mental illness

The Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph documents the country’s torrid history of mental health treatment, but it has an eerie reputation itself. Take a visit inside one of Missouri’s most peculiar museums — located in the former State Insane Asylum No. 2.

The Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri, attracts lovers of the macabre, odd and supernatural for its eerie exhibits. But its founder, longtime state hospital employee George Glore, wanted to document how far the field of mental health care had advanced in the hopes of combating negative stereotypes.

These state hospitals can’t find full-time staff. Contract nurses are needed to serve patients, but expenses keep going up.

An effort is underway by President Donald Trump and cities like Kansas City, Kansas, to clear unhoused people from living in public spaces. But one Overland Park mental health expert fears homelessness will be criminalized — not addressing the root issue and costing more than providing adequate access to care.

Psychedelic drugs like psilocybin are getting more attention from doctors and lawmakers, including in Missouri and Kansas, as a potential treatment for mental health conditions. Dr. Christine Ziemer, a professor at Missouri Western State University, discusses the landscape around Kansas City.

This documentary explores the mental health crisis unfolding inside Nebraska’s prisons: the severe shortage of mental health professionals.

Overcrowded Nebraska prisons force some inmates to share cells that were designed for just one person. Experts say this can exacerbate or cause mental health problems.

Melissa Ferrer Civil found community, and a path toward better mental health, through poetry. Now, she’s spreading the good word.

Johnson County recorded 93 suicide deaths in 2023, down from 122 the previous year. Mental health experts say it’s hard to know if the encouraging numbers are a sign of things to come, but it could indicate that mental health services are working in the short term.

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?

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.”

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.