HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra comes to Chicago conference to praise ‘phenomenal’ growth of crisis response system While Kristen Ellis was in graduate school for counseling, a loved one died by suicide. She was there and saw it happen, and the experience changed her life, leading her to take an early job at a crisis center while she was still in school. “As a family member I didn’t even know what to do,” she said. “It was scary.”  Kristen Ellis, LMFT. Photo courtesy RI International She soon found out that the work of a crisis counselor can be both stressful and rewarding.  “What an i ..read more

This story was originally reported and published by The War Horse. Active-duty service members and veterans thinking of harming themselves can get free crisis care. Contact the Military Crisis Line at 988, then press 1, or access online chat by texting 838255. When she joined the Navy in 2001, Jennifer Alvarado wanted to excel, to be, in her words, a “stellar sailor.” After boot camp, she worked as a hospital corpsman and pursued extra medical and weapons certification courses to prove her work ethic. Her home life on the military base was a different story: She hid the stress and increasing ..read more

In Chicago neighborhood where Dexter Reed was killed, police make thousands of traffic stops targeting Black residents Bruce Davis, an auto mechanic, was repairing a car in his backyard on West Ferdinand Street on Chicago’s West Side when gunshots rang out at around 6 pm on March 21. He ducked into his garage and waited anxiously for the shooting to stop. The hail of 96 bullets fired by plainclothes Chicago police officers, killing 26-year Dexter Reed, lasted 41 seconds – but seemed to Davis to go on forever. “It was crazy,” he told MindSite News. “It was like something you would hear in a mo ..read more

With rates of violence, suicide and depression rising fastest in communities of color, the need for clinicians who understand their clients’ needs is urgent Hughes and Oyeniyi work with Youthcast Media Group, a nonprofit that trains high school students in journalism.  Dr. Itoro Ibia’s patient was set to be released from a hospital in Virginia last year when she told a nurse she felt like demonic spirits were hanging around. The woman was being treated for psychosis related to a bipolar manic episode; her confession led hospital staff to believe she was delusional, Ibia said.&n ..read more

Language barriers may be hindering crucial warnings over the dangers of fentanyl for some 70,000 indigenous Maya-speaking people. This story was originally published by the San Francisco Public Press, and is adapted from an episode of their podcast “Civic.” Click the audio player below to hear the full story. Every Saturday, Aurelia Ramirez fills a tote bag with pamphlets about local social support services, buys a few dozen slices of sweet bread and a box of brewed coffee, and walks through her Mission District neighborhood connecting with people living on the street.  “Our job is to ch ..read more

Beltway Update is an occasional column keeping you up to date on timely Congressional and administrative action on mental and behavioral health bills and policy in Washington, DC. We are 15 months into the 118th Congress, and the low expectations for the gridlocked body have been both affirmed and defied. Flashing back to January 2023 and the start of the new Congress, most observers assumed that its intense partisan divisions would usher in an era where little policymaking would get done and that the robust funding approved by the previous Congress – including in the mental health space – wa ..read more

This story was originally reported and published by thewarhorse.org. Republished with permission. On a foggy December morning, Dennis Johnson parks his Toyota Tacoma beneath an overpass in downtown Oakland, California. To his left is a homeless encampment so dense it spills off the sidewalk and into the streets. To his right is the Oakland Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, and outside the clinic, a homeless veteran – in his 80s, Johnson says – sitting on a bench, on top of a torn gray sleeping bag. The man’s hooded sweatshirt pools around his withered frame.   Johnson, an outreach ..read more

After days of uncertainty, the results are finally in: Californians, by a slim majority, have voted to throw their support behind Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest effort to overhaul how the state cares for people with serious mental illness. The Associated Press on Wednesday declared that Proposition 1 passed by the narrowest of margins, 50.2% to 49.8%.  The passage of the two-pronged ballot measure will give Newsom funds to fulfill promises he has made while rolling out a series of other mental health policies in recent years –  more housing, more treatment beds and a ..read more

“I. Want.” A metallic voice bursts out of Peter’s padded iPad. “To. Eat.” The 26-year-old selects a picture on the app. Tap, click, tap, click: “A. Cheeseburger.” His mother, Susan, chuckles. Sixteen years ago, she couldn’t have imagined having this kind of conversation with her son. Peter is unable to talk. Before learning how to use the iPad app at age 10, he communicated fluidly with his family through signs and gestures. He doesn’t have autism, but he displays some characteristics of severe autism because of a stroke he experienced while he was still in the womb. His motor skills and bala ..read more

In the Arab American enclave of Dearborn, anxiety, depression and substance abuse strain the “9/11 generation” This story was originally reported and published by Capital & Main, in collaboration with Rolling Stone. As a boy, Rabih Darwiche would sprint for cover when the monthly test sirens ripped through his quiet suburban Detroit neighborhood. Darwiche’s terror was about more than the ear-splitting roar alone: The tornado alarms took him back from Dearborn, Michigan, to his early childhood in 1980s Lebanon. There, similar sirens warned of imminent bombings by Israeli jets soaring ..read more