In the News

It has been difficult to find mental health counseling in much of the U.S. for years, long before the pandemic. It is even more difficult to find specialized care for children or those with lower income. At Boston Medical Center, a safety net hospital, staff recently began contacting parents on the 170-person wait list from […]

President Biden’s new plan to expand mental health and substance use treatment would pour hundreds of millions of dollars into suicide prevention, mental health services for youth, and community clinics providing 24/7 access to people in crisis. It was unveiled as part of his State of the Union speech. Health insurance plans would have to […]

There are support groups for family members or friends of loved ones living with a mental health condition. The National Alliance on Mental Illness and other regional groups offer support groups for families and friends. “We use a loose definition of ‘family,’” says Teri Brister, chief program officer at NAMI. “If you’re the source of […]

One-time, acute crisis response is just one service inRESPONSE provides, at a cost of $1.1 million this year. Another innovative element is the “system navigators” who provide long-term, wraparound support to members of the community before and after mental health crises. The system navigators not only follow up after emergency incidents, but also operate a […]

Julie Rovner interviews Hannah Wesolowski, NAMI CAO, about how the pandemic has worsened the nation’s mental health crisis and what can be done about it. Hannah discusses the rollout of 988 on July 16, 2022 and the need for community-based continuum of crisis services — 24/7 call centers that answer 988 calls locally, mobile crisis […]

Police encounters during a mental health crisis have a greater chance of turning deadly if you’re Black. New response mechanisms bypass law enforcement and result in helpful interventions. Reporter Jenee Darden looks at how folks in Northern California are trying to reimagine crisis response services. Shannon Scully, senior manager of criminal justice policy at NAMI, […]

Eleanor Owen, a fierce advocate in the world of mental health policy who co-founded the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Downtown Emergency Service Center, has died at the age of 101 at her home in Seattle. A “force of nature” according to her friends and family, Owen’s work included amending Washington’s Involuntary Treatment […]

(CW: Suicidal Ideation) Specifically, 988 calls will be answered by trained crisis counselors who can also link callers to more resources. If further intervention is needed, a team of behavioral health professionals — not police — are supposed to respond. “We want to avoid that escalation, and make sure we’re not putting law enforcement in […]

(CW: Suicide) This is Part 1 of a special series about 988 that explores what it will take for this new nationwide hotline to meet the needs of millions of people struggling with suicide, addiction and mental illness. “We have funded mental health this way for decades. It is pennies here, pennies there. It is […]

The California law is a positive step forward, as students are likely going to face mental health fallout from the pandemic for years to come, said Hannah Wesolowski, NAMI CAO. “We are deeply concerned around what the COVID-19 pandemic has done to youth mental health,” Wesolowski said. “The earlier we can intervene, the better we’re […]