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Tucson police chief says mental health workers in 911 center would ensure callers get the right response

Caitlin Schmidt

October 05, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Mesa, Arizona

In 2019, Mesa police began diverting calls about suicide threats to a crisis line, where trained mental health professionals could provide counseling or dispatch a mobile crisis unit. Then they placed mental health professionals side by side with police dispatchers to triage 911 calls on the spot. Police now handle many fewer suicide-related crises, saving the city money and giving people more appropriate care. In Tucson, a mobile crisis team operates more independently from police. After two social workers were abducted at gunpoint by a man in crisis, the police chief argued to adopt the Mesa model.

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Is Denver's Psilocybin Decriminalization Having An Impact?

Alexander Lekhtman

October 04, 2021 |

Filter |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Since Denver voters approved the decriminalization of the natural psychedelic drug psilocybin, the small number of arrests grew even smaller and one supporter of the policy sees growing interest in the therapeutic use of the drug. Even though supporters admit the policy has not made a big impact, it has influenced other cities and states to move in the same direction. Denver's policy was at the vanguard of what appears to be a pro-psychedlic movement in both legal and health policy.

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Progress amid the opioid epidemic: New Fall River fire station program seeing results

Meg McIntyre

October 02, 2021 |

The Herald News |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Fall River, Massachusetts

Safe Stations, which operate out of local fire stations, provide a place for people struggling with opioid addiction to walk in and request help. They can be assessed for immediate health concerns, connected to a trained recovery coach and other mental health resources, and get help finding a bed in a detox facility or an inpatient treatment program.

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‘I Don't Want to Hit My Children. I Don't Want to Hit Anybody.'

Rachel Louise Snyder

October 01, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: England

The Respect Phoneline started in the UK in 2004 to give anonymous callers, usually men, a way to seek help for their violent impulses. Rather than putting the burden for resolving domestic violence on survivors and on the punitive tools of the criminal justice system, the hotline approach recognizes that people prone to abusing others are frustrated and unhappy and want to change but need help to figure out how. While the aftermath of anonymous phone counseling can't be tracked, the author observed the process helping many men change their thinking. Similar hotlines have started in multiple places.

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Learning when to be hands-off

Jodi Hausen

September 30, 2021 |

Boulder Weekly |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Boulder County, Colorado

Although several Colorado law enforcement agencies have trained officers on how to de-escalate interactions with people in a crisis, including people with disabilities, the state in 2022 will become the latest to mandate such training for all law enforcement officers. The training is backed by a study that suggests it helps police better recognize and understand the reactions that people with disabilities might have under stress in a confrontation with police. Trained officers in Boulder last year successfully ended one potentially violent incident without serious inury.

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Planting a Life—and a Future—After Prison at Benevolence Farm

Stephanie Parker

September 30, 2021 |

Civil Eats |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Graham, North Carolina

Benevolence Farm hosts a small number of formerly incarcerated women as live-in laborers growing herbs that end up in body-care products. The farming experience teaches marketable skills, as the women learn the finer points of horticulture. It also provides outdoor, hands-on experiences that are therapeutic to women after they spent months or years locked up in a sterile prison. The rural location poses some challenges, but the dozens of women who have spent 12-18 months living and working there have shown much lower-than-average rates of recidivism.

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Paris shows how to make public housing greener and more habitable at the same time

Colin Kinniburgh

September 29, 2021 |

Grist |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Paris

Old and neglected housing contributes to climate change because it runs on fossil fuels. In New York, outdated heating systems waste two-thirds of energy. The New York City Housing Authority is not only trying to create better, safer, livable affordable housing, but also cleaner and more sustainable housing. While the city is just beginning to explore how to do that, other cities, like Paris, have already begun the work of updating old buildings that are used for affordable housing and can offer a model for American cities.

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In Arizona, a radical change in juvenile detention

Ruxandra Guidi

September 20, 2021 |

High Country News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Johns, Arizona

Unrealistic fears of a wave of youth violence left rural Apache County, Colorado, with an unused, costly youth detention facility. So the local courts decided to refashion the empty jail into the Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout offering a "care-first" approach to teen problems. Mentors and a truancy prevention program help youth avoid trouble and get educations. Youth arrests have dropped, though that might also be credited to the state's risk-assessment tool that is meant to guard against overuse of punishment.

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Where Juvenile Detention Looks More Like Teens Hanging Out

Ruxandra Guidi

September 13, 2021 |

70 Million |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, St. Johns, Arizona

Apache County, Arizona, once had a costly, under-used juvenile detention center and a traditional philosophy that stern punishment would steer young people away from misbehavior. Now the abandoned detention center is The Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout with mentors, connections to social services, and a place where youth can go to socialize – a rare commodity in this rural community. It's run and staffed by the court system and its probation department. But its methods are love and support, not threats of arrest and incarceration. Juvenile arrests are now way down.

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Stopping Gun Violence, One Youth at a Time

Julie Reynolds Martinez

September 09, 2021 |

The Imprint |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Salinas, California

For more than 10 years, a pair of programs helped make major reductions in youth violence in Monterey County and the Salinas Valley by targeting the small number of people at highest risk of committing violence. That targeting led to a combination of law enforcement threats and social services help in the county's Group Violence Intervention program. When the money and enthusiasm for that dwindled, the strategy shifted to more carrot than stick, using the Advance Peace model of providing services to youth to put their lives on firmer footing.

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