Sarasota area suffering ‛unprecedented’ surge in parents ousting kids because they can’t cope with them In Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties, “inability to cope” is the third-most-often reason parents cite when they use the Baker Act to have a child removed from their home. That’s 85 children forced from their homes at their parents’ request […]
Sunshine From Darkness News
Naomi Osaka’s decision to quit the already started French Open has caused the issue of athlete mental health to ripple out into the broader sports community. Read the full Naomi Osaka article here
We often associate summertime with vacations, time by the pool, and less stress. While all of these things are true, the general lack of structure that often comes with the summer can lead to anxiety. For those who are working, being cooped up indoors can lead to restlessness or feeling sad after returning from vacation. Regardless of […]
An Orlando Sentinel article details the work in that area of the behavioral health response teams, which are similar to the efforts led by former Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight in his new role as CEO of First Step of Sarasota. In the Orlando area, as in many jurisdictions in the country, law enforcement personnel […]
The National Institute of Mental Health is marking Mental Health Awareness Month with tips on how we can take better care of ourselves. Mental health, it points out, is more than the absence of a mental illness — it’s essential to your overall health and quality of life. It includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being. […]
An online book of amazing art that aims to convey what it feels like to have a mental illness was published by Natalie Milgram, a masters of fine arts student at the Worchester Polytechnic Institute. It uses digital and traditional media to create doodles, mixed media studies and final painting compositions to construct environments and […]
The pandemic has devastated the mental health of more than 30% of the world’s population, and recovery is expected to take years, studies cited in a C|Net article show. In the US, 42% of respondents to a CDC survey in December reported anxiety or depression symptoms, an increase of over 200% from the 2019 average. In the UK, […]
The Sarasota County School Board recently considered increasing funding for mental health programs in the schools. In his testimony before the board, First Step CEO Tom Knight among other things cited the success of First Step’s new Behavioral Health Response Team.
NEW YORK — A pilot program that has kept New York Police Department officers away from many mental health crisis calls in parts of Manhattan will expand to every precinct citywide, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on April 26. The program, tested this spring in three Harlem and East Harlem police precincts, relies on social workers and […]
A Florida Sheriff Writes About Mental Illness Intervention Sheriff Gregory Tony of Broward County, on Florida’s East Coast, writes in a column on a news website about his views on mental illness and how important it is that first responders know how to intervene appropriately. His views and policies are similar to those behind the […]