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.
Investigations
Latest in Investigations
Professional certification boards are rigorous but draw relatively few students
It is hard for professional certification boards to compete against commercial counseling courses that may cost as little as $10.
Buyer, Be Aware: An Inside Look at Four Online Grief Counseling Certificate Programs
This short review covers grief therapy courses offered by the Global Grief Institute, PESI, the Grief Recovery Institute, and Udemy.
Caught in Washington’s Youth Mental Health Disaster, a Teen with Nowhere to Go
Jack Hays, 17, is one of a surging number of Washington children facing mental health challenges so severe that they require hospital stays. Between 2015 and 2021, the total number of hospitalizations nearly doubled among youth whose primary diagnosis is psychiatric, an investigation by The Seattle Times found.
No way out: Why a mentally disabled man was jailed nine years awaiting a murder trial that never happened
Eight years, 9 months, 24 days. That’s how long Lorenzo Mays waited inside a cell in the Sacramento County jail, struggling to understand the court system well enough to stand trial for a 2010 murder he insists he didn’t commit.
In California, Working and Living Conditions for Farmworkers Take a Mental Health Toll
Mental health issues have long been a critical – but little-discussed – challenge for Latino farmworkers, especially the undocumented. New research shows that substance use and signs of depression and anxiety have only worsened in the past two years, another legacy of COVID.
Mentally ill prisoners in California are three times likelier to get shuffled around
California state prisons transfer people with serious mental illness far more frequently than other prisoners — sometimes moving them dozens of times — a CalMatters’ analysis of newly acquired state data has found.
How to Keep Your Son From Killing Someone
In a city resigned to seeing untreated serious mental illness spasm into bursts of violence, the savage killing of emergency responder Alison Russo-Elling in Queens this September escalated a sense of urgency to do something — but what? Clarissa Crader, a devoted caretaker to her son, Justin Campbell, has been trying to figure that out for years.
In Pennsylvania jails, people with mental illness are routinely met with pepper spray and stun guns
A WITF investigation finds that corrections officers use physical force on people who may be unable to comply with orders due to a mental health condition. Most uses of force don’t lead to death. But the practices corrections officers employ every day in Pennsylvania county jails can put prisoners and staff at risk of injury and hurt vulnerable people.
In Chicago, Black Residents Calling 911 For Mental Crises More Likely to Face Tasers, Batons & Guns When Police Arrive
This past summer, the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline made its debut, creating an easy-to-remember phone number people can call to get help for a mental health crisis. Has it helped change the dynamic between police and people with a history of mental illness?
Cowgirl Boots, Anxious Nights: Transgender Youth and Families Grapple with Hostile Legislation – and Sky-High Rates of Mental Illness
It started with a pair of cowgirl boots – pink and blue with floral embroidery. Grandpa B. offered to take his grandchild Marty shopping for boots. At the store, which sells Texas-style western wear, 5-year-old Marty checked out the offerings and decided that the coolest by far was that special pair from the girls’ section. Assigned male at birth, Marty (a pseudonym) had already been experimenting with mixing “boy” and “girl” clothes, a point of tension between the generations in the family.
Overdose Deaths Now Top 100,000 a Year. Why Do So Few People Addicted to Opioids Get Treatment that Could Save Them?
The opioid crisis that killed a record 108,000 Americans last year is by now a well-known tragedy. Yet many of these deaths are preventable with the use of medications like buprenorphine. Trouble is only a small fraction of the people in the U.S. addicted to opioids have access to these medications.
‘I Can’t Have a Child In This Climate’
The Supreme Court's ruling on abortion greenlights the criminalization of pregnancy.
When Gayness was a Crime and a Mental Illness: One Man’s Journey from Involuntary Confinement to Pride
This is the story of Gene Ampon, a gay California teen who was arrested in the 1960s and sent to a psychiatric hospital to be "cured" of homosexuality -- and the movement to pride and resilience that helped save him.
Trial by Fire
California’s firefighters describe a broken and depleted fire service suffering a hidden, smoldering crisis. Across the state, Cal Fire crews that fight wildfires opened up to tell CalMatters their heart-wrenching stories — exhaustion on the firelines, weeks on duty without respite, suicidal thoughts, never-ending trauma and the terror and pain of seeing their colleagues injured or killed.
Ryan’s story: A hard-charging California firefighter loses his last battle to suicide
Cal Fire Captain Ryan Mitchell was the embodiment of the heroic archetype: 6–foot-4, strong and stoic, brave in the face of danger, the last person anyone expected to take his own life. Until he did.
Slow burn: Cal Fire has failed to fight PTSD, heavy workloads
California’s firefighting agency has been slow to react to a mounting mental health crisis within its ranks as firefighters around the state say Cal Fire has failed to get them what they need — including a sustainable workload, easier access to workers’ comp benefits and more counselors.
Overworked California firefighters struggle with PTSD, suicide, fatigue, intensifying wildfires
For firefighters battling California wildfires, emotional injuries are a workplace hazard. Longer and more intense fire seasons have taken a visible toll on the state, leaving a tableau of charred forests and flattened towns. But they’ve also fueled a silent mental health crisis, including an alarming rise in PTSD among firefighters.
New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call the Cops Instead.
Many residential treatment facilities for children in New York are shutting down, leaving families frustrated and scrambling to find mental health services. Some kids age out of care as they wait.
Inmate shuffle: How California bounces around its mentally ill prisoners
Three decades after California’s prisons first came under court monitoring for rampant abuse and neglect of prisoners with mental illness, the system is still failing to protect its sickest inmates. For many, prison isn't a place to heal, it's a place to disappear.
‘Corporal Punishment is Violence’: Black Communities Vow to Ban School Paddling
Corporal punishment is disproportionately inflicted on Black children and is higher in areas with histories of lynching
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.
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.
TikTok’s Narcissism Obsession And What It Says About Us
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.
Professional certification boards are rigorous but draw relatively few students
It is hard for professional certification boards to compete against commercial counseling courses that may cost as little as $10.
Buyer, Be Aware: An Inside Look at Four Online Grief Counseling Certificate Programs
This short review covers grief therapy courses offered by the Global Grief Institute, PESI, the Grief Recovery Institute, and Udemy.
Caught in Washington’s Youth Mental Health Disaster, a Teen with Nowhere to Go
Jack Hays, 17, is one of a surging number of Washington children facing mental health challenges so severe that they require hospital stays. Between 2015 and 2021, the total number of hospitalizations nearly doubled among youth whose primary diagnosis is psychiatric, an investigation by The Seattle Times found.
No way out: Why a mentally disabled man was jailed nine years awaiting a murder trial that never happened
Eight years, 9 months, 24 days. That’s how long Lorenzo Mays waited inside a cell in the Sacramento County jail, struggling to understand the court system well enough to stand trial for a 2010 murder he insists he didn’t commit.
In California, Working and Living Conditions for Farmworkers Take a Mental Health Toll
Mental health issues have long been a critical – but little-discussed – challenge for Latino farmworkers, especially the undocumented. New research shows that substance use and signs of depression and anxiety have only worsened in the past two years, another legacy of COVID.
Mentally ill prisoners in California are three times likelier to get shuffled around
California state prisons transfer people with serious mental illness far more frequently than other prisoners — sometimes moving them dozens of times — a CalMatters’ analysis of newly acquired state data has found.
How to Keep Your Son From Killing Someone
In a city resigned to seeing untreated serious mental illness spasm into bursts of violence, the savage killing of emergency responder Alison Russo-Elling in Queens this September escalated a sense of urgency to do something — but what? Clarissa Crader, a devoted caretaker to her son, Justin Campbell, has been trying to figure that out for years.
In Pennsylvania jails, people with mental illness are routinely met with pepper spray and stun guns
A WITF investigation finds that corrections officers use physical force on people who may be unable to comply with orders due to a mental health condition. Most uses of force don’t lead to death. But the practices corrections officers employ every day in Pennsylvania county jails can put prisoners and staff at risk of injury and hurt vulnerable people.
In Chicago, Black Residents Calling 911 For Mental Crises More Likely to Face Tasers, Batons & Guns When Police Arrive
This past summer, the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline made its debut, creating an easy-to-remember phone number people can call to get help for a mental health crisis. Has it helped change the dynamic between police and people with a history of mental illness?
Cowgirl Boots, Anxious Nights: Transgender Youth and Families Grapple with Hostile Legislation – and Sky-High Rates of Mental Illness
It started with a pair of cowgirl boots – pink and blue with floral embroidery. Grandpa B. offered to take his grandchild Marty shopping for boots. At the store, which sells Texas-style western wear, 5-year-old Marty checked out the offerings and decided that the coolest by far was that special pair from the girls’ section. Assigned male at birth, Marty (a pseudonym) had already been experimenting with mixing “boy” and “girl” clothes, a point of tension between the generations in the family.
Overdose Deaths Now Top 100,000 a Year. Why Do So Few People Addicted to Opioids Get Treatment that Could Save Them?
The opioid crisis that killed a record 108,000 Americans last year is by now a well-known tragedy. Yet many of these deaths are preventable with the use of medications like buprenorphine. Trouble is only a small fraction of the people in the U.S. addicted to opioids have access to these medications.
‘I Can’t Have a Child In This Climate’
The Supreme Court's ruling on abortion greenlights the criminalization of pregnancy.
When Gayness was a Crime and a Mental Illness: One Man’s Journey from Involuntary Confinement to Pride
This is the story of Gene Ampon, a gay California teen who was arrested in the 1960s and sent to a psychiatric hospital to be "cured" of homosexuality -- and the movement to pride and resilience that helped save him.
Trial by Fire
California’s firefighters describe a broken and depleted fire service suffering a hidden, smoldering crisis. Across the state, Cal Fire crews that fight wildfires opened up to tell CalMatters their heart-wrenching stories — exhaustion on the firelines, weeks on duty without respite, suicidal thoughts, never-ending trauma and the terror and pain of seeing their colleagues injured or killed.
Ryan’s story: A hard-charging California firefighter loses his last battle to suicide
Cal Fire Captain Ryan Mitchell was the embodiment of the heroic archetype: 6–foot-4, strong and stoic, brave in the face of danger, the last person anyone expected to take his own life. Until he did.
Slow burn: Cal Fire has failed to fight PTSD, heavy workloads
California’s firefighting agency has been slow to react to a mounting mental health crisis within its ranks as firefighters around the state say Cal Fire has failed to get them what they need — including a sustainable workload, easier access to workers’ comp benefits and more counselors.
Overworked California firefighters struggle with PTSD, suicide, fatigue, intensifying wildfires
For firefighters battling California wildfires, emotional injuries are a workplace hazard. Longer and more intense fire seasons have taken a visible toll on the state, leaving a tableau of charred forests and flattened towns. But they’ve also fueled a silent mental health crisis, including an alarming rise in PTSD among firefighters.
New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call the Cops Instead.
Many residential treatment facilities for children in New York are shutting down, leaving families frustrated and scrambling to find mental health services. Some kids age out of care as they wait.
Inmate shuffle: How California bounces around its mentally ill prisoners
Three decades after California’s prisons first came under court monitoring for rampant abuse and neglect of prisoners with mental illness, the system is still failing to protect its sickest inmates. For many, prison isn't a place to heal, it's a place to disappear.
‘Corporal Punishment is Violence’: Black Communities Vow to Ban School Paddling
Corporal punishment is disproportionately inflicted on Black children and is higher in areas with histories of lynching
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.
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.
TikTok’s Narcissism Obsession And What It Says About Us
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.