A common dilemma faced by law enforcement officials in Sonoma County California and across the nation: What do you do with someone whose mental health crisis does not yet present a major risk of injury or death?
"The magic is in how we listen and how we ask," writes reporter Gisela Telis. "When reporting on people who are struggling or have struggled, give them space to let you in to their world, and be vulnerable enough to say: Help me understand."
For many families struggling to navigate the maze of available mental-health treatment, the story of Everest Hickey highlights the desperate lengths to which they must go to get needed help.
For former foster children, the ACA's expansion of Medicaid coverage has made it easier to get care from their often complex health needs. Now some worry the expansion could be undone.
The intellectually disabled teen has spent most of his adolescence bouncing between juvenile jail and a mental health program that cannot help him get better.
Juvenile lockups and correctional programs have became warehouses for children like Keishan Ross with developmental disabilities and mental illness.
In many Asian communities, mental illness remains mired in stigma. A reporter in Orange County, Calif. explores how members of Korean, Vietnamese and Arab communities are affected by this barrier to care.
California's psychiatric hospitals can be highly dangerous places, both for patients and staff. Lost work days and overtime pay are huge. But reporters looking to track down reliable data on assaults face an uphill climb.
At California’s state psychiatric hospitals, ongoing assaults on staff by patients can make it nearly impossible to provide a therapeutic environment.
“Welcome to NAMI en español,” says Pedro Arciniega, in Spanish, before an audience of more than 35 participants who were crammed into a room to attend a month meeting to hear about one young man’s journey who struggles with a severe mental illness.
