mental health

A youth and their parent at a rally.

Laws banning gender-affirming treatments can block trans youth from receiving other care

BY: - July 27, 2023

In some states, new laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth are dissuading health care providers from offering mental health services and other medical care that isn’t explicitly banned by those laws. In the first few weeks after Mississippi’s law went into effect in February, nurse practitioner Stacie Pace said she was fielding calls and […]

Respite care facility.

Mental health respite facilities are filling care gaps in more than a dozen states

BY: - July 13, 2023

Aimee Quicke has made repeated trips to emergency rooms, hospitals, behavioral health facilities and psychiatric lockdowns for mental health crises — including suicidal thoughts — since she was 11. The 40-year-old resident of Le Mars, Iowa, has bipolar and obsessive-compulsive disorders. “Some of the visits were helpful and some were not,” she said. “It was […]

Children with a community skills teacher.

‘Truly a crisis’: Missouri hospitals house children in foster care with no place to go

BY: - June 23, 2023

On an early June day, five foster children were being housed by SSM Health at hospitals in the St. Louis area not because they were sick, but because there was no other place for them to live. They had each been in the hospital an average of 56 days. There were 23 adult clients of […]