Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Program offers alternative for youth who commit misdemeanors

    Choose 180 channels Seattle-area young people into an alternative to court and jail when they commit relatively minor offenses. This "offramp" from the traditional justice system, serving a disproportionately Black and brown clientele, helped 400 clients in 2019, 87% of whom did not commit new offenses. Research shows such diversion programs have a better track record for preventing future crimes. A Choose 180 "sentence" comes in the form of a workshop introducing young people to mentors and giving them a chance at the stability and frame of mind they need to seek more lasting change in their lives.

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  • Searching with the Mothers of Mexico's Disappeared

    Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte is a group of about 200 members, mostly mothers whose children are among the more than 73,000 people who have disappeared and presumably were murdered in Mexico's long drug war. Las Rastreadoras search the countryside for the unmarked graves of the missing, hoping to find their own children, often finding others'. In six years, they have found 198 bodies, 120 of whom were identified. What began spontaneously as one woman's search, then a group effort, has become a way to heal from the pain of what a psychologist calls "ambiguous loss" as well as an act of political activism.

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  • Using Telemedicine to Treat Opioid Addiction

    The coronavirus pandemic has largely led to the expansion and adoption of telemedicine, which has helped those seeking treatment for addictions more easily access care. Although advocates of medication-assisted treatment have been working to eliminate barriers to virtual care for years, the pandemic has accelerated these efforts and the outcome has been successful. According to the associate executive director of Prevention Point Philadelphia, “It’s a reduction of the hassle, wait times, anxiety and fear of withdrawal in a waiting room."

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  • Alleviating anxiety via internet

    A partnership between Montana State University and Seattle-based Waypoint Health Innovations is helping bring virtual mental health services to rural communities in Montana. Although the program has only been in research stages thus far, the positive effects already documented has led the program to be ushered into "widespread implementation" amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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  • How the Queensbridge Cure Violence Team Is Changing Community Norms

    In the nation's largest public housing development, 696 Build Queensbridge uses the Cure Violence approach to mediating disputes before they turn violent. In 2017, its first year, there were no shootings in the development where the group does its violence interruption work. In the first 7 months of 2020, there were six shootings, up 2 from the same period in 2019 but far better than the rise in violence seen citywide. "Credible messengers" gain the trust of the community to prevent violence and counsel people to use "tools to communicate with other than violence," and without police involvement.

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  • How 2 New York Schools Became Models for Coping in a Pandemic

    Mott Haven and Broome Street Academy serve students in the child welfare system and at-risk students. Before the pandemic, they were already preparing for crisis intervention. The two have provided students with services that fall outside of the educational spectrum, things like cash grants and weekly counseling. By doing so, they hope students can focus on classes. Now, they might be a model for other schools around the country.

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  • Virtual LGBT+ support group creates a space for youth

    When in-person meetings became impossible during the pandemic, Epicenter's youth-run, drop-in resource center for youth made its LGBTQ+ support group virtual, and attendance went up. The group, called Our Gente, provides a place for youth to support each other. Those trapped at home with families that are unsupportive can still participate online using text chats, rather than having to speak aloud. Youth at the center create their own programming, but work closely with Epicenter's deputy director, who grew up queer, non-binary in a family that at first did not support them.

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  • The Coronavirus Is Blowing Up Our Best Response to the Opioid Crisis

    The coronavirus pandemic has correlated with an increase in overdose deaths in the United States, likely due to people going against one of the "central tenets of safety when using drugs: Never use alone" as well as governments' longstanding stigma against allowing supervised consumption sites. To overcome this, a harm reduction service in Midland, Michigan is connecting volunteer operators with "people who have no choice but to use alone" via telephone as a means to offer help if something goes wrong.

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  • Kentucky town hires social workers instead of more officers - and the results are surprising

    Alexandria, Kentucky's 17-officer police department avoided the expense of hiring more police officers by adding two social workers to assist police in responding to the types of calls that can often turn into repeat calls to 911. By working with people in domestic disturbances, mental health crises, or with substance abuse issues, the social workers connect families to services immediately, rather than awaiting a referral from the police after the crisis has passed. Repeat calls to 911 are down and the city saves up to $50,000 for each position where a social worker substitutes for a police hire.

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  • Meeting the Mental Health Need

    Mental and physical health are often intertwined, so why shouldn't the same be true for their care providers? Cherokee Health Systems in eastern Tennessee pioneered integrated care, putting behavioral health and mental health professionals on the fast-paced front lines of primary medical care, making mental health care more accessible. While the two professions are often housed together, true integration – the practice that has solid evidence of its effectiveness – is still fairly rare. But helping people with dual problems, in one sitting, can make people healthier in mind and body.

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