Sofia Jeppsson on Care, Betrayal, and Doing More

U Chicago Health Lab report on Chicago CARE, and a qualitative study on street medicine.

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HEADLINES

America’s Hidden Racial Divide: A Mysterious Gap in Psychosis Rates (New York Times)

Black Americans experience schizophrenia and related disorders at twice the rate of white Americans. It’s a disparity that has parallels in other cultures.

Earl Miller of Wildflower Alliance

Importantly, the author of this impressive article spoke with people with lived experience of psychosis, including friends of AMSA Keris Myrick and Earl Miller, and Richard Williams, PhD, in addition to researchers on race and psychosis.

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SEATTLE - King County expands mobile teams that bring care to people in crisis (Seattle Times - paywalled) Link to PDF version.

The King County expansion is part of the county's broader investment in its behavioral health system, funded by a $1.25 billion levy approved by voters last year. County leaders are working toward a mental health system with "someone to call" (the 988 suicide and crisis helpline), "someone to respond" (mobile crisis teams) and "somewhere to go" (King County's five planned crisis care centers).

The expansion adds 10 teams for a total of 27, which the county hopes will allow for a quicker response and the capacity to serve more people.

Joe Vela, the crisis services director for Sound Behavioral Health, stands outside a van that will be used by mobile crisis teams to serve King County residents.

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BROOKLYN PARK - Second Alternative Response Team Launched for Mental Health Calls (CCX Media)

Nils Dybvig, “Our priority is to respond to calls related to mental health, to substance abuse, homelessness, other social service needs. Our goal is, as much as we can, go out and resolve somebody’s problem so that they don’t have to keep calling 911.”

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AUSTIN - Police union says APD should ‘stop responding to mental health calls’ after officer’s sentence (KXAN.com)

Former APD officer Christopher Taylor was convicted Dec. 4 of deadly conduct after killing Mauris DeSilva in 2019. Taylor and another officer confronted DeSilva, who was holding a knife to his own throat, and then shot him.

Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, “In light of all of this, I believe the APD must stop responding to mental health calls. We have never claimed to be mental health experts, yet we are continually scrutinized for our handling of these situations. Now that we’re left with the options of being stabbed or going to prison, Travis County and the District Attorney’s Office should be the ones to incur the risk.”