By Dianne Anderson Provided that the community and grassroots organizations know that it exists, the new 988 hotline – similar to 911 – goes live this week to help callers in mental health crises with intervention. The state of California received $20 million to help get more staffing into existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline call ...

By Dianne Anderson Watching how someone got over their addiction and incarceration may be just enough to help get others to rise above the huge obstacles that await them. Such is the case with Owen Duckworth, who was formerly incarcerated, realized what landed him in the system in the first place, and what it would ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Sr Natl Correspondent According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates among teenagers rose almost 60 percent from 2007 to 2018. The CDC and other federal agencies describe a crisis that includes surging mental health disorders among the country’s young. For example, major depressive episodes in ...

By Dianne Anderson Some of the more popular advice that Kayla Booker remembers hearing all the way up through adulthood never panned out for most people she saw in her community, herself included. Going to college, buying a house, and having a family looked good in theory, but seemed out of reach for her generation. ...

By Joe W. Bowers Jr. California Black Media For Tony Thurmond, California’s African American State Superintendent of Public Instruction, American public education will never be the same after experiencing what it has over the last two years. “The pandemic really did put a spotlight on places where there were big holes and gaps and inequities,” ...

By Dianne Anderson Meetings with over 15 pastors that are part of the Long Beach Ministerial Alliance, and pastors around the nation continue standing together in prayer and forgiveness as local Pastor Ivan Pitts now recovers from a recent stabbing. The February 24 violent rampage that happened in the driveway of Pastor Pitts’ home in ...

By Dianne Anderson Back when few people were thinking about getting mental health services into the Black community, health advocate Linda Hart pitched her winning idea in a contest, which set in motion a legislative resolution by former Assemblymember Wilmer Amina Carter. In 2008, the proposal caught Ms. Carter’s attention in her “It Ought to ...

By Dianne Anderson High-profile suicides are weighing heavy on the community, among the most recent Ian Alexander Jr., and the presumed suicide of lawyer and former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst. Kryst, also an entertainment reporter, was just 30 years old. She had often interviewed other television stars on mental health issues, and had spoken openly ...

By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media Gov. Gavin Newsom says his administration is emphasizing combating drug addiction and mental illness as part of the state’s multi-year plan to solve California’s homelessness crisis – the worst in the country. Newsom says focusing on those health needs of unhoused people is a component of his ongoing ...

By Charlene Muhammad California Black Media The Covid-19 pandemic is taking a heavy toll on the health, finances, and mobility of people around the world, affecting almost everyone on the planet. Youth, in particular, have been experiencing an uptick in mental health cases, including depression, in a trend U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is calling ...