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Ducey signs bill aimed to prevent teen suicide
Insurance companies in Arizona will soon have to cover mental health care the same way they cover other medical care.
Criminal justice reform should set up ex-prisoners to succeed
About 95 percent of prison inmates will eventually be released from custody and will return to our communities. They could be the person standing next to you at the grocery store or your neighbor across the street. While always keeping public safety first in mind, we should all agree that more should be done to set them up to succeed after incarceration. That must be the goal of any criminal just[...]
The time has come for maternal mental health public policy
I didn’t realize it would be this hard. I walked onto the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, floor of the hospital and felt goosebumps start to rise on my arms.
Broader range of care needed to treat those with mental illness
Across our state, the toll of mental illness is high. Nearly half of adults with a mental health condition have a substance use disorder, while nearly 10 million Americans consider suicide each year. Here in Arizona, the suicide rate is 60 percent higher than the national average. There are many contributing factors such as depression, drugs or access to care.
Brutal political fight to expand Medicaid was worth it
Yes, the political fight of five years ago to restore and expand AHCCCS was brutal. But it was worth it.
Prison health care case shaping up for years of litigation
Arizona saw seven governors come and go in the time it took Arnold v. Sarn to resolve, and another case that addresses a forgotten population – prisoners and their health care – began.
Gov. Doug Ducey rolls out school safety package
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey wants more school resource officers and school mental health spending, a new way to remove guns from unstable people and technology fixes to get state convictions into the federal gun background check system faster.
We can save money and lives with community health workers
If you have ever faced a serious health threat or have a chronic condition, you know that treatment and the road to recovery can be complicated.
Ruling: Insanity defense triggers disclosure requirement
An Arizona Supreme Court ruling says criminal defendants who claim an insanity defense and voluntarily undergo a mental health exam must provide the results to prosecutors.
Arizona police sign on to White House plan to cut jail populations
A federal program calls on police agencies to train officers to handle mental health crises, urges police and health officials to share data on people who have crossed their paths recently, and encourages use of data-based tools to assess risk and release low-risk people awaiting trial in jail simply because they can’t make bail.
County accused of letting mentally ill inmates languish
Lawyers pressing a decades-old lawsuit over conditions in metro Phoenix's jail system say inmates with serious mental illnesses are suffering needlessly because authorities aren't bringing them to outside treatment centers, often leaving them to languish in lockdown cells where they suffer from extreme isolation.
Report: Arizona lags most of nation in treatment available to addicts
A recent study cited by The Pew Charitable Trusts found that Arizona has 20 behavioral health professionals per 1,000 adults addicted to drugs or alcohol, the fifth-lowest rate in the country.
