Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

This follows a state legislative report last month that showed Florida spent $19.6 million treating a recent group of illegal immigrants and inconsistently counts such patients in its mental hospitals.

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

He leads the way through the corridors of the Cannon House Office Building, polished and empty at 10 at night, and unlocks Suite 407, the office of the senior member of the Rhode Island congressional delegation. He is 42 and has been in Congress for 16 years, but this space won’t be his for much longer.

Story continues here ➤

Unable to find steady work for more than two years, the 44-year-old former security guard warned his roommate and landlord he was running out of money. He began eating at soup kitchens.

On Jan. 14 about 7 a.m., he handed over his keys, walked out of his 15th Street N apartment and joined the growing ranks of people living on the streets of a city named one of the meanest in the country toward the homeless.

Then he made a surprising discovery: It’s not so bad.

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

After some talk about mental illness, tears and a warning from the judge, 73-year-old James Bruce was released from custody.

Story continues here ➤

He outlined it in a blur of charcoal, then filled in the details: the lines crisscrossing his palm; the bracelet spelling out “Angel”; and the still-fresh scar that began at his wrist and slashed toward the crook of his elbow.

The wound was a remnant of the suicide attempt that had landed him in the hospital. He said evoking it with a sketch was, to his surprise, a comfort.

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

His current cellmate is a homeless dog named Patriot.

Story continues here ➤

Rebecca Stancil, 9, has been battling hallucinations for years as her mother has struggled with the challenges of raising a schizophrenic child.
(Courtesy the Family)
Last spring, 7-year-old Jani Schofield was diagnosed with schizophrenia, in part because of her incessant hallucinations that she says command her to hit and bite people. Nine-year-old Rebecca Stancil was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after she tried to kill herself to stop the voices inside her head. Brenna Wohlenberg, 14, has not yet been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but she says sinister spirits instruct her to become a serial killer. Her 12-year-old sister Ailish also struggles with hallucinations and violent inclinations.

Story continues here ➤

Dispatched Jan. 24 to a West Hillsboro neighborhood, Hillsboro Police Department officer Stephen Beaver and Sgt. Bruce Kelley encountered a 45-year-old disabled veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom who suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

Until now, they have appeared in person before a magistrate within a week. And many will have to state their case by audio-visual link, rather than in person as they do now.

Story continues here ➤

Before that, Jean Roberts, then 70, had been in and out of jail, shuffled through psychiatric institutions, nursing homes and even a motel, and appeared in court several times. Along the way she racked up charges of mischief, arson, assault and violating court orders.

Story continues here ➤

There was no reasoning with Nicholas* when he was in one of his “moods”. The nine-year-old would refuse to do what he was told, mess around and swing back on his chair.

Story continues here ➤

Bryan and Jovanka Dubinsky chronicled their plight in the Nanaimo Daily News last month as they struggled to get their daughter Samantha, who weighs around 80 pounds, into a care program at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver they believe she needed

Story continues here ➤

Juanita Goggins was diagnosed with mental illness in the late 1970s, prompting her to give up her legislative seat in 1980 as she was receiving treatment, said her ex-husband, Dr. Horace Goggins Sr. Dr. Goggins, 80, is a retired dentist from Rock Hill and former secretary/treasurer of the Rock Hill NAACP who was involved in all aspects of Juanita’s political career before she retired in 1980. The couple married after Juanita Goggins came to York County in 1957 to teach home economics.

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

In memory of her son Ryan, who committed suicide in 2006 after suffering from schizophrenia, the Meaford mom is planning to climb Mount Everest in March 2011 to raise money for the Canadian Mental Health Association of Grey-Bruce.

Story continues here ➤

“I would be hard-pressed to think this was a result of someone having bipolar disorder,” said Wiggsy Sivertsen, professor in counseling services, in response to some reports claiming the suspect in Thursday’s Pentagon shooting may have been bipolar.

Story continues here ➤

William Hansbrough, 36, was declared dead just after 10 a.m. Thursday at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said Sunday. Hansbrough had been strangled, according to the county coroner’s office

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

As a result of this schizophrenia-induced episode, the Washington State legislature is finally voting to change its involuntary treatment law. That’s a good thing and could help many patients. Current law in too many states requires an individual to be a “danger to self or others” before involuntary treatment is initiated. And practice often requires the danger to be “imminent.”

Story continues here ➤

Youth workers say the teenager has been dumped by the state’s failing mental health system.

Families SA sources say that care of the girl is administered by nine carers divided into three teams each day. They are overseen by a case leader on a salary of $85,000.

The $40,000 weekly figure includes wages, ambulance costs, accommodation and maintenance, and police call-outs.

Story continues here ➤

“I’d heard rumors the program wouldn’t be funded anymore,” said Dennis, a Lafayette woman whose child attends day treatment services at his school. “My husband and I said ‘What will we do? What can we do?’”

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

A state police report on the investigation into the death of Ashley Ellis includes revelations that lawyers for the private company that provided medical care in Vermont prisons instructed its employees not to talk to police, that Ellis might have gotten medication she needed were it not for a missed phone call, and that Ellis was smuggling contraband into the prison at the time of her death.

Story continues here ➤

“They’re getting in my business,” he says, raising his voice and stabbing the air with his index finger.

Story continues here ➤

Our panel tried hard to be conservative and careful but inadvertently contributed to three false “epidemics” – attention deficit disorder, autism and childhood bipolar disorder. Clearly, our net was cast too wide and captured many “patients” who might have been far better off never entering the mental health system.

Story continues here ➤

For others, worried about high reoffending rates, there are better – and cheaper – alternatives to prison in many cases.

Story continues here ➤

Let’s be frank. Howie Mandel is a likable comedian. He’s never been as smooth as Jerry Seinfeld, as cutting as Richard Belzer, or used his neuroses as weapons, like Richard Lewis.

Story continues here ➤

Story continues here ➤

But three years later, Schacter got a fever from a strep-throat infection, and after that her obsessive symptoms became much more intense. She needed to do mundane tasks over and over and over again before it felt as though they’d been done right. Rituals began to take over her life. Getting dressed, brushing her teeth, walking to classes, taking a shower — all became incredibly difficult.

Story continues here ➤