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

Kayla Monnette, 20, of Corona, Calif. majors in cognitive science at the University of California San Diego. Photo by Mohammad Djauhari for CalMatters

College Beat

Pandemic tests an already-fragile college mental health system

This spring, as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted campus life for college students across California, UC San Diego sophomore Kayla Monnette had trouble sleeping at night. The stress of moving to online classes, figuring out how to safely buy food during quarantine, and worrying about the well-being of her immunocompromised family manifested in what Monnette described […]

Ethan Edward Coston

• August 27, 2020

Adam Sciambi, right, and daughter Noa, 3, play with sidewalk chalk on Valencia Street in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco on July 25, 2020. Several blocks of the neighborhood are closed to vehicles every Thursday through Sunday to allow for outdoor dining and foot traffic. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Events

Pandemic, wildfires, scorching heat: How to help our children cope

In an online discussion hosted by CalMatters, three prominent child health experts offered suggestions for families struggling with the multiple crises confronting the state and nation.

Barbara Feder Ostrov

• August 20, 2020

An inmate is moved after a session with a psychologist at the the mental health unit at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, June 9, 2014. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo

Justice

Overtime at California’s prisons swelled to almost half a billion dollars last year

Hybrid nurse-officers are being phased out statewide, but many earned six-figure salaries. One in Vacaville more than tripled his salary.

Raheem Hosseini

• August 10, 2020

Teresa Pasquini looks into the foyer of her home where her son, who has schizoaffective disorder, once attempted suicide before being discovered by his younger sister. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Mental Health

‘Go on Medi-Cal to get that’: Why Californians with mental illness are dropping private insurance to get taxpayer-funded treatment

It may be an agonizing decision — but the only way to get care their insurance won't cover.

Jocelyn Wiener

• July 31, 2020

Reader Reactions

Heartfelt story about mental health will have a big impact

We need to destigmatize and normalize discussing, seeking and obtaining mental health treatment for the well-being of every individual and family system.

Guest Commentary

• July 30, 2020

A homeless person in a wheelchair on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The has struggled with how to provide care for people with mental illness, but a new state audit says the solution isn't lowering the criteria for compelling mentally ill Californians to get treatment. Photo by Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo

Mental Health

Audit: Don’t make it easier to force mentally ill Californians into treatment — just improve treatment

California’s half-century-old involuntary mental health treatment law isn’t broken, but much of the system meant to serve those with serious mental illness is, state auditors concluded in a much-anticipated report released today. Some critics have called for rewriting state law to make it easier to force people into involuntary treatment, particularly by expanding the state’s […]

Jocelyn Wiener

• July 28, 2020

Reader Reactions

Admiring the courage for speaking out on mental health

In the world we live in there is a huge stigma associated with mental illness, but talking about it will hopefully benefit others who struggle with mental health issues.

Guest Commentary

• July 24, 2020

Caroline Harrison, left, Jackson Harrison Shirk, 11, right, and his mother, Virginia Harrison, far right, visit with Jackson’s grandmother, Debbie, center, at The Chaparral House, the Berkeley skilled nursing facility where Debbie has lived for the past three years. Debbie, who family members refer to as mama bear, suffers from dementia and is largely unresponsive during her family's near-daily socially distant visits. “She doesn’t talk about it but she knows we’re here,” said Jackson. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

Health

Through the looking-glass: Family members fight restricted access to loved ones in long-term care

As the pandemic drags on, families and nursing home watchdogs are mobilizing in California and nationwide to urge state officials to allow in at least one “essential caregiver” to watch over loved ones, many of whom suffer from dementia.

Barbara Feder Ostrov

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Jocelyn Wiener

• July 23, 2020