Mental Health & Trauma

Dan Morain explores the 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act's impact on mental health care, and how his brother's story inspired him to dig deeper into this pivotal chatper of California history.

In the 1960s, California’s mental health system confined patients with minimal hearings. A 1966 report led to the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, granting rights and limiting forced hospitalization.

In this webinar, we examine the challenge facing many Americans when trying to access mental health care through commercial health plans, and explore what can be done to lessen the gap between physical and mental health care in this country.

Hazel Su is one of several hundreds who have migrated from Myanmar to the Bay Area to seek political asylum to resettle in the U.S. As an asylum seeker, Su is so focused on paying living expenses and helping family back home that she doesn't prioritize her own health. Despite learning about Medi-Cal covering people like her, Su finds that her options are too confusing to navigate and there are not enough community workers who can help.

People don't get to choose the illnesses that render them too disabled to work, but insurance companies have the power to approve or deny claims based on where in the body their condition exists.

People diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness and trauma are more often denied disability coverage than those with physical impairments.

While insurance for physical ailments has improved steadily, coverage of mental health is decades out of step with the knowledge of its causes, impacts and treatment.

Suspensions jump as teachers increasingly use discipline to deal with students’ mental health and behavioral issues.

"Learning to use sensitivity and trauma-informed approaches with my subjects became paramount," writers reporter Robert Hansen.