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Tag: Mental health

Transgender Shooter Expressed Regret Over Transition Before Attacking School
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National, Approved, New York Post

Transgender Shooter Expressed Regret Over Transition Before Attacking School

By Diana Nerozzi and Patrick Reilly | The New York Post Transgender mass shooter Robin Westman confessed that he “was tired of being trans” and wished he “never brain-washed” himself in a manifesto posted online before he slaughtered two children and wounded dozens more at a Minneapolis church. In a twisted handwritten journal he shared on YouTube before the massacre — much of which is encrypted in a homespun code of Russian Cyrillic script and English words — Westman groaned about his long hair and his decision to transition. “I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” he wrote, according to a translation by The Post. Robin Westman opened fire on the Annunciation Catholic C...
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Colorado sees 20% drop in youth suicides year over year
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Fox31, Approved, State

Colorado sees 20% drop in youth suicides year over year

By Spencer Kristensen | Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) —The rate for youth suicide in Colorado is at its lowest since 2007, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Office of Suicide Prevention said in a press release on Monday morning. According to data from CDPHE, in 2024, there were 38 suicide deaths among youth between the ages of 10 and 18, resulting in a suicide rate of 5.85 deaths per 100,000 people between the ages of 10 and 18. The highest suicide rate occurred in 2020, when the rate was 12.91 deaths per 100,00 people between the ages of 10 and 18, a figure that represented 87 total suicide deaths that year. “The drop in youth suicides is encouraging, because we see that our shared efforts in communities across Colorado are indeed having a positive impact on ou...
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Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cousin speaks: ‘Very strict’ father created an emotionless, isolated home
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New York Post, Approved, National

Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cousin speaks: ‘Very strict’ father created an emotionless, isolated home

By Georgia Worrell | New York Post He grew up in a home filled with silence and was raised by a dad who acted like a ghost. Thomas Matthew Crooks — the 20-year-old gunman who nearly assassinated Donald Trump a year ago Sunday — spent his childhood in a strange, emotionless environment dictated by a “very strict” father, according to a relative.  On July 13, 2024, Crooks opened fire on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., before he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper. His motives and background have largely remained a mystery, but his first cousin Mark Crooks, 44, this week gave The Post a glimpse into his family’s odd and antisocial behavior. The last time Mark saw Thomas, his sister and their parents was in March 2019 at their grandfather’s funera...
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Turley: The critics overlook what Trump’s investigation into the cover-up of Biden’s mental deterioration
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U.S. News & World Report, National

Turley: The critics overlook what Trump’s investigation into the cover-up of Biden’s mental deterioration

By Jonathan Turley | Commentary, U.S. News & World Report We need accountability and greater transparency on matters of presidential health and competence. “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie?” When then-President Joe Biden asked in September 2022 if U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican who had died weeks earlier in a car accident, was in a meeting, observers were shocked. Biden had not only issued a statement of condolence, he had lowered the flags at the White House in her honor. As Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple noted last week, that moment should have been a wake-up call. In Washington parlance, it left no room for “plausible deniability” about whether Biden was still fit to hold the office of president. And it wasn’t jus...
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HHS report finds no strong evidence supporting ‘Gender-affirming care’ effectiveness
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Approved, National, National Review

HHS report finds no strong evidence supporting ‘Gender-affirming care’ effectiveness

By Abigail Anthony | National Review There is not strong evidence that “gender-affirming care” for minors is effective for treating gender dysphoria or improving mental health, according to a report issued on Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services, based on a review of existing literature. The researchers found that existing studies suffer from bias and methodological errors, while the literature also fails to appropriately consider potential “harms” such as the loss of sexual function. "The 'gender-affirming' model of care includes irreversible endocrine and surgical interventions on minors with no physical pathology," reads the report's foreword. "These interventions carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual READ T...
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Healing after the call: First responder speaks out after verdict in Alexa Bartell death
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Approved, kdvr.com, Local

Healing after the call: First responder speaks out after verdict in Alexa Bartell death

By Greg Nieto | Fox 31 DENVER (KDVR) — One of the very first people to respond to Alexa Bartell after a rock shattered her vehicle windshield spoke out in the wake of Friday’s guilty verdict in her murder trial. Nicole Bergeron was a firefighter and paramedic for North Metro Fire Rescue when she and her crew responded to the Jefferson County scene in April of 2023. A first responder for 21 years, Bergeron said they had little idea, at the time, what may have happened when they first arrived at Bartell’s vehicle. READ THE FULL STORY AT KDVR.COM
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How millions in tax money has failed to deliver a change to Denver’s mental and behavioral health needs
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Approved, Colorado Public Radio, Local

How millions in tax money has failed to deliver a change to Denver’s mental and behavioral health needs

By Ben Markus | CPR News The campaign’s premise was simple: For nothing more than a modest sales tax increase, Denver could create a $45 million-a-year stream of grants to nonprofit mental health and drug treatment programs. “This initiative will give us the capacity to get everybody who needs help into a place where they can get the help that they need,” said Dr. Carl Clark, the president and CEO of WellPower, a large Denver community mental health provider.  “It's the type of thing that is a gamechanger.” Voters enthusiastically bought into the concept. And after six years and more than $170 million in tax dollars granted, a year-long review by CPR News found that the game has indeed changed, but perhaps not in the ways supporters and voters envisioned. READ THE FULL ...
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Lakewood looking to expand co-responder teams to handle crisis situations in Colorado
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Approved, CBS Colorado, Local

Lakewood looking to expand co-responder teams to handle crisis situations in Colorado

By Karen Morfitt | CBS Colorado In Lakewood, there is a push to get more co-responders on the streets. They are trained mental health professionals who go with police officers to calls offering their expertise when someone in Colorado is in crisis. "Sometimes our patrol agents will call and ask for us," said Susie Newby, one of two co-responders dedicated to the Lakewood Police Department. And every response is different. "With juveniles, Ben has a lot of experience working with them so we prefer him to go on those calls. Susie is really good at de-escalating," her partner, a Lakewood agent, said. READ THE FULL STORY AT CBS COLORADO
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Jobs, programs are cut at two Colorado mental health centers amid Medicaid “unwind”
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Jobs, programs are cut at two Colorado mental health centers amid Medicaid “unwind”

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Two more community mental health centers are eliminating jobs and cutting programs as Colorado’s safety-net health system staggers from a massive drop in Medicaid rolls.  WellPower, which provides mental health care in Denver regardless of whether patients have insurance, is cutting six positions from its co-responder team that pairs social workers with city park rangers, fire and law officers. It’s also eliminating its virtual therapy program, which connected 579 patients with therapists online last year. And it’s ending its lease of Garfield House, an apartment complex where the mental health center has placed patients who needed housing.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Friday hearing set for suspected gunman in Georgia high school shooting
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Approved, National, New York Post

Friday hearing set for suspected gunman in Georgia high school shooting

By Christopher Scarglato, Chris Nesi, Nikki Mascali Roarty and David Propper | New York Post Four people were killed and at least nine others were hospitalized after a shooting at Apalachee High School in northern Georgia Wednesday morning, officials said. Officials confirmed in an afternoon press conference that two students and two teachers were among the deceased. A student at the school, Colt Gray, 14, was identified as the alleged shooter and he surrendered to custody, GBI Director Chris Hosey said. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE NEW YORK POST
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