Posts Tagged: mental illness

Podcast

What Will it Take to Get the Mentally Ill Homeless Off the Streets?

A homeless person sleeping on the street. Photo from Shutterstock user easyshutter.

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a proposal for a $3 billion bond measure aimed at the 2024 ballot, to fund housing for people with severe mental illness. At the same time, Newsom asked the legislature to revise 2004’s Proposition 63. Author and journalist Dan Morain joined us to talk about the two proposals, the half century of policy and politics that got us to where we are today, and shared his own personal story of a family member unable to live on his own after a devastating accident.

Opinion

Lawmakers: Improve access to mental health drugs

A photo illustration of a young woman in mental anguish. (Image: Photographee.eu, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The California legislature is considering legislative action that would streamline the approval process for people accessing care through Medi-Cal to receive their prescribed medications for serious mental illness without undue delays As a physician who has served our community for more than 25 years, I strongly support this effort.

Opinion

Why telehealth isn’t the best choice for me

An artist's photo illustration depicting a mental illness. (Image: Triff, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As I have shared throughout my career I, like many people, have a mental health condition.  I have anxiety and bi-polar depression.  I am also in recovery for alcoholism. I regularly see a psychiatrist, therapist and I take medication. 

News

Helping mentally ill people: The debate over ‘involuntary treatment’

A woman in a medical ward ponders her situation. (Photo: Boyloso, via Shutterstock)

Lee Davis says flatly that without involuntary treatment for her raging psychosis, she would be dead. “It saved my life.” A mental health activist who chairs the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board, which advises the board of supervisors and county officials on mental health policy, Davis acknowledges hers is not a popular view among disability rights advocates,

Letters

Letter to the Editor: Mental health care

Dear Editor: I want to commend reporter Sigrid Bathen for her thorough and excellent reporting on an issue important to so many people: providing mental health care for our loved ones. Ms. Bathen’s two-part series shined a critical light on some counties’ resistance to adopting Laura’s Law to enhance outpatient services to those with severe mental health issues.

News

Santa Clara judge creates ‘gold standard’ for mental health courts

Judge Stephen V. Manley on the bench in Santa Clara County. (Photo: Veteransvoices.net)

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley refers to defendants in his courtroom as “clients” – an indication of the unusually informal and conversational tenor of the Behavioral Health Court he created more than two decades ago. “It tends to break through a barrier,” Manley said.

News

Pressure mounts on how police handle mental-health crises

A modified image from a dash cam video taken at the May 2017 shooting of Mikel McIntyre. (Sacramento Sheriff's Department video)

On the afternoon of May 8, 2017, the family of 32-year-old Mikel McIntyre called 911 for help in dealing with his increasingly erratic and threatening behavior. The former high school and college athlete, who lived in Antioch and had briefly played baseball in the minor leagues, had been showing signs of serious mental illness, and his mother was concerned. She hoped a visit with family in Sacramento might help. The first call, shortly after 3 p.m., indicated a possible mental-health crisis: McIntyre had locked himself in a vehicle and was being “slightly combative,”

Opinion

Suicide prevention and Newsom’s focus on housing, homelessness

Homeless people in tents underneath a Los Angeles bridge. (Photo: mikeledray, via Shuytterstock)

OPINION: Gov. Newsom pledged up to $1.4 billion to attack the homeless situation. To help people on the verge of homelessness keep their apartments, Newsom is proposing a sum of $750 million, some of which will go towards subsidizing rent to keep people from falling into homelessness. He also said he would sign an executive order to provide trailers and tents as temporary housing.

News

Mental illness cases up in California jails

Image of an inmate behind bars. Illustration: PhoelixDE, via Shutterstock)

Mental illness cases in California jails have significantly increased since 2009, health policy experts reported Thursday. California Health Policy Strategies, a Sacramento-based consulting group, gathered administrative data from the Board of State and Community Corrections and discovered a 42 % increase in mental health cases reported and an 80 % increase in inmate medication prescriptions over the last 10 years.

News

Mental health care: From the snake pit to the streets

Illustration of a person suffering from mental illness. (Image: GrAl, via Shutterstock)

The modern history of mental-health care in California begins more than half a century ago with passage of the landmark 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, an ambitious — but ultimately disastrous —  overhaul of a draconian “system” of hoary old mental hospitals throughout California. Most of the hospitals were closed, but the “community care” that was to take their place never materialized.

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