mental health

In the wake of the Michael Brown shooting, residents of Ferguson are still dealing with the emotional effects of the conflict.

Bianca Huff and her three-year-old son live in Canfield Green, the apartment complex where Michael Brown was shot and killed on August 9. Five days after Brown’s death, KBIA producer Bram Sable-Smith talked with Huff about how she has been helping her son understand everything that has happened.

“He’s seen the police before, so he was like ‘Did the police do this?’ and ‘How did the boy pass?’ and just different questions,” Huff said. “And he be like ‘So he gone?’ And I said ‘Yeah, he gone but he in a better place’ And he just say ‘Ok’ and keep going about the day. So as long as he don’t get too distraught, I just let him do that.”

Fortunately, there are people already on the ground in Ferguson helping people like Huff and her family cope with the recent tragedy in their community.

Since 2005, Mary Kelley’s 16 year-old-son has been hospitalized psychiatrically 36 times, lived in 7 different residential facilities, and been part of two therapeutic treatment systems.

He has oppositional defiant disorder, ADHD, anxiety, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.

Back when it all started, Kelley had no idea what to do, where to turn or why it was happening.

On Sunday, MU football player Michael Sam publicly came out as gay in interviews with several media outlets. There has of course been a lot of reaction to the news, with many praising the defensive lineman’s decision and others questioning whether it’ll affect his prospects of being drafted into the NFL. Sam would be the first openly gay player in the NFL if he is drafted. Before his announcement, he was projected to be taken in the third or fourth round.

Watch the show and join the conversation on the Intersection website.

The Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital in Columbia is adding seven new positions in its mental health care programs for veterans.

A report released by the Missouri Department of Mental Health shows teens in Callaway County report higher alcohol and drug use than teens anywhere else in Missouri.

One in five Americans has some sort of disability according to a study done in 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This could include disabilities having to do with hearing, sight, mobility, learning, development or mental health. But not all disabilities are perceived the same way. Drew Graham has a unique perspective on this. He has both a physical and mental disability and has determined over the years that the stigma associated with mental disability carries more weight.

A group that oversees mental-health services in Boone County is considering merging into another city or county institution.  The Boone County Mental Health Board has suffered from sporadic meeting attendance and failed attempts to create a community mental-health fund.

There are 1.6 million people living in rural Missouri, and many have a hard time accessing health care. In the 2011 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s healthy county rankings, Hickory County in West Central Missouri is rated one of the worst in the state in terms of mental health. It’s so bad, residents say they experience just over a week’s worth of poor mental health days each month. They are also unhealthier and experience more poverty than the national average.