mental health

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin announced plans to expand urgent mental healthcare treatment for former service members with other-than-honorable discharges last week. Currently, service members with other-than-honorable discharges are not eligible for any VA healthcare benefits. These new plans would mean around half a million former service members would be able to get care from the VA during mental health crises.

The Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital began hosting classes at its new Patient Education Center on January 29. The center is a space within the hospital designated for classes that target veterans’ health. 

Although the majority of the classes were already being offered, the new center makes them more accessible. Additionally, the center is outfitted with a kitchen that makes classes such as a healthy cooking class possible.

There’s big change on the horizon for the public mental health safety net. The Excellence in Mental Health Act is being called the "biggest federal investment in mental health and addiction services in generations."

To discuss the changes, and to learn how Missouri’s mental health system has fared since federal funding was rolled back for Community Mental Health Centers, KBIA sat down with Brent McGinty, President and CEO of the Missouri Coalition for Community Behavioral Healthcare.

Researchers from the University of Missouri released a study tying mental health to forgiveness in older adults. By analyzing data from the Religion, Aging and Health Survey, Associate Professor of Human Development of Family Science Christine Proulx found a significant difference between how forgiveness impacts men and women's mental health.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded just under 23 million dollars in Planning Grants to 25 states across the country to support Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics.

Katarina Schultz began to show symptoms of social anxiety at the age of 11 or 12 and was unable to interact with strangers or order food at a restaurant when eating out.

“I was very hyper aware of what people thought of me,” she said. “I was really worried about embarrassing myself and I was sure that people were judging me all the time and that anything I said was going to be an embarrassment.”

  When it comes to kids, physical health may be what sends them to the doctor. Scrapes and fevers may get students sent to the school nurse.

But studies from the National Institute of Mental Health show that half of all mental disorders start by age 14, and almost half of teens have a mental disorder.

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.