Mental Health

CalMatters and CatchLight are partnering on a three-year initiative to tell powerful stories about mental health in California. We’ll spotlight solutions, personal stories, investigate systems, and bring greater awareness to this historically stigmatized topic. This initiative is supported by:

Enlight Foundation
加州医疗保健基金会
Flourish Impact Fund
Lisa Stone Pritzker Family Foundation
Resonance Philanthropies
Sarlo Family Foundation
Sand Hill Foundation
Stuart Foundation

技术

New California law forces chatbots to protect kids’ mental health

Gov. Gavin Newsom approved mandatory monitoring and reminders when kids use chatbots. But a bill supported by child advocates was left unsigned.

经过

Colin Lecher

• 10 月 13, 2025

Inmates at the Orange County jail in Santa Ana. Photo by Lucy Nicholson, Reuters

正义

California’s Prop. 36 promised ‘mass treatment’ for defendants. A new study shows how it’s going

The biggest study yet on California’s tough-on-crime ballot measure Proposition 36 shows few people are finding their way into the treatment it promised.

经过

凯拉·米哈洛维奇

• 10 月 13, 2025

Mental Health

New California law expands Newsom’s mental health court. Will it help more people?

Gov. Newsom introduced CARE Court to bring more people experiencing severe mental illness into treatment. It has helped fewer people than he projected, but a new law will make more people eligible for it.

经过

乔斯琳·维纳

和

玛丽莎肯德尔

• 10 月 10, 2025

A child wearing a red hoodie walks alone down a brightly lit school hallway with colorful tiles, surrounded by walls covered in student artwork and classroom projects.

Mental Health

‘Can I just be a kid?’ Students shaken by immigration raids seek help from school counselors

Kindergartners repeat worries heard at home. Older kids text to check on parents during class. Therapists say mental health is at risk now and in the long term.

经过

安娜·B·伊瓦拉

• 10 月 3, 2025

A person, wearing a green hijab and blouse with a long black skirt, uses a bucket and a ring device to release bubbles to a group of children playing nearby.

教育

Judge pauses Trump policy cutting off schools, shelters to certain immigrants

A U.S. district judge issued a preliminary injunction, temporarily pausing a series of federal policies aimed at restricting certain immigrants’ access to public benefits and programs.

经过

亚当·埃克尔曼

• 9 月 10, 2025

Students, some sitting and some standing, write on individual pieces of paper while they work on an assignment inside a classroom. The room is decorates with hand-drawn paper butterflies and multi-colored round laterns.

K-12 教育

Seven years after California’s deadliest fire, schools — and kids — are still recovering

One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade.

经过

卡罗琳·琼斯

Megan Tagami

和

Sharon Lurye

• 9 月 10, 2025

两只涂着指甲油的手捧着一张心形照片，照片上的人面带微笑，头戴棒球帽。这双手分别属于一对母女，画面给人一种“怀念”的感觉。画面的焦点集中在心脏和双手上。

Mental Health

‘I will do it again’. Mom of California overdose victim pledges to keep fighting in Capitol

After a CalMatters investigation, lawmakers asked Christine Matlock Dougherty to testify on behalf of bills to regulate mental health insurance. They didn't pass this year.

经过

乔斯琳·维纳

• 9 月 9, 2025

Mental Health

6 things to know about how Gov. Newsom’s CARE Court is working so far

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CARE Court was supposed to help the sickest people living on California’s streets. We took a look at data from around the state. Here’s what we found.

经过

玛丽莎肯德尔

乔斯琳·维纳

和

余丽卡

• 9 月 3, 2025

Mental Health

Newsom promised real progress on mental health with CARE Court. Here’s what the numbers show

In the most-comprehensive look yet at whether people are using Gov. Gavin Newsom's CARE Court, we found that far fewer Californians are enrolled in the mental health program than he projected.

经过

玛丽莎肯德尔

乔斯琳·维纳

和

余丽卡

• 9 月 2, 2025

Close-up of a sign reading "Crisis Services. Press button next to door once and wait." with a blue arrow pointing left.

California must learn from history. Forced mental health care harms more than heals

Californians with lived experience try to collaborate with policymakers to develop voluntary, community-based mental health services but are rejected.

By Keris Myrick • 8 月 26, 2025