mental health
Health Officials Link Childhood Trauma to Adult Illness
U.S. health officials estimate that millions of cases of heart disease and other illnesses are linked to abuse and other physical and psychological harm suffered early in life.
Read moreSupport Chickens
A Florida woman sued Lee County and her trailer park in federal court for not allowing her to keep four chickens, which are her emotional support animals.
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Guilty Plea in Newspaper Murders; Insanity Hearing Next
A Maryland man pleaded guilty Monday to killing five employees at an Annapolis newspaper, and a jury is to hear testimony next month about whether he was not responsible by reason of insanity.
Read moreMedicare
National Public Radio sued the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in federal court for records on antipsychotic drug use and the names of corporate nursing home chains that the CMS has identified as using antipsychotic medication at high rates at some 1,500 nursing homes.
Read moreFoster Care
A federal court in Arizona certified a “Medicaid subclass,” in a civil rights suit brought on behalf of children in the state’s foster care system, finding the class has sufficiently alleged that certain policies in the system put children at risk of not receiving necessary physical, dental and behavioral health services.
Read moreDeath-Row Inmate Pushes High Court for Insanity Standard
As the Supreme Court opened its fall term Monday with a case about what it takes to plead insanity, Justice Stephen Breyer offered a hypothetical example of two criminals — one who believed a dog had told him to shoot another person, the other who shot another person because he believed that person was a dog.
Read moreCalifornia High Court Weighs Value of Mandated Reporting Law
California has a compelling interest in stopping the proliferation of online pornography depicting child sexual abuse. But psychotherapists are testing the limits of that interest, arguing that a state law requiring them to report patients to the authorities if they divulge that they’ve viewed child pornography wrongly violates the core tenet of confidentiality.
Read morePolice Had Concerns About Gunman 8 Years Before Murders
Eight-year-old police reports describe concerns that the gunman who killed seven and wounded 25 in West Texas might have been planning an attack.
Read moreUCLA Launches Kindness Institute
Checking in on an elderly neighbor or allowing someone to cut in front of you in a traffic jam: Such random acts of kindness, scientifically proven to improve one’s well-being, will be the focus of a new Kindness Institute unveiled Wednesday at UCLA.
Read moreJuvenile Sentencing
A man, now 19, sued the Youth Development Institute and the doctor who “prepared and issued a written report diagnosing him as ‘Sexual Abuse (Perpetrator)’” because when he was 15 he exchanged “consensual text messages with a female classmate that her parents deemed inappropriate;” he seeks punitive damages, in Maricopa County Court.
Read moreDemocrats Renew Demand for Records on Family Separations
House Democrats on Thursday renewed pressure to obtain critical records on the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance family separation policy in light of a watchdog report detailing psychological trauma children experienced at facilities throughout the United States.
Read moreGuantánamo
The Center for Constitutional Rights on Thursday unsealed a federal complaint against Donald Trump, et al., on behalf of a Guantánamo detainee who tried to kill himself after 17 years imprisonment; they seek an immediate psychiatric evaluation.
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Mass Shooting Survivors’ Advice to Others: Seek Help
It haunts him. The face, its expression blank. No sign of anger, no flicker of excitement or worry. A numbness. He sought help.
Read moreUS v. Mississippi
A federal judge in Mississippi ruled that “the United States has met its burden and shown that despite the State’s episodic improvement, it operates a [mental health] system that unlawfully discriminates against persons with serious mental illness.”
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Family of Man Killed by Off-Duty Officer Wants Him Prosecuted
The parents of a mentally ill man who was shot to death by an off-duty police officer in a California Costco store called for him to be criminally charged as they recover from their own gunshot wounds.
Read moreSerial Killer Who Menaced Gay Community Set for Execution
A serial killer who preyed on older gay men faces the death penalty Thursday night after failing to secure a stay of execution from the 11th Circuit on the basis of mental disability.
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