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 care" ...
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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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Medicating the Military
The stories looked at the nature and scope of the use of prescription drugs in the military community, with a focus on psychiatric medications and painkillers. The reporting found that use of psychiatric medications has risen dramatically in the past several years and some doctors suggest it may be a factor in the military's suicide epidemic of recent years. Reporters found that many psychiatric drugs - including powerful anti-convulsants and anti-psychotic medications - were being used "off label", or in ways not formally approved by the FDA. Reporters found that many troops were taking up to 10 medications at a time in so-called drug cocktails that experts say are untested and unproven in these combinations. Reporters also found that deaths caused by accidental drug overdoses had tripled during the past several years and that the Army's specialty care units were quietly conducting internal investigations and making significant changes to hospital protocols to reduce risk of accidental deaths. Finally, they found that psychiatric drug usage was also up significantly among military children.
Tags: Military; Army; Veteran; Health; Wellness; Medicine; Drugs; Pain killers; Psychiatric Medication; Mental Health; Suicide; Depression; Military Children; Hospital; Prescription
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The Texas
Mentally disabled residents of a school in Texas were forced to be a part of a “fight club” run at night. The brutality of this was highly disturbing and it terrified these residents. Many of them tried to leave, but the staff members continuously forced them back and continued the abuse. Since all this information was revealed, these former staff members have been found guilty of felony charges of injury to the mentally ill and face time in prison.
Tags: mental health care; system; Texas State School; Corpus Christi; brawl; battle; struggle; state government; state facilities; civil rights
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State of Neglect
The state of Texas, which is one of the nation’s wealthiest states, is faced with low rankings in social benefits. These benefits include “assistance to poor children and the malnourished, treatment of the mentally ill, care of the disabled and many other social indicators”. This series reveals special interests are being heard and are shaping laws and decisions in the state of Texas.
Tags: lawmakers; state government; health care; state health; human services; privatizing; Evercare; hospitals; companies; businesses; lobbyists
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Compromised Care
Illinois is an outlier among states in its reliance on nursing homes to house younger adults with mental illness, including thousands of felons whose disabilities qualify them for Medicaid-funded nursing care. The reporters documented numerous recent cases in which elderly and disabled residents were assaulted, raped and even murdered in the facilities.
Tags: nursing home; mental illness; Medicaid; criminals; Illinois; police records; health department inspection data; complaint investigations; criminal records;
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Mental Disorder: The Failure of Reform
The series examined each major failure of an eight-year effort to reform North Carolina's mental health system. Among others, the investigation found the state wasted $400 million on ineffective or unneeded services and at least 82 patients in state mental health hospitals and homes for the developmentally disabled had died of homicide, suicide, accidents or medical errors.
Tags: mental disability; hospital; North Carolina; mental health; patient; reform; medical care; health policy
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To Hug a Porcupine
Debbie and Jorge Garcia-Bengoches did not understand why the three little boys they'd adopted were acting so violent. Only years later and by accident did the couple discover that the boys had been horribly abused by a series of adults in early childhood, a fact that the state's foster care system knew but filed to disclose. The technical name for the boys' behavioral ailment is "Reactive Attachment Disorder" but they have been described as sociopaths. The parents successfully sued the state for $10 million but cannot get the money released due to budget cuts and the concept of sovereign immunity.
Tags: reactive attachment disorder; adoption; foster care; budget cuts; mental health; child abuse
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VA Mental Health System in Crisis
"The entry consists of an ongoing investigation of the Department of veterans Affairs and its mental health system. Each of the stories relies on exclusive access to VA data and documents obtained under FOIA that shed light on the inconsistent treatment of veterans suffering from mental health ailments."
Tags: FOIA; veterans; mental health; federal government; post-traumatic stress disorder; Timothy Bowman; health care system;
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Head Games
Alan Pendergast, staffwriter for Denver's Westword reports that in 2004, 20% of Colorado's jail population was diagnosed with severe mental illness, and "the true number may be much higher, since some inmates' illnesses are never properly diagnosed." The story compares cost of psychiatric lock-up versus community mental health care. Pendergast advises other journalists doing similar stories should "insist that someone in the accontable chain of command review and comment on the records, even if the actual treatment providers are refusing to be interviewed."
Tags: prison mental illness; correctional systems; lockdown; supermax prison; ADHD; Department of Corrections; forensic psychiatry; head cases; administrative segregation; HIPPA; San Carlos Correctional Facility; Offenders WIth Serious Mental Illness; OSMI; National Institute on Drug Abuse; Mental Health Occupations Grievance Board
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Harsh Medicine
In New York ,Prison Health,Inc., was the health care provider for pre-trial detainees and troubled youths at Rikers Island and inside the city Juvenile Justice Department. It is also the largest company responsible for medical and mental health care in American jails. However, Prison Health was operating illegally in New York and also was responsible for multiple deaths due to its providing of inadequate medical or mental heath care.
Tags: health care; prisons; mental health care; medical health care; Prison Health,Inc.