Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 491 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Portland's High Stakes Experiment to Shrink the Role of Police in Fighting Gun Violence

    September 10, 2020 |

    The Trace |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

    Two years after reorganizing a police gun-enforcement unit to focus it on an evidence-based approach to preventing retaliatory shootings, Portland city leaders abolished the unit in a round of police budget cuts and failed to reinvest that money in community-based alternatives that don't rely on the police. The result, criminologists say, is a worst-case scenario: a policing reform that creates a vacuum and could be to blame for an alarming spike in gun violence. The most effective solutions, they say, blend effective policing with proven community-based programs.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.

    September 06, 2020 |

    The Denver Post |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    To avoid unnecessary arrests and reduce police-public friction, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) sends a mental health professional and a paramedic to some mental-health-related 911 calls instead of sending police. In the first three months of the pilot program, the STAR team – covering only certain areas of the city during weekdays – handled 350 calls without needing police backup. STAR builds on a 4-year-old program pairing Denver police with mental health professionals. That program handled 2,223 calls in 2019 and is expanding.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • In CAHOOTS in Oregon

    September 04, 2020 |

    Voices of Monterey Bay |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

    Oregon's CAHOOTS program has succeeded in replacing police on many mental-health crisis calls over its 30-year history because it is integrated in a larger system of services, including law enforcement. CAHOOTS' crisis workers, who cover the cities of Eugene and Springfield with three vans taking dozens of calls for help a day, come to their jobs with expertise as EMTs, nurses, or social workers. Then they spend 500 hours of training in crisis management and de-escalation, learning to offer help without forcing it, and without the threat of arrest except in the few cases when police backup is needed.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Where Calling the Police Isn't the Only Option

    September 03, 2020 |

    Bloomberg CityLab |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    As the "defund-the-police" campaign sparks interest in alternatives to police-only responses to crises involving mental illness or similar problems, cities as disparate as Eugene, Oregon, and Stockholm serve as exemplars of ways to handle thousands of calls per year without involving the police. Like Eugene's CAHOOTS program, Stockholm's Psykiatrisk Akut Mobilitet (PAM) sends mental health and medical professionals to help people suffering mental crises. Now Oakland, Portland, Denver, New York, and other cities are exploring how to customize such programs to their own communities' needs.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Suicide hotline offers young people hope and a chance to talk with peers

    August 31, 2020 |

    Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Phoenix, Arizona

    In Arizona, a teen-run suicide prevention hotline connects teens who need someone to talk to with a peer operator who works to listen to and calm the caller. The volunteer teenage operators don't offer medical advice but do undergo clinician-supervised training that includes active listening, collaborative problem solving and the ability to connect with callers.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Community gatherings offer healing for emotional wounds after disasters

    August 25, 2020 |

    Center for Public Integrity |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Santa Rosa, California

    Wildfires cause anxiety and other mental-health problems, but Sonoma County's Latino people can get help from a convivencia: a community gathering hosted by one of the nonprofit health and community centers in the area. To connect with people who may distrust or be blocked from using government-funded mental health care, or who may distrust mental health care altogether, the support-group therapy comes in the guise of a social gathering. Some sessions may focus as well on domestic violence or other social problems.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • With a truce brokered over Zoom, one D.C. neighborhood goes nearly 100 days without a shooting

    August 19, 2020 |

    The Washington Post |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

    Violence interrupters conducted a dozen meetings over Zoom to negotiate a truce between two warring groups in a neighborhood that went from 11 shootings in 5 months to none for at least 99 days following the truce. To mediate the personal disputes that had led to violent clashes, those leading the negotiations, from the D.C. attorney general's Cure the Streets program, used their knowledge of the community and their credibility as streetwise actors standing apart from police to strike an agreement. Truces like this often don't last long, but this one helped amid big increases in violence citywide.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Don't Call The Cops — Call CAHOOTS

    August 13, 2020 |

    Wisconsin Public Radio |

    Radio |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

    In Eugene and Springfield, highly trained, unarmed mobile crisis response teams get dispatched by their cities' public-safety 911 systems to behavioral-health crises that do not require a police response. The 24/7 service, now in its 32nd year in Eugene, saves tens of millions of dollars per year by diverting cases from the criminal justice system and emergency-room care while defusing potentially violent interactions and getting people the care they need rather than the care imposed on them.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • 19 Volunteers Sharing an iPhone Are Trying to Support Incarcerated People Through COVID-19 Audio icon

    August 13, 2020 |

    TalkPoverty.org |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

    Beyond These Walls launched a crisis phone line to provide emotional support for LGBTQ+ people who are incarcerated and to hold prisons and jails accountable for their virus-containment practices. Trained volunteers have fielded 369 calls so far, more than a quarter of which concern fears that reporting virus symptoms could land people in solitary confinement. Beyond These Walls and its coalition partners can provide safety by letting jailers know their practices are being monitored.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • A COVID ‘silver lining': You can start drug treatment over the phone — and more people are starting to

    August 10, 2020 |

    The Seattle Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Although COVID-19 has taken a toll on the healthcare industry, some providers and clinics have figured out a way to eliminate barriers during this time for those seeking treatment. According to the director of the Behavioral Health Institute at Harborview Medical Center in Washington, the healthcare industry has seen "at least five years worth of progress happen in four months" due to the implementation of telemedicine. While this isn't a longterm replacement for in-person visits, many doctors are reporting a rise in patient appointments via this system.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

Go to All Solutions in Focus