The nation’s shortage of psychiatrists is especially acute in remote areas, leaving many people without access to the care they need
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MPR News mental health reporter Alisa Roth spent 2019 in prisons, medical offices and in the homes of families to report on some of the most compelling mental health stories in Minnesota this year. She joined the program to talk about those stories and share what she wants to focus on in 2020.
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One year ago, Keaton Larson was in crisis. He was shot by a police officer who came to help
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This is the third and final episode in our series on childhood trauma and we're going big-picture. So buckle up, because the train is going to make stops in Rantville, Can You Believe This Burg and OMGtown.
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If the terrible things that happened to you during childhood can affect your health later in life, how do you NOT live out the worst possibilities for yourself? Is that even possible? In this second episode of our series about childhood trauma, we look at protective factors and resilience.
Read MoreThe National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, says it's the most common mental health concern in the United States, with 19 percent of adults experiencing an anxiety disorder. So when is it something you just ride out, and when does it become something for which you should seek help?
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We all kind of understand that what happens to us as a child affects us as an adult. But there is recent evidence that the way our childhoods affect us is so much deeper and more surprising than we thought.
Read MoreAbout 1 in 10 Americans has a phobia – an intense and persistent fear of something. Common phobias include a fear of heights, small spaces, or spiders. A Mayo Clinic psychologist and someone who has a fear of contamination joined the MPR News with Angela Davis to discuss how phobias can impact the way you live and share ways to cope.
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Euthanizing animals, dealing with angry pet owners and struggling to pay off student loans add up to a lot of stress. Some vet schools are offering their students support.
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Minneapolis and St. Paul are proposing new city ordinances that would ban gay conversion therapy, the controversial treatment designed to change people’s sexual orientation or sexual identity.
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A close call in one Minneapolis family illustrates the challenge of keeping guns away from people who shouldn’t have one
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Our nonpartisan, nationally representative survey provides new information about the American public’s opinions about gun policies and behaviors among those who own guns (or live with those who do). The survey was conducted July 16 to 21, 2019, just two weeks prior to the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and it covered several topics. This is the third and last release from that survey; the first release covered “red flag” laws and the characteristics associated with gun ownership and the second covered respondents’ knowledge about gun-related deaths.
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Although suicides account for the majority of gun deaths in the United States—60% in the latest data—by and large American adults are unaware of this. In our survey, only one-fourth of Americans correctly answered that gun deaths by suicide outnumber deaths resulting from mass shootings, murders other than mass shootings, and accidental gun discharges. This is no better than guessing at random from among the four choices given.
Read MoreWhen someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, often the only alternatives are jail or an emergency room. Neither of those alternatives is particularly helpful, and sometimes they can make a person’s condition worse. Nationwide, cities and counties are searching for cheaper and more therapeutic options.
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Say a person in psychological distress wants to die. So, he threatens the police, often by waving a knife or gun. (As with more generic forms of suicide, most cases involve men.) Then the officers are “forced” to kill him — to protect themselves and others. The scenario is often said to be suicide by cop. It’s generally agreed that some fatal police shootings are suicide by cop. The question is, which ones?
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For a long time, the address 1800 Chicago in Minneapolis has been synonymous with detox. As in, end-of-the-road, hit-rock-bottom detox. Now Hennepin County is turning the facility into a one-stop shop for services ranging from detox to mental health care to help signing up for low-income housing. It’s designed to keep people with mental health and substance use problems out of jail and hospitals.
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The Humankind program is called “Whole Teachers — Whole Students.” You’ll hear from educators and students at a middle school in San Francisco, and a college in Virginia.
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MPR medical commentator Dr. Jon Hallberg hosted Hippocrates Cafe at the MPR State Fair booth, as part of Minnesota Public Radio’s “Call to Mind” initiative to promote good mental health. It features music and the spoken word.
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This survey finds widespread support among American adults for “red flag” laws, also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), which allow a family member or the police to seek a court order to temporarily take away guns if they feel a gun owner may harm themselves or others. More than three-fourths of American adults support family-initiated ERPOs, the majority of whom say they “strongly” support such measures. Similarly, 70 percent support police-initiated ERPOs.
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As more and more people in prison need mental health care, more and more prison systems are turning to telepsychiatry. It’s basically a video psychiatry appointment, a doctor’s visit via Skype or FaceTime.
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