mental health services

Platte County voters will decide in November on a sales tax proposal that would help support mental health care for at-risk kids. Why is it needed, and what could it mean for the county if it passes?

The federal government debuted the 988 mental health crisis hotline in 2022. While Missouri answers more than 9 out of 10 calls, a report finds the state needs more follow-up care.

Children in the foster care system with severe behavioral health issues and trauma are often treated in group homes that specialize in individualized care. In at least two states, there is space at these centers for boys — but not for girls.

After a year-and-a-half investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice determined that Missourians suffering with mental illness are “subjected to unnecessary stays in nursing facilities, generally because of a series of systemic failures by the state.”

When someone is in crisis, they might think to dial emergency first responders. But the counselors at the other end of 988 — the Crisis and Suicide Lifeline — may be better equipped to save both lives and money.

More adults are being diagnosed with autism after being misdiagnosed or simply not evaluated as kids. Even then, it's not always easy to find health providers who can offer proper support. For these two women, though, the diagnosis was actually "freeing."

People experiencing grief cannot be expected to fall neatly into stages and timetables. The way experts look at and characterize grief is changing, including the newly recognized prolonged grief disorder.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is working with local mental health providers to cut down the state’s notoriously long wait times to provide services to inmates declared incompetent to stand trial.

The country is seeing a shortage of behavioral health care professionals at the same time that demand for mental health care is rising. This fall, Kansas City hosted the Behavioral Health and Leadership Summit to discuss the shortage and how to attract more people to the field.

Missouri has 285 people waiting in jails to be transferred to state-run psychiatric hospitals, potentially for months, without having been found guilty of a crime. And that number has been going up over the last few months, despite new mitigation efforts.

The private foster care agency, KVC Kansas, has fallen short of court-mandated benchmarks for getting mental health treatment for children in its care. And other agencies perform even worse.

Nearly one-third of adults with a mental illness in Missouri went untreated in 2019. Some states have adopted new laws in an attempt to make care more accessible, but many people still endure barriers to seeking treatment.