mental health care

Barbara Wheatley takes phone calls as part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network. Wheatley is an alcohol and substance abuse counselor, and the lead clinician for mobile crisis response for Memorial Behavioral Health in Springfield, Ill.

Some states are struggling to prepare for calls to the 988 mental health crisis line

12:45pm July 11, 2022

by Carter Barrett

With the new three-digit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline set to launch in days, several states have been beset by staffing crunches, dropped or rerouted calls and lack of planning.

An old mental hospital sits in Trieste's San Giovanni Park. The facility closed over 40 years ago, but its ocher pavilions are filled with activity.

A public mental health model in Italy earns global praise. Now it faces its demise

9:31am November 24, 2021

by Sylvia Poggioli

Trieste has a reputed approach to bringing people with mental illnesses out of hospitals and into the community. Now the region's hard-right politicians are breaking the system apart.

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Therapist Kiki Radermacher was one of the first members of a mobile crisis response unit in Missoula, Mont., which started responding to emergency mental health calls last year. That pilot project becomes permanent in July and is one of six such teams in

In Montana, Crisis Support Teams Offer Alternatives To Policing Mental Health

5:00am June 10, 2021

by Katheryn Houghton

Montana now has six mobile crisis response teams — up from one in 2019 — with more in the works. Each team has a different makeup, but all use mental health support to diffuse tricky situations.

CVS is adding mental health counseling to the services offered at about a dozen of its stores with HealthHUBs in Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Health & Safety

CVS To Offer In-Store Mental Health Counseling

4:13pm April 29, 2021

by Yuki Noguchi

As the number of people seeking therapy soars during the pandemic, CVS has begun testing a model to offer counseling services in its stores. It hopes to reduce costs for both patients and itself.

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A health care worker prepares to screen people for the coronavirus at a testing site in Landover, Md., in March.

Health Care Workers Ask Therapist: 'Why Aren't More People Taking This Seriously?'

6:51pm October 20, 2020

The pandemic continues to exact a heavy emotional toll on health care workers, says Kimberly Johnson, who provides them with free therapy. "I wish people knew ... what I saw," clients tell her.

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Mental health advocates say 988, a simple three-digit number, will be easier for people to remember in the midst of a mental health emergency.

New Law Creates 988 Hotline For Mental Health Emergencies

2:54pm October 20, 2020

by Rhitu Chatterjee

President Trump has signed a bipartisan bill creating a three-digit hotline for mental health emergencies. Mental health advocates say it'll bring mental health crisis response into the 21st century.

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Arline Feilen (left) and her sister, Kathy McCoy, at their mother's home in the Chicago suburbs. The biggest chunk of Feilen's bill was $16,480 for four nights in a room shared with another patient. McCoy joked that it would have been cheaper to stay at t

Health & Safety

A Woman's Grief Led To A Mental Health Crisis And A $21,634 Hospital Bill

11:25am October 31, 2019

by Laura Ungar

A woman in Illinois spent five days in the hospital undergoing psychiatric care to help her through a mental health crisis. The bill she got is about the same price as a new Honda Civic.

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Officer Brian Cregg checks in with a man who says he is homeless and living in his car in Concord, N.H. In Concord, as in many parts of the Northeast, widespread use of meth is new, police say, and is changing how they approach interactions with people wh

Is It A Meth Case Or Mental Illness? Police Who Need To Know Often Can't Tell

7:53pm October 22, 2019

by Martha Bebinger

Calming techniques officers learn during training for intervening in a mental health crisis don't seem to work as well when a suspect is high on meth. Police say meth calls can be much more dangerous.

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Meme, a New Hampshire woman using a family nickname, ended up spending 20 days locked inside a wing of the emergency department at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, N.H.

Woman Detained In Hospital For Weeks Joins Lawsuit Against New Hampshire

5:00am October 22, 2019

by Jason Moon

She was detained because she couldn't get a court hearing. She couldn't get a hearing because they are available only to people in psychiatric beds and the state's psychiatric facilities are full.

John Poynter of Clarksville, Tenn., uses a wall calendar to keep track of all his appointments for both behavioral health and physical ailments. His mental health case manager, Valerie Klein, appears regularly on the calendar — and helps make sure he ge

Health & Safety

Coordinating Care Of Mind And Body Might Help Medicaid Save Money And Lives

4:35pm August 07, 2019

by Blake Farmer

Tennessee's innovative Medicaid program is offering bonuses to mental health providers who help make sure their Medicaid patients get preventive help and treatment for physical ailments too.