Gov. Gavin Newsom devoted most of his State of the State address this month to California’s ever-growing crisis of homelessness, outlining a broad new approach and pledging that he will make it work. “I don’t think homelessness can be solved,” he concluded, “I know homelessness can be solved. This is our cause....
To Solve Homelessness, Californians Must Treat Certain Crimes as Cries for Help
Those of us who have watched a friend or family member wrestle with addiction or cope with mental illness recognize that certain acts are a cry for help. For one of my friends, it was getting into a car accident while under the influence, with her young children inside. For...
Fresno's Homelessness Crisis Needs Immediate United Action
The issue of homelessness in Fresno County is not new, having been a part of our community since our foundation more than a century ago. However, an issue once seen as a blight or nuisance limited to specific pockets of our county has followed in the steps of our state...
Postpartum Mental Illness: The Crisis No Expectant Mother Expects
Eva Schwartz didn’t have a history of mental illness. There were never any indicators that the birth of her first child would spark a years-long struggle that would threaten her marriage and her life. Schwartz was 29 in 2015, with a stable home life in Sacramento, as she awaited the...
Investigation: Many US Jails Fail to Stop Inmate Suicides
The last time Tanna Jo Fillmore talked with her mother, she was in a Utah jail, angry and desperate. She'd called every day that week, begging for help. I need my medicine, she demanded. At 25, Fillmore had long struggled with mental illness, but medication had stabilized her. Now she...
California Senate OKs Rule on Police Use-of-Force Training
SACRAMENTO — The California Senate approved legislation Tuesday requiring officers across the nation's most populous state to be trained in ways to avoid using deadly force, one of two measures intended to deter shootings by police. Senators unanimously passed the proposal requiring that policies on deadly force be standardized statewide,...
My Turn: Voters Showed Their Hearts With Support for People With Mental Illness
It’s an amazing story, really. A testament to the priorities – and the hearts — of California voters. Earlier this month, more than 6.5 million people voted in favor of Proposition 2, the initiative that will generate billions of dollars to build supportive housing, linked to services and treatment, for...
Woman Who Helped Kidnap Elizabeth Smart Released From Prison
DRAPER, Utah — A woman who helped kidnap Elizabeth Smart when she was a teenager and stood by as the Utah girl was sexually assaulted was released Wednesday after spending 15 years in prison. Wanda Barzee, 72, quietly left the state prison in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper,...
Busting Three Big Myths About Homelessness
As a young psychologist in the 1980s who had researched treatment of the mentally ill, I was concerned by many reports suggesting that the growing number of homeless people may be due to deinstitutionalization. Over the past 30 years, my research group and I have conducted a wide range of...
Before Ranting About Mental Illness & Gun Violence, Get Facts
On a quiet Sunday last November, a young man wielding an assault-style weapon took aim at a church in rural Texas, killing 26 people. In so doing, Devin Patrick Kelley added his name to an ever-growing list of American mass killers and forced the nation to grapple, once again, with...