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
California Health Care Foundation
Flourish Impact Fund
Lisa Stone Pritzker Family Foundation
Resonance Philanthropies
Sarlo Family Foundation
Sand Hill Foundation
Stuart Foundation

llustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock

Health

Dial 988: State’s new mental health crisis hotline debuts

The new federal number is billed as an alternative to 911 for people experiencing mental health emergencies. A bill would allow California to fund call centers with new fees on phone lines.

By Jocelyn Wiener • July 15, 2022

Terry Fiscus, a counselor at Turning Point Community Programs, sits in his office in Sacramento on Thursday, June 23, 2022. Photo by Nina Riggio for CalMatters

Health

CARE Court: Can California counties make it work?

While lawmakers are still gung-ho about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CARE Court, county officials are worried they don’t have the resources to implement the idea.

By Jocelyn Wiener and Manuela Tobias • July 14, 2022

As wildfires intensify, thousands of overworked California firefighters carry a heavy load of trauma, pain and grief. Here, firefighter Jose Corona sprays water as flames from the Camp Fire consume a home in Magalia on Nov. 9, 2018. Photo by Noah Berger, AP Photo

Environment

Overworked California firefighters struggle with PTSD, suicide, fatigue, intensifying wildfires

Cal Fire faces a mental health crisis. As wildfires burn year-round, thousands of overworked California firefighters carry a heavy load of trauma, pain and grief. They leave a fire but the fire never leaves them.

By Julie Cart • June 13, 2022

Ryan Mitchell fought fires for Cal Fire for 12 years, rising to the rank of captain, before shocking everyone by jumping off a bridge in a remote part of San Diego County. Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStock

Environment

Ryan’s story: A hard-charging California firefighter loses his last battle to suicide

Strong and stoic, a Cal Fire captain fought wildland fires and helped retrieve the bodies of despondent people who had jumped off a remote bridge. When the bridge beckoned him, he couldn’t keep fighting.

By Julie Cart • June 13, 2022

Noelle BahnmilleCal Fire Battalion Chief Noelle Bahnmiller, shown at n Bradley on March 9, 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

Environment

Back from the brink: A fire captain’s journey from terror to trauma to recovery — and more terror

“I felt trapped.” For months, a firefighter kept reliving her colleagues' screams when a Mendocino County wildfire encircled them. On the day she planned to take her life, she got help instead — just in time.

By Julie Cart • June 13, 2022

CalFire Battalion Chief Brad Niven at his home in Sonora on June 8, 2022. Photo by Julie Hotz for CalMatters

Environment

Slow burn: Cal Fire has failed to fight PTSD, heavy workloads

About 10% of Cal Fire’s workforce quit the agency last year. “We are at critical mass, guaranteed,” one Cal Fire captain said. Workers’ comp cases for PTSD are routinely denied, and many crews are fatigued from working weeks at a time with no time off.

By Julie Cart • June 13, 2022

WhatMatters

Inside Cal Fire’s mental health epidemic

A smoldering crisis has emerged at California’s firefighting agency, Cal Fire. As blazes intensify and California’s fire season grows longer, firefighters are increasingly fatigued, traumatized and overworked. In her stunning five-month investigation Trial by Fire, CalMatters reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Julie Cart uncovers a severe and unaddressed mental health crisis at Cal Fire. Despite […]

By Emily Hoeven • June 13, 2022

Susan Ottele holding a photo of her son Adam Joseph Collier who committed suicide while in solitary confinement in a California state prison. Photo by Tojo Andrianarivo for CalMatters

Health

Inmate shuffle: How California bounces around its mentally ill prisoners

One in four California prisoners has a mental illness. The state’s solution? Move them around.

By Byrhonda Lyons and Jocelyn Wiener • June 2, 2022

WhatMatters

A thirsty state

So it begins. More than 6 million water users (that is, humans) across Southern California woke up on Wednesday to find themselves under new drought restrictions. If you’ve been following the numbers, none of this should be surprising: As CalMatters’ tracker shows, California has been in a drought for 843 days In March, the State […]

By Ben Christopher • June 2, 2022

Commentary

Without funding, governor’s CARE Court plan is just an empty gesture

The proposal does nothing to address California’s seriously under-resourced mental health care system.

By Guest Commentary • June 1, 2022