A New Place to Calm Mental Distress

A novel way to help young men growing up in communities in which concentrated poverty, violence and unemployment are well-documented barriers to health and longevity: male youth of color are trained to be the emergency response team to help stabilize street victims before doctors or nurses begin procedures.

U.S. courts are offering war veterans who face jail time the choice of rehabilitation. This helps them adjust to civilian life and reduces repeat offences.

The highest hospital costs come from preventable emergency room visits. A doctor in Camden developed a home visit program which gives better and cheaper care.

MoodGYM is an online program targeted to help those suffering from depression for whom it is a challenge to access therapy because of location or the stigma it carries. Essentially a therapy session in your pocket, the program allows users to access help at little to no cost, regardless of where they are or what time of day it is.

Children across the U.S. experience gender confusion, causing emotional stress in themselves and their family. Gender identity counselors and gender youth clinics are being created in multiple states to help families find peace in their situation.

Preschoolers in the U.S. who misbehave are increasingly being expelled. In Connecticut, trained counselors educated teachers about how to deal with emotionally traumatized kids which reduced expulsions.

Female veterans are more likely to have a history of trauma, be unemployed, and be homeless. To address this disparity, the VA has started awarding grants to organizations that help female vets.

Different programs in various nations are training ordinary people and creating community groups to effectively satisfy the mental health needs of their communities. In many of these regions, "treatment gaps" – where there are little to no mental health treatment plans or resources – exist, but this new informal infrastructure helps to fill that.

In Vermont, a judge and a family services organization created RapidReferal – a process which offers addicts treatment immediately and has lowered recidivism. Funded by Medicaid, the program has had demonstrable impact, namely, a decrease in recidivism.

A program in Philadelphia is pioneering new ways to treat the urban wounded. By seeing it as PTSD, and not pointing fingers, the city is using mental health tools to decrease violence and heal communities.