If following protocol isn’t enough, data and community-based evaluation is the next step toward protecting our nation’s heroes.
mental health
Commentary: We must continue to strengthen mental health services for Maine’s kids
Don’t allow our youth experiencing behavioral and mental health crises to continue to languish in emergency rooms and jails.
Man from China charged with assaulting officers unleashes courtroom outburst after psych evaluation ordered
Brent Elisens, who faces charges of assaulting three state troopers in a 2021 roadside incident, was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation after he asked to represent himself in court.
Commentary: School-based clinicians on front lines of youth mental health crisis
Through direct school-based behavioral health services, Maine students are able to learn coping and regulation skills. Those skills are needed more than ever.
Maine children continue to struggle in pandemic’s wake
More youths are facing mental health, academic and housing instability problems than before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the Maine Children’s Alliance.
Man who allegedly stole Augusta police cruiser found not competent to stand trial
Kyle King, 27, who is being held at Kennebec County jail, has been committed to Riverview Psychiatric Center for treatment meant to restore his mental competency.
Citing mental illness, Waterville woman found not criminally responsible for setting fires with Molotov cocktails
Melissa Jane Breznyak has been committed to state custody for an indefinite period of time for the setting the fires last year in her neighborhood.
Bill would allow some first responder suicides to be classified as deaths in the line of duty
A legislative committee unanimously voted Wednesday in support of a bill that would provide a survivor’s benefit to the families of some first responders who commit suicide.
Social workers on front lines ask lawmakers for support, reinforcements
A bill presented Friday would expand a program to cover student loan debt for eligible social workers in hopes of attracting, and keeping, more professionals to help children and adults who are waiting for support.
Our View: Give young psychiatric patients somewhere to go
Legislating for new mental health facilities may not sit well with everyone. We should be far more uncomfortable with the alternative: leaving vulnerable young Mainers hanging in the balance.