Veronica Kelley, head of San Bernardino County’s Department of Behavioral Health, knows firsthand that the mental health effects from mass shootings linger. Nearly four years after her community was devastated by a massacre of 14 people, Kelley has advice for Gilroy, El Paso, Dayton and other communities reeling from recent carnage.
Tag: California
So-called red flag laws that let police take guns away from people with mental illness have support from both advocates and opponents of gun control. But it won’t alleviate gun violence.
A KHN review of dozens of inspection reports filed over the past year by the Nakamoto Group reveals disturbing patterns about the company’s audits, including a general willingness to accept accounts of the facilities that the company is paid to scrutinize, and to discount detainees’ complaints.
Pressure is growing on employers to better address the mental health needs of workers. Some big companies have begun to offer options such as peer support groups, and California has adopted a new law that calls on employers to act.
Medicaid pays for mentoring of mental health patients by “peer supporters,” but only if they are state-certified. California is one of two states with no certification program. Legislation pending in Sacramento would change that — if the governor backs it.
Many users now mix opioids with stimulants like meth and cocaine — and researchers believe opioids kicked off this new stimulant wave.
The federal government has doled out at least $2.4 billion in state grants since 2017 to address the opioid epidemic, which killed 47,600 people in the U.S. that year alone. But local officials note that drug abuse problems seldom involve only one substance.
The widespread availability of naloxone, which reverses overdoses, has radically changed the culture of opioid use on the streets, giving drug users a sense of security and inducing them to seek out the more powerful high of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The Affordable Care Act and other federal laws sought to put mental health care on an equal footing with physical health. But patients are still finding that’s not the case.
Children are spending more time on their devices than ever before, despite evidence that excessive screen time puts their minds and bodies at risk. Parents should set limits and stick to them — and also change their own online behavior, experts say.