RAND Review – Supportive Housing Can Help Keep People with Mental Illness Out of Jail
“Tanya Beverly thought she could communicate with her television. She heard birds and dogs finishing her thoughts for her. One mistake, one bad decision to go without her pills, landed her in the Los Angeles County Jail. That’s where her story begins.”
The Hope Center – #RealCollege 2020: Five Years of Evidence on Campus Basic Needs Insecurity
“Now in its fifth year, the #RealCollege survey is the nation’s largest, longest-running annual assessment of basic needs insecurity among college students. In the absence of any federal data on the subject, the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice created the survey to evaluate access to affordable food and housing among college students.”
The Hope Center – #RealCollege 2020: Five Years of Evidence on Campus Basic Needs Insecurity
Governor Tom Wolf – Pennsylvania Launches ‘Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters’
“Governor Tom Wolf today announced a focused multi-agency effort and anti-stigma campaign, ‘Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters,’ aimed at expanding resources and the state’s comprehensive support of mental health and related health care priorities in Pennsylvania. The governor announced several initiatives and reviews the administration will undertake for commonwealth agencies to bolster the effort. ”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Letter to the Editor: Push for more resources to improve mental health
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Thank you to Gov. Tom Wolf for launching Reach Out PA to analyze and improve our state’s behavioral health care system. It is widely cited that 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health condition sometime in our lives, meaning virtually everyone knows someone impacted by mental illness. I am in full agreement with the Post-Gazette’s call for meaningful funding to support this initiative (Jan. 19 editorial, “The Cost of a Good Plan”).
Joni Schwager
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Child Poverty: “The issue of our time”
“Prospects for kids in impoverished neighborhoods — grim as ever just a year ago — may be brighter as 2020 dawns.
In late 2018, Allegheny County voters rejected a tax hike for children’s programs. As 2019 ends, though, the county and the city of Pittsburgh are planning multi-million-dollar infusions into child care, early education and after-school activities, likely focused initially on the poorest communities.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Child Poverty: “The issue of our time”
RAND Review – Help for the Homeless
Hundreds of people make their homes on the streets of Santa Monica, Calif. The city has taken a unique approach to helping its most chronically, and costly, homeless residents—one that RAND found has paid off, even if it hasn’t broken even.
The city created a street team to find the highest-cost homeless people, gain their trust, and work with them to get housing and other services. The team includes full-time specialists in housing, wellness, and substance abuse, as well as part-time support from a doctor and psychiatrist.