Supporting Peers to Advocate for Equal Rights and a Recovery-Based
Mental Health System During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Track Mental Health in the News
During the Coronavirus Pandemic
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Rollout of New National Mental Health Hotline Faces Obstacles
June 2022
A new national mental health hotline will launch in July. Like 9-1-1, the hotline will be available by dialing three digits: 9-8-8. The idea behind it is to connect people in a mental health crisis to experts trained in how to respond. But many agencies may not be prepared.
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American Foundation for Suicide Prevention CEO Bob Gebbia joins Stephanie Sy with more.
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Warning: This segment references suicide.
Important: If you or someone you know has talked about contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also find them online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
‘Recovery is Ongoing’: Aimee Mann on Mental Health, Music
May 2022
Musician Aimee Mann was asked to write songs for a play based on the best-selling memoir “Girl, Interrupted,” about the author’s time spent in a mental hospital.
Mann, who won a Grammy award in 2018 for her own album called “Mental Illness” took it on. The result is her recent album “Queens of the Summer Hotel.”
She spoke with NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Tom Casciato.
Americans Describe the Momentous Mental Health Toll of the Pandemic
March 2022
Two years into the pandemic, concerns about COVID-19's impact on mental health continue to grow. We spoke to people across the country about their particular struggles and the work being done to help others suffering during the pandemic.
And Dr. Tom Insel, who served as the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss what can be done.
What Two Decades of Data on Overdose Suicides Shows About Mental Health Care Disparities
February 2022
Important: For those suffering with depression and suicide ideation, or if someone you know is struggling, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or find them online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
For two decades, drug overdose deaths and suicides have been rising across the United States, exposing tragic gaps in mental and behavioral health care in the years before the coronavirus pandemic, according to new federal research. From 2001 to 2019, intentional overdoses increased most steeply among the nation’s youngest generations, oldest generations and Black women, researchers found. And experts agreed these rates were very likely undercounts.
In Mental Health Crises, a 9-1-1 Call Now Brings a Mixed Team of Helpers and Maybe No Cops
June 2021
By the time Kiki Radermacher, a mental health therapist arrived at a Missoula, Montana, home on an emergency 9-1-1 call in late May, the man who had called for help was backed into a corner and yelling at police officers.
The home, which he was renting, was about to be sold. He had called 9-1-1 when his fear of becoming homeless turned to thoughts of killing himself.
"I asked him, 'Will you sit with me?'" recalled Radermacher, a member of the city's mobile crisis response team who answered the call with a medic and helped connect the man with support services. "We really want to empower people, to find solutions."
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Missoula began sending this special crew on emergency mental health calls in November as a pilot project, and next month the program will become permanent.
Naomi Osaka’s Withdrawal from the French Open Highlights How Mental Health Ranks Below Physical Health
June 2021
Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka announced that she would withdraw from the French Open after she was fined and threatened with being disqualified for not speaking to media during the tournament to protect her mental health.
French Open officials and others reacted not with concern but by criticizing her for not fulfilling her obligations. This occurred despite the fact that her refusal came after a first-round win, unlike others fined for skipping press conferences because of losses.
The evolving maelstrom that has followed weighs two priorities: the obligation to fulfill one’s job requirements — which in Osaka’s case includes talking to the press — and protecting one’s mental wellness. While a physical injury is routinely accepted as a legitimate reason for not performing aspects of one’s duties, mental or emotional injury has yet to reach the same level of attention or legitimacy...
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September 22, 2020
How to Care for Your Mental Health in a Difficult Holiday Season, According to Therapists
December 2020
Chances are the final weeks of 2020 look markedly different than what you would've predicted on the first day of this year. With COVID-19 case and death counts on the rise and hospitals continuing to fill up, many are grappling with the ways that the unchecked coronavirus has sabotaged their daily lives, their economic stability and their time-honored traditions at the end of a year where shared celebration and community may feel more important than ever before.
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More than a million people in the U.S. are also estimated to be facing their first holiday season without a loved one who has died from the disease.