The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "mental health problems" ...
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IJEC: Mental health on campus
After the mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois, legislatures and university officials nationwide said they were taking extra measures to upgrade mental health treatment for students and to improve security on campuses The Investigative Journalism Education Consortium – a group of faculty and students at Midwest universities - decided to examine what actually had been done. What they found is that the number of college students seeking mental health care from their universities is soaring as is the severity of the mental health problems students have when they arrive on campus. The consortium also found most campuses do not have the number of counselors and resources needed. In addition, we found some universities have moved slowly or not at all to improve security and to develop effective building evacuation plans.
Tags: Mental health; health care; counselors; Midwest universities
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Medical Misadventure: Deaht at the State Hospital
The investigation began with the death of a mental health patient, Josh Garcia. He had checked himself into the hospital and as a result an attorney was appointed to represent him and oversee his treatment. This attorney had strayed away from him and told the court, after his death, that he had agreed to take the medicine. This is false and this medication led to his death. Further, this attorney receives taxpayers’ money for every case through the hospital. As a result, the state is looking into the rights of mental health patients and whether this is a major problem.
Tags: Pueblo State Hospital; involuntary medication; Office of Attorney Regulation; state legislature; legal representation; secrecy
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Dr. Deception
The story reveals the bad behavior of a well paid psychiatrist. Among his bad behaviors there are duplicating reports to county judges, inappropriate behavior with a female jail inmate, and falsifying reports of competent defendants. Not only was he a problem, but the systems, including the courts, allowed him to get away with all his wrongdoings.
Tags: mental health; courts; defendants; trials; judges; money; unethical behavior
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Von Maur Shootings
In December 2007, a young man killed eight people then himself with an assault rifle at the Von Maur department store in Omaha. It was the largest mass murder in state history, a story that made national news. But when other media moved onto other stories, a team of World-Herald reporters spent much of 2008 digging into the issues surrounding such an astonishing act of violence. Some of their findings include: emergency responders were delayed getting to victims due to miscommunications by 911 dispatchers, a troubling suicide spike, and the depth of the gunman's psychological problems.
Tags: Von Maur murders; teen suicide; massacre; gunman; suicide rate; mental health problems; psychiatric records; treatment centers; shooter
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Careless Detention
Four-part series on the medical treatment of immigrant detainees in the United States. Goldstein and Priest exposed the shoddy, unethical and, at times, fatal treatment of immigrants during their detentions and as they were being deported to their native countries. Their stories led readers deep inside America's network of immigration prisons--a world that had grown exponentially in the years since 9/11, yet remained largely unknown and hidden from view. Their stories documented the deaths of 83 detainees. And in one of the most stunning revelation, Goldstein and Priest disclosed the previously unreported scope of a practice of forcible sedation of immigrants with dangerous psychotropic drugs during deportation to their native countries; they found more than 250 instances in which the drugs were used on people with no history of psychiatric problems. Their stories also revealed that the most prevalent cause of death among the immigrant detainees is suicide, including the hangings of detainees known to be in such fragile mental health that they had been assigned suicide watchers. They profiled the slipshod treatment of an ailing Korean immigrant, a legal U.S. resident for three decades detained in a rail in the Arizona desert, with a history of recurrent cancer. And they documented the flawed medical practices, bureaucratic ineptitude, sloppy record-keeping and staff shortages that cause detainees who are sick to suffer and sometimes to die.
Tags: detained immigrants; September 11th; 9/11; medical treatment of prisoners; immigration prison; HIPAA
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A Hidden Shame: Danger and Death in Georgia's Mental Hospitals
This series exposed problems in Georgia's state psychiatric hospitals. At least 155 patients died under suspicious circumstances related to neglect, abuse and poor medical treatment. Furthermore, patients are often discharged to places where their continued treatment is doubtful, such as homeless shelters, bus stations and street corners.
Tags: hospitals; health; psychology; state government; mental illness
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FEMA; A Legacy of Waste
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel "exposed waste in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's crisis counseling grants, meant to help people overcome disaster-related mental health problems." In Florida, the $23 million counseling program paid for "puppet shows, Hurricane Bingo and yoga on the beach." Only one fourth of the program supervisors were qualified. Also, the Sun-Sentinel found that "other states had used FEMA grants totaling more than $445 million on activities such as gardening workshops, martial arts classes and "Beat Stress with Crafts." As a result of these stories, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General and the state of Florida each launched an investigation, and a bill was introduced in Congress to "prohibit spending the grants on puppet shows and similar activities."
Tags: FEMA; Federal Emergency Management Agency; Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General; misuse of federal funds; disaster-related mental problems
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Mental Anguish and the Military
Army studies show that 20-25 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq show symptoms of serious mental health problems, including depression, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. Government officials say that the military has programs to treat these soldiers, but National Public Radio's investigation at Colorado Springs' Fort Carson found that "these programs are not working." Soldiers who are desperate and suicidal even have trouble getting the necessary help. Furthermore, "evidence suggests that officers at Ft. Carson punish soldiers who need help, and even kick them out of the Army." In the wake of the report, three senators - Barbara Boxer, Christopher Bond and Barack Obama - wrote a letter to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs seeking clarification of the reports.
Tags: Post-traumatic stress disorder; Iraq War; Fort carson; Department of Veterans' Affairs
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Twin Towers
'Twin Towers' (L.A. County Jail and also the nation's largest mental institution), was investigated for three months and found the jail to be a 'terrible place to house the mentally ill'. But because community clinics are full to capacity, caring for persons with mental problems continues to fall onto the lap of 'under-trained and overwhelmed' law enforcement personnel.
Tags: jail; L.A. county jail; mentally ill inmates; psychiatric disorders; prison guards; mental health
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Making Mental Illness a Crime: For more Georgians, disorders mean time in jail, not treatment centers. I Hear Voices Sometimes, Crazy Stuff. Bibb County Jail Uses Outside Help to Treat Mentally Ill. Prisons: A costly answer to mental health care. Funding Problems Hamper Treatment of Mental Illness. Mental Illness History Comes Full Circle. Advocates Say System is Broken; Funding woes, short- staffing, deluge of paperwork strain state mental health workers. Breaking the Cycle: New programs may prevent jail time for mentally ill Georgians. Mandatory Treatment: Not an easy decision.
Georgia's jails are being filled not only with criminals but also with people suffering from mental illness. These articles explore this recent development and examine how it affects the prisoners, the institution, the state and the taxpayers. The article also discusses various kinds of mental illness and offers suggestions as to how a better system for dealing with it could be developed.
Tags: National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; NAMI; schizophrenia; manic depression