Aug 29 Justice Department investigations find problematic police treatment of those with mental illness By Eric Tucker, Associated Press Justice Department lawyers investigating police agencies for claims of racial discrimination and excessive force are increasingly turning up a different problem: officers' interactions with the mentally ill. Continue reading
Aug 02 Amid shortage of psychiatric beds, mentally ill face long waits for treatment By Michael Ollove, Stateline Across the country, a critical shortage of state psychiatric beds is forcing mentally ill patients with severe symptoms to be held in emergency rooms, hospitals and jails while they wait for a bed, sometimes for weeks. Continue reading
May 02 Watch 3:10 This is what it’s like to be arrested while suffering mental illness By PBS News Hour Paton Blough has two labels he will have to bear for the rest of his life: “bipolar” and “convicted felon.” Having been arrested during his delusional episodes, Blough uses his experiences to help train police officers in crisis management when… Continue watching
Oct 19 Watch Slipping through the system: Are mentally ill Americans getting adequate health care? By PBS News Hour Millions of Americans are now eligible for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, including 1.2 million people with mental illnesses. But this particularly vulnerable group may not actually be getting the heath care they need. NewsHour Weekend's Stephen Fee… Continue watching
Sep 10 Watch Treating mental illness with medicine and religion in India By PBS News Hour In India, about 100 million people are believed to suffer common mental disorders and millions more have more severe illnesses. With just 5,000 psychiatrists in the country, faith healers have filled the gap. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports… Continue watching
Aug 22 Watch ‘Orange Is the New Black’ author’s biggest mistake inspired prison activism and a hit TV show By PBS News Hour Continue watching
Jul 25 Watch Connecting strength and vulnerability of the creative brain By PBS News Hour Why have so many creative minds suffered from mental illness? Nancy Andreasen, Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa, has devoted decades of study to the physical differences in the brains of writers and other highly… Continue watching
Jul 25 Probing the creative brain By Jenny Marder "As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies creativity, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many gifted and high-profile subjects over the years, but Kurt Vonnegut—dear, funny, eccentric, lovable, tormented Kurt Vonnegut—will always be one of my favorites."… Continue reading
Jul 10 Mentally ill shackled and neglected in Africa’s crisis regions By Victoria Fleischer Robin Hammond had never considered the long-term mental health effects on the Africans whose stories of war, famine and conflict he had covered for 12 years as a documentary photographer. But on a 2011 reporting trip to Sudan, he witnessed… Continue reading