluster of wild boar. But with proper strategy and weaponry, the invasive species can be taken down. These cue cards may help.
MindSite News Interview
A Therapist Who Puts Community at the Center of Healing Reflects on the Conflict in Israel and Gaza – and the Real Lessons of 9/11
Jack Saul led a community healing effort in New York after 9/11. He has seen the psychological impact of collective trauma throughout the world and worries that Israel is now making the same mistakes that the U.S. made back then.
Constant Fear, Death All Around: A Palestinian Psychologist Is Distraught For Her Family and the Impact of War on Gaza’s Children
Dr. Iman Farajallah, a California-based psychologist who grew up in Gaza, talks about her research on the widespread, severe trauma that was afflicting Palestinian children – even before the brutal war now underway.
Investigations
Colorado Librarian Fired for Resisting Censorship Wins $250,000 Settlement
Librarian Brooky Parks was vindicated for standing up for what she believed in: The right to read.
California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law
A 2020 California law aimed to make prison safer for transgender people. But for many trans women, abuse and harassment inside has continued to harm their mental health.
Mental Health News
Kaiser agrees to $200 million settlement over California mental health delays
Settlement affirms claims by Kaiser therapists and behavioral health clients that the healthcare provider systematically delayed needed care. Gov. Newsom called the agreement a “tectonic shift” to hold providers to account. Kaiser’s CEO acknowledged “shortcomings” and vowed to “build a “stronger mental health foundation.”
On 60th Anniversary of JFK’s Mental Health Law, Another Kennedy Convenes Advocates to Build a Movement
Sixty years after John F. Kennedy signed a sweeping mental health act into law, his nephew, former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, gathered advocates in Boston. The goal: to kickstart a movement to transform the fractured mental health system in the U.S. A report and interview from the conference.
Investigations
Deadly Consequences: When Police Response to Mental Health Calls in New Hampshire Proves Fatal
More than 60% of people shot and killed by New Hampshire police over the last decade had a mental illness, according to ‘Shots Fired,’ a Concord Monitor analysis published in 2021. Two years later, little has changed. Of the eight people shot and killed by police in New Hampshire since the analysis was published, five had a history of mental illness. (Illustration: Eric Turner)
911 Call-Takers Are Demoralized, Overwhelmed and Dealing With Their Own Mental Health Woes
Inadequate training on mental health crises, poor working conditions and a crazy quilt of dispatch codes from city to city puts both dispatchers and callers in crisis at risk.
Florida’s Baker Act Has Seized Kids & Adults for Forced Mental Health Holds Almost 2 Million Times in Past Decade. Are Advocates Finally Forcing Change?
In Florida, seizing children and adults and placing them on involuntary mental health holds happens so frequently, it has become a verb: Baker Acted – a reference to a 1971 law. That law was intended to reduce the horrors of asylum care while allowing mentally ill patients to be forcibly evaluated and treated. Instead, it has become a dragnet of sorts that brings hundreds of thousands of adults and children to mental health facilities.
Book review
Hua Hsu’s Tender Elegy to a Lost Friend Resonates
The memoir Stay True is a powerful tribute to a friendship cut short by tragedy and to writing as a tool for survival.
Twenty-five Years On, Author Hua Hsu Finds Solace in Writing About a College Friend’s Senseless Death
For Hsu, writing the memoir didn’t diminish his grief, but it did allow him to convey how much his friend mattered and to offer him the ultimate honor: staying true.
Surviving the Tiger Pit: How a Journalist’s Family Story Pushed Her to Report on a Failed Mental Health System
In a moving memoir, journalist Meg Kissinger tells the story of her own family’s struggles with mental illness, and how those experiences fueled her passion to be an investigative reporter and storyteller.
Mental health news
Gavin Newsom signs law in ‘overhaul’ of mental health system. It changes decades of practice
The California governor signed the first of a series of bills that aim to transform California’s mental health system. Depending on who you ask, this transformation represents a long overdue humanitarian response – or a worrisome step backward on civil liberties.
Solutions Lab
The Dental-Mental Connection: A Clinic in Oakland’s Chinatown Brings Mental Health Care to Dental Patients
Dentistry and the medical profession have long been siloed. But eight years ago, Asian Health Services in Oakland pioneered a new practice: screening dental patients for depression. Other clinics across the country have now adopted the practice.
Solutions Lab
Climate change took them to ‘dark places.’ Now these Californians are doing something about it
Last year, Maksim Batuyev and climate activist Cindy Pace started informal gatherings to encourage people to come together and talk about their climate feelings. These “climate cafes” represent one of the small ways young Californians are addressing the climate crisis as a mental health crisis.
Mental Health News
Biden Announces New Rules to Put Teeth into Mental-Health Parity Legislation
The Biden administration yesterday announced new, tougher rules aimed at pushing health insurers to comply with a 15-year-old federal law requiring them to cover mental health services on par with treatment for physical health.
Keep reading
The Power of Experience: Philadelphia Mayoral Candidate David Oh on Trauma and Forgiveness
David Oh, who is running for mayor of Philadelphia, takes a mental health lens toward violence prevention.
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‘A Lifesaving Tool’: California’s New Mental Health Crisis Line Sees Surge in Calls
California made it easier to call for help a year ago when it launched a simplified mental health crisis hotline: Dial three digits — 988 — and you can get in touch with a counselor immediately. Since then, crisis centers have received more than 280,000 calls.…
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Gavin Newsom’s Mental Health Plan Could Strip More than $700 Million from Services, Report Says
A proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom to overhaul the state’s behavioral and mental health system is likely to take nearly $720 million away from services provided by county governments annually, according to a new analysis.
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New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call the Cops Instead.
Searching for a motive as a way to prevent mass shootings will just get you a useless answer to the wrong question.The right question is: What happened to a child to turn him into a killer spouting racist hate?
Keep readingMindSite News Interview
Unpacking a ‘Watershed’ Legal Agreement to Improve Conditions for Mentally Ill People in L.A. County Jails
Advocates hail the settlement as a victory for mentally ill people and as a major step to reducing jail populations and improving conditions for those who remain.
Ashwin Vasan, New York City’s Doctor, on Trying to Fix a ‘Broken Mental Health System’
“We’re in the midst of the largest drop of life expectancy that we’ve faced as a city and country in a century. COVID, obviously, is one explanation. But there are many other reasons – overdoses, rising rates of chronic illness, premature deaths from birth inequities, increased rates of violence, suicide. All these link to mental health,…
Climate Change Can Harm the Mental Health of Older Adults
Climate change is expected to increase the severity and frequency of wildfires and other environmental disasters. San Francisco Public Press spoke with Robin Cooper, a psychiatrist and co-founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, about what needs to be done locally to address climate change’s mental health toll.
Global Mental Health
Ukraine: Life During Wartime
War isn’t only about bombs, bullets and deaths on the battlefield. It’s also about people away from the fighting, struggling to maintain a modicum of normalcy and hope in their daily lives. In this three-part series, we learn about the lives of people living away from the front line and we hear from a Ukrainian…
Solutions Lab
Shootings, Lockdowns, Anxiety: Kids Are Not Alright – But They’re Working On It
America’s children are living in a time of anxiety, climate change, lockdown drills and school shootings. Yet some kids are fighting off the worries by spreading kindness, taking action and talking about their feelings.
Solutions Lab
Breaking Away From Hate
Trauma, abuse, and mental health problems can make people more vulnerable to violent extremism. Here’s how a movement founded in part by former white supremacists is helping extricate Americans from violent hate groups.
Peer Court Keeps Youth Accountable, Removes Shame and Stigma
Marin County’s Peer Solutions program works to keep young people out of the criminal justice system, encouraging responsibility and transformation.
Investigation
Hidden Expulsions? California Schools Kick Students Out but Call it a ‘Transfer’
Thousands of California students are being transferred for disciplinary reasons – with little or no legal protection. The transfers are demoralizing, advocates say. “Any disruption to a child’s education program is a problem,” said Chelsea Helena, an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County.
Mental Health News
Backdoor Expulsion: Even Preschoolers are Being Transferred as Punishment
It’s not just teenagers being pushed out of schools. Research suggests pre-schoolers may be most likely to be transferred out as a form of punishment.
Keep reading
Students Weigh in on Idea of Taking ‘Mental Health Days’ from School
Since 2019, 12 states have passed legislation to allow students to take excused days off from school for their mental health. A few, such as New York and Maryland, have bills pending. Reporters for Youthcast Media interviewed their peers and professionals for their views on the idea.
Keep readingGuest Essay
Spare the Child: Spanking Harms Both Children and Caregivers
More Black millennial parents are rethinking corporal punishment. Research shows spanking is far from harmless. It increases aggression, rage and hostility in children and may contribute to violence in later life.
Keep reading
Depression Too Often Gets Deemed ‘Hard to Treat’ When Medication Falls Short
Three in four people who take antidepressants drugs don’t get complete relief – and then are often categorized as having “treatment-resistant depression.” Many patients are demoralized by the notion that their depression is “incurable.” But what if they’re trying the wrong treatment?
Keep readingInvestigations
How I Passed a Test to Be a Grief Therapist Without Really Trying
As an investigative reporter, I wanted to see how hard it would be to game the system and pass the test without taking the course. It turned out to be ridiculously easy.
Keep readingArts & Culture
Prince Harry and His Decade of Magical Thinking
The memoir Spare explores the young prince’s prolonged grief over the loss of his mother and his fervent belief that she was still alive.
Solutions Lab
Therapy as Reparations: Working for Free Mental Health Access for Black Americans
Black Americans are descendants of people who have experienced unprecedented trauma for generations. Dr. Brian Dixon is calling for free psychotherapy as reparations.
Keep readingPeer Hub
Can Peers Power the Mental Health Workforce of the Future?
As communities across the country set up new ways to respond to mental health emergencies and the federal government increases funding for mental health programs, the shortage of clinicians looms as a major barrier. One potential solution: training and hiring large numbers of peer support providers.
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Mental Health News
Teens at Cook County Juvenile Jail Face Force, Isolation and Other Abuses, Watchdog Finds
A review of practices inside Cook County’s temporary juvenile detention center found dangerous forms of restraint and isolation, failure to keep adequate records, and “inhumane” treatment of incarcerated teenagers. Many of them struggle with learning disabilities and mental health conditions.
Keep reading
Older People are Often Invisible in Mental Health Settings. Here Are Some Tips to Get Care
The feeling of being ignored or dismissed in medical and mental health settings is common, but it is particularly prevalent among older adults. Some older people are infantilized by mental health providers. And real issues may be downplayed.
Keep reading
Their families said they needed mental health treatment. Mississippi officials threw them in jail
In Mississippi, serious mental illness or substance abuse can land you in jail, even if you aren’t charged with a crime. The state is a stark outlier in jailing so many people for so long, but many officials say they don’t have another option. A Mississippi Today/ProPublica investigation.
As New York Boosts Residential Treatment, Regulators Turn a Blind Eye to Conditions
Residential treatment programs have become a key plank of New York state’s response to addiction and mental illness, and one that is slated to expand. But New York Focus has found that residents of these programs are subject to the whims of providers and landlords – and subject to eviction.
Solutions Lab
A Different Kind of Grief: Fighting the Stigma of Overdose Deaths
In Philadelphia, grieving parents, grandparents, partners and children can find support through Philly HEALs as they battle stigma to mourn loved ones lost to overdose.
Keep readingMindSite News Interview
A Healed Black Man Works to Heal Others
During his six decades on the planet, Douglas Reed has worn many uniforms. He spent two decades in Army fatigues, then did a tour in federal prisons as a corrections officer. Nowadays he tours the U.S. talking about his mental health journey. MindSite News Reporter Josh McGhee spoke with him about his path.
Keep reading
State of Play: Companies and Clinical Trials in Psychedelic Research
Developments are happening rapidly in the world of psychedelic research and commercial development. We spoke with Josh Hardman, founder of the consultancy firm Psychedelic Alpha, and Dick Simon, co-founder and CEO of Sensorium Therapeutics, to unpack it all.
Keep readingPolicy Tracker
Proposed Law Would Reduce Barriers to Mental Health Care for California Youth
The new bill means an independent medical review program would automatically review the case of anyone 26 and younger who was denied mental health treatment.
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Arts & Culture
In “Stutz,”Actor Jonah Hill Shares His Therapist With the World
The young star suffered from anxiety, depression and panic attacks. Therapy and “The Tools” helped him find relief.
Keep reading
In the Limelight, Selena Gomez Grapples With Bipolar Disorder
Actor and singing superstar Selena Gomez chronicles her mental health struggles in the unsparing documentary “My Mind and Me.”
Keep readingBook review
‘Hope Was Still Waiting for Me’: Finding a Sanctuary in Fantasy Fiction
“Watching the protagonists try to solve world-threatening problems made my own feel smaller and easier to handle.” -Kendall Covington, writer
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No Illusion: Fantasy Fiction is My Safe Space
“By reading fantasy fiction, I got to see people like me overcome obstacles I thought impossible.” –Hermes Falcon, writer.
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News
As Ketamine Clinics Expand, Concerns Grow About Staffing, Protocols and Take-it-at-Home Models
As companies rush to open or buy ketamine clinics to treat mental health conditions, concern is growing about protocols, staffing levels and the safety of the newest approach: take-home ketamine.
Keep readingGuest Essay
The Hole Ruined Me: Why Solitary Confinement Should Be Banned
In 2019, more than 55,000 incarcerated Americans had spent the past 15 days in solitary confinement. Jeffrey McKee was one, and he writes about the impact it had on his psyche.
The Confess Project: Barbers Help Black Men Talk About Mental Health
The barbershop is the cornerstone of the Black male community. What better place to offer mental health counseling?
Keep readingMindSite Daily News
Breaking the Cycle of Childhood Trauma
Parents need help to stop intergenerational trauma. Zadie Smith’s teen angst. High-conflict divorce. Revisiting two fathers in hell. And more.
MindSite Daily News
Firefighters Get Serious About Mental Health
Firefighters have a higher risk of suicide than the national average – and more are seeking help. Plus: “payer ghosting” of mental health providers. And more.
Keep reading
Pot and Pregnancy: a Risky Combination
New study finds exposure to marijuana use during pregnancy raises infant health risks. Plus, hairdressers in Africa join the ranks of lay people providing mental health support.
Keep reading
An Epidemic has Become a Crisis
What’s worse than fentanyl? Fentanyl + meth + THC + xylazine. The physician leading the team assisting newly released Israeli hostages talks about their needs.
Keep reading
A City Fails Its People
A New York Times investigation uncovered a poorly managed system of care for the city’s most severely mentally ill that put lives at risk.
Keep readingMr. Lasso Goes to Washington to Talk Mental Health
The cast of Ted Lasso, the hit Apple TV+ show about a fictional British soccer team, came to the White House to meet with President Biden and talk about mental health. Read more…
Awards
MindSite News Wins Two Awards from San Francisco Press Club
MindSite News contributors won two awards from the San Francisco Press Club including the top prize in the Series/Continuing Coverage category for our compelling stories on the changing views of mental illness in films, streaming series, novels and television.
Keep readingMindSite News in your inbox.
Featured Stories
‘I Can’t Have a Child In This Climate’
The Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion greenlights the criminalization of pregnancy.
Keep reading
“Hiding in Plain Sight” Takes Us Inside the Youth Mental Health Crisis
This documentary looks at the youth mental health crisis through the eyes of more than 20 young Americans who have struggled with mental illness.
Keep reading
What’s Behind the Protests Against Schools Trying to Boost Kids’ Mental Health?
A close look at protests over mental health programs at school suggest that the powerful forces driving them are anything but grassroots.
Keep reading
Librarians’ Mental Health Threatened By Book Bans, Abuse And Harassment
Some librarians used to make jokes about Fahrenheit 451 as they pushed back on threats of censorship. But now it hits too close to home.
Keep reading
TikTok’s Narcissism Obsession…
Narcissism as a topic is breaking out on TikTok with billions of page views. The NarcTok community is teeming with therapists and “healers” of all kinds, along with self-identified survivors.
Keep reading
We Interrupt This Program to Bring You #BlackJoy
We Black people—Black Americans in this case—know hard times, but our lives also sparkle with joy. Black joy, and not just Black trauma, is our inheritance.
Keep reading
When Positivity Becomes Toxic
We are in the #GoodVibesOnly age, and it’s kind of a bummer. The book Toxic Positivity points the way toward authenticity.
Keep reading
What to Do When the World Is Ending
I am part of a generation that feels, constantly, and even in the most mundane moments, that the world is ending. Almost every article I read these days begins with the same preamble listing all of the overlapping crises, topped off by the…
Keep readingRead more…
Solutions Lab
For Indigenous Peoples With Deep Ties to the Land, Climate Change Is Personal
Environmental changes impacting beehives compound the disconnection the Ogiek community has experienced and “made them feel like they are not OK, weak in the bodies, weak in the mind.”
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Investigations
New Mexico Cities Hope to Reduce Tragedies by Sending Trained Civilians to Answer Mental Health Calls, Instead of Police. Will it Be Enough?
Las Cruces has become the latest city in New Mexico to start a program using mental health workers instead of police to respond to people in crisis. A similar program in Albuquerque, started in 2020, has not led to a reduction in police shootings of people with mental illness.
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Peer Hub
Combating veteran suicides with peers, therapy, housing – and a little horse sense
Since 1974, Swords to Plowshares has helped veterans with PTSD or other problems find jobs, benefits and a place to live.
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Arts & Culture
Does “Shrinking” Have Any Real-Life Therapists? Nah, They’re Just Playing Them Onscreen
The comedy series “Shrinking” is a runaway hit, but many psychologists say its message about therapy is fatally flawed.
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Policy Tracker
The 988 Crisis Hotline is Coming. Will States Answer the Call?
With the deadline for launching the 988 line just 7 months away, only a few states have enacted legislation to create and fund call centers and other services.
Keep readingResearch Roundup
A Friend Who’s More Boss than BFF May Be Harmful for Teens’ Mental Health
Friendships are extremely important relationships for teens, but are they always a positive influence? To investigate, we surveyed 388 adolescents at U.S. high schools to learn about their close friends’ dominating behaviors
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News
Veterans Urge VA to Speed Research, Funding of Psychedelics for PTSD
Despite high rates of PTSD and suicide among veterans, and despite the success of MDMA trials for veterans and others with PTSD, the V.A. has not funded any clinical studies of MDMA. That needs to change, said advocates and members of Congress.
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Essays & Interviews
‘Retaliation is a reality’: How agribusiness attacks on a Colorado farmworkers rights law erode ranch workers’ mental health
Anxiety and depression, among the most common mental issues in migrant farmworkers, may be exacerbated by the backlash against a recent farmworkers rights bill.
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