Kaiser mental health workers go on strike in Southern California over staffing, workloads

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than 2,400 Kaiser Permanente psychologists, therapists, social workers and other mental health workers in Southern California began an open-ended strike Monday over increased workloads and staffing shortages that their union said have created a “substandard” system of...

DeMar DeRozan's book on mental health adds to the conversation that he helped start in the NBA

For DeMar DeRozan, this path toward improved mental health started with writing a tweet. It led to him writing a book. Being in Sacramento isn’t the only new part of DeRozan’s story entering this NBA season. The six-time All-Star is now an author, after his book...

Dennis Eckersley's daughter gets suspended sentence in baby abandonment case

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A mother convicted of abandoning her newborn son in the woods in subfreezing temperatures was given a suspended sentence Thursday, provided she continues to maintain contact with mental health providers. Alexandra Eckersley, 27, the daughter of Hall of Fame...

Years of war in Congo have created a dire mental health crisis. But little support is available

GOMA, Congo (AP) — For Nelly Shukuru, there was no way out. The fighting that forced her from her home, the squalid conditions in the displacement camp in eastern Congo, the hunger, all felt inescapable. The 51-year-old planned to hang herself. She said a neighbor stopped her just...

HISA, Jockeys' Guild partner with mental-health company to offer jockeys access to care and support

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Horse racing’s federal oversight agency and the Jockeys’ Guild are collaborating on an initiative to support jockeys’ well-being with access to mental-health care. The Guild and Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) have partnered with...

Mali's traditional theater gives psychiatric patients the stage

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — In the courtyard of a psychiatric ward in Mali’s capital, a small group of patients acts out scenes of a village dispute to the beat of a djembe, a traditional West African drum. One patient, Mamadou Diarra, cries out to another in the Bambara language,...

Hawaii’s prison system confronts ‘a huge mental health crisis’

Chaylvin Oliveira-Kalama called his family almost every day from Halawa prison, and before he died he told his mother the voices he heard in his head were getting worse. The 30-year-old inmate had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression. Sometimes the voices that only he...

Mental health support for toddlers has lagged in Texas. That’s now changing.

It had only been a year since Estelle Sievert and her wife, Jane, joined the foster care program at SAFE Alliance in Austin when they were introduced to 3-week-old Noah in 2022. The couple immediately fell in love with their soon-to-be adopted son but knew the future might contain...

TikTok is designed to be addictive to kids and causes them harm, US states' lawsuits say

More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, saying that the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms their mental health. The lawsuits stem from a national investigation into TikTok, which was...

More than a dozen states sue TikTok, claiming its platform is addictive and harms the mental health of children