Mental Health

Latest KFF Health News Stories

In A Puerto Rican Mountain Town, Hope Ebbs And Health Suffers

KFF Health News Original

More than six months after Hurricane Maria, daily life in Castañer, Puerto Rico, is nowhere close to normal as residents try to deal with the effects of trauma, chronic stress and the continued lack of electricity.

Psiquiatra se queda cerca de casa, fiel a su promesa de la infancia

KFF Health News Original

La doctora Yamanda Edwards es la única psiquiatra en el Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital. Ella decidió ejercer en el vecindario en donde creció, que tiene una necesidad acuciante de servicios de salud mental.

How Many Opioid Overdoses Are Suicides?

KFF Health News Original

Opioid overdoses and related deaths are still climbing, U.S. statistics show. Teasing out which overdoses are intentional can be hard, but is important for treatment, doctors say.

Docs Worry There’s ‘Nowhere To Send’ New And Expectant Moms With Depression

KFF Health News Original

California’s legislature will soon take up a bill that would require doctors to screen pregnant women and new mothers for mental health problems. Many doctors oppose the idea, and laws elsewhere haven’t increased the number of moms treated.

Impuesto a los millonarios genera grandes beneficios para pacientes de salud mental

KFF Health News Original

Un impuesto estatal a los ricos ha impulsado significativamente los programas de salud mental en el condado más grande de California, ayudando a reducir la falta de vivienda, el encarcelamiento y la hospitalización.

California’s Tax On Millionaires Yields Big Benefits For People With Mental Illness, Study Finds

KFF Health News Original

The research, focused on Los Angeles County, casts a positive light on a 2004 initiative that expanded mental health services statewide. A recent state audit, however, suggested hundreds of millions of dollars from the initiative were piling up, left unspent by counties.

Oregon Medical Students Face Tough Test: Talking About Dying

KFF Health News Original

Starting this spring, aspiring doctors at the Oregon Health & Science University must prove they can communicate about difficult subjects ranging from admitting medical mistakes to notifying families about a patient’s death.

A Battered Doctor, A Slain Patient And A Family’s Quest For Answers

KFF Health News Original

An addiction-treatment physician fatally shot a troubled ex-Marine after the man pummeled him inside his California office, police records show. The tragedy illustrates how the limited number of clinics available to prescribe buprenorphine, a drug that all but erases opioid withdrawal, can become crowded, chaotic and dangerous.

Health Care Revamped At L.A. County Jails

KFF Health News Original

The effort, overseen by the county’s health services department, aims to improve care for a population with high rates of chronic disease, mental illness and drug addiction.