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Police officers arrived at a North Austin apartment building on May 25, 2015, after Cassandra Bolin's boyfriend requested a welfare check. Armed with a handgun, the 31-year-old woman refused to come outside and threatened to shoot herself and officers if they would not leave her alone. After a long standoff, Bolin confronted police, pointing her gun at herself and then at officers, who shot and killed her. When police shoot a mentally ill person, calls inevitably follow for providing...

People today might not actually be avoiding social interaction any more than they did in past decades, but they’re certainly more vocal about it. The rise of digital communication seems to be spawning a nation of indoor cats, all humble-bragging about how introverted they are and ordering their rides and groceries without ever talking to a human . Sometimes reclusiveness can be a sign of something more serious, though. Social anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses, but it’s still...

Thousands upon thousands of research studies are done each year in the mental health and medical fields. The research is used to better understand diseases and disorders. It’s used to test which treatments are more effective. The research is used to help educate the public about how to prevent diseases and disorders from developing, and, how to get treatment if you need it. As mental health and medical professionals, we’re expected to continue educating ourselves about the latest research in...

Part One in an NPR Ed series on mental health in schools. You might call it a silent epidemic. Up to one in five kids living in the U.S. shows signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder in a given year. So in a school classroom of 25 students, five of them may be struggling with the same issues many adults deal with: depression, anxiety, substance abuse. And yet most children — nearly 80 percent — who need mental health services won't get them. Whether treated or not, the children do go...

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” In my case, education fundamentally saved my life. At age 16, I was sentenced to serve six years at a secure juvenile detention facility in upstate New York for the crime of attempted murder. I committed the offense when I was 15 years and 363 days old. If I been 16 at the time of the offense, I would have been charged as an adult and would have received a much longer sentence than six...

On a June evening around sundown, birds’ chirping dominates the soundscape on Pine Street in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood. A robin flits around ankle-high grass, cocking its head. A family of pheasants bobs past on a road mottled with potholes. Then you notice the hum of cars barreling down the six-lane Fisher Freeway at the end of the block. Beyond the interstate is the façade of Michigan Central Station and, less than two miles past that, the red letters of the Ambassador Bridge,...

“I was able to dance today, and it helped me with my stress,” an 11-year-old girl told Sarita Fritzler, an emergency team leader for Save the Children , which is providing flood assistance in Louisiana. The child and her family were among more than 5,000 people who turned to emergency shelters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after flooding damaged or destroyed more than 60,000 homes in the state in mid-August. The family found shelter at Baton Rouge River Center, which on Tuesday still held more...

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team is the first of its kind. The team responds to a crime scene where a child is involved and determines the next steps to be taken for the child’s well-being. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen stopped by the police department Tuesday to learn more about the program. “It sounded to me like such a great way to respond to what you so often see, which is the violence, the difficult times in families, and to be able to have a positive response is really...

Swearing at teachers, throwing chairs in a classroom, getting into fights on campus, or ditching class—those kinds of behaviors are sure to get students suspended, expelled, or handcuffed in the back of a squad car at most American high schools. But instead of responding with the typical punitive, zero-tolerance disciplinary tactics , what would happen if teachers and administrators started asking kids who act out what’s really going on in their lives? In Paper Tigers—a documentary that...

Diphtheria, scurvy, rickets, rheumatic heart disease, tetanus ... these are the diseases of history that killed and maimed tens of thousands of children every year in America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Now those of us who work in pediatrics face different, but no less serious challenges. Back then, images of wasted babies and street urchins in tattered clothes are often conjured when the lives of children in early America are described. In the early days of modern medicine,...

[Episode 105] Today's Social Work Podcast is about Recovery High Schools. I spoke with Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker, Distinguished Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work, and author of the 2016 book, Youth and Substance Use: Prevention, Intervention and Recovery . We talk about risk factors for addiction, adolescent brain development, how to think about addiction from a biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective, why recovery or sober high schools fit an essential gap...

The message is chillingly clear: If you’re raped or sexually assaulted in Baltimore these days, don’t expect much from the police. Earlier this month, a Department of Justice investigation found the Baltimore Police department has been shockingly negligent in responding to sex crimes, including leaving the majority of rape kits untested and ignoring evidence. It described a culture of hostility towards victims, including officers who called women “whores” who are trying to “mess up guys’...