Mental Health

Taylor watches students following an incident during class. Mentors often help teachers intervene.

For At-Risk Kids, Mentors Provide Far More Than Just Homework Help

11:42pm October 29, 2015

by Jennifer Ludden

At Baltimore's Renaissance Academy High School, mentors help students cope with the trauma in their daily lives. The principal says the aim is not just to keep boys in school, but to keep them alive.

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A young boy talks with Tina Cloer, director of the Children's Bureau, in Indianapolis. The nonprofit shelter takes in children from the state's Department of Child Services when a suitable foster family can't be found. Cloer says the average length of sta

Heroin, Opioid Abuse Put Extra Strain On U.S. Foster Care System

6:59pm October 27, 2015

by Jake Harper

Roughly 265,000 U.S. kids entered foster care last year — the highest number since 2008. Officials say the abuse of heroin or prescription painkillers by more parents is one reason for the increase.

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Could Depression Be Caused By An Infection?

8:23am October 25, 2015

by Bret Stetka

Infection and autoimmune activity result in inflammation. And psychiatric researchers now suspect that inflammation may play a role in some cases of depression and other mental illnesses.

Aurora Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee has found that connecting people with primary care doctors reduces the number of emergency room visits.

A Hospital Reduces Repeat ER Visits By Providing Social Workers

5:32pm October 23, 2015

by Alison Kodjak

Some people return to the emergency room again and again because it's their only source of medical care. A Wisconsin hospital hired social workers to help patients find more appropriate care.

#NPRreads: Two Stories About Mental Health And A Profile Of Pitcher Bronson Arroyo

5:06pm October 23, 2015

Also this week: an interview with Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet and formerly the chairman and CEO of Google.

Neuroscientist Takashi Kitamura works in the lab of Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of their recent projects helped identify a brain circuit involved in processing the "where" and "when" of memory. "Ocean

30,000 Brain Researchers Meld Minds At Science's Hottest Hangout

11:49am October 23, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

Once an obscure hub of specialists, the yearly gathering of the Society for Neuroscience now draws some of the biggest and brightest from other fields too, seeking answers to brain and body secrets.

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Reducing Risk Of Assaults In Psychiatric Hospitals A Challenge

4:29pm October 22, 2015

NPR's Audie Cornish talks to Joel Dvoskin, a clinical and forensic psychologist who is a consultant to psychiatric hospitals around the country, on how to reduce the risk of assaults. He says no hospitals have been able to completely eliminate the risks, but there have been successes in reducing the number of assaults. He explains the key elements for reducing risk.

Sarah Silverman plays a profoundly depressed woman who has gone off her medication in the film I Smile Back.

Sarah Silverman Opens Up About Depression, Comedy And Troublemaking

2:38pm October 22, 2015

Throughout her life, comedian Sarah Silverman has experienced varying degrees of depression, which she likens to a "chemical change." She plays a profoundly depressed woman in the film I Smile Back.

Calif. Hospital Struggles To Control Patient-On-Patient Violence

4:30pm October 21, 2015

by Scott Shafer

Part one of this series explored how the violence at Napa State Psychiatric Hospital affects staff at the facility. In part two, NPR reports on patients who are victims of assault by other patients.

What To Do With California's Mentally Ill Defendants?

4:29pm October 21, 2015

by Scott Shafer

Jail is too dangerous for many defendants found incompetent to stand trial because of illnesses like schizophrenia, judges say. But psychiatric hospitals are now overcrowded and violent, too.