skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Supreme Court temporarily blocks order requiring return of wrongly deported migrant; 1000 Women Strong outlines 2025 vision for Black women in GA; MT 'news map' shows rural regions lose; Black residents in IL eight times more likely to be homeless.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The Israeli government promises to cooperate on tariffs. U.S. Secretary of State says markets are not crashing, just 'adjusting,' and budget legislation moving in Congress makes room for Trump's tax cuts.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The proposed dismantling of the Depart. of Education has rural schools scared, postal carriers say USPS changes will hurt rural communities most, fiber networks to improve internet may be supplanted by Musk's satellites, and it's time to PLAY BALL!

CT bill creates mental health peer-run respite centers

play audio
Play

Wednesday, April 3, 2024   

A Connecticut bill under consideration in the Legislature would establish peer-run respite centers to help people with mental illness.

Senate Bill 370 would establish eight centers, with three specific facilities for transgender, Spanish, and BIPOC communities. Unlike inpatient hospitalization, the programs are voluntary and allow a person to come and go.

Jordan Fairchild, executive director of the group Keep the Promise CT, said hospitalization can disrupt a person's life.

"If someone calls 988 and said the wrong thing or if they say the wrong thing to a provider, they can end up having the police show up at their door, be taken to the hospital against their will, be thrown in a locked ward, possibly forced on medication," Fairchild outlined.

She has heard of transgender people who've been hospitalized had hormone replacement therapy taken away, were called by their dead names and had to sit in groups with people who harassed them.

The bill garnered universal support during a public hearing last month but opponents questioned how the state will pay for the program. For now, the bill has been referred to the Office of Legislative Research and the Office of Fiscal Analysis.

Mindy Wallen, a certified recovery support specialist, came to Connecticut from Texas after her child, who has been hospitalized more than 20 times, came out as nonbinary. Wallen said even though hospitalizations helped develop a tool kit for her son to work on his mental health, there are lingering issues peer-respite centers can better address.

"You still have times when you might be dealing with like a recurrence of treatment-resistant depression, or, you know, like that sort of thing where there needs to be a kind of a more supportive environment, and a place to go just to kind of regroup and reset," Wallen explained.

Currently, 15 states operate peer-run respite centers, which have proven beneficial for more than just patients. A report from Washington State's Health Care Authority finds the centers can decrease the need for inpatient psychiatric care. It also noted the centers have lower costs than other facilities and have reduced Medicaid expenses.

While support for the bill is high, funding remains a challenge. Building and staffing these costs a little more than $8 million, less than 1% of the state's budget.

Matthew Blinstrubas, executive director of Equality Connecticut, said it is contradictory for such programs to hinge on money.

"This is a, for all intents and purposes, a cost-reducing measure," Blinstrubas pointed out. "It does require resources to get up and running. And so, that's where the conversation is now and we will know in the coming weeks where we stand in terms of what resourcing peer-respites will look like."

The centers are shown to cost less than more coercive options. The median cost of an inpatient psychiatric stay in Connecticut is more than $40,000, while a stay at a peer-run respite center in nearby Massachusetts costs around $3,200.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Bumblebee colonies have annual life cycles, according to the ZYWang Lab at the University of Washington, where researchers study natural social behavior changes in aging bees. Current research examines how isolation affects these patterns, with implications for understanding solitary confinement's effects. (Pixabay/iira116)

Social Issues

play sound

Imagine being locked in a cell for 23 hours a day, under constant artificial light, with no human contact for months or even years. It is the reality …


Environment

play sound

Missouri ranks second in the nation for the number of farms, with more than 85,000. Beginning farmers in the state and across the nation may soon …

Social Issues

play sound

Latino media outlets in Arizona are coming together to ensure the Hispanic and Latino communities are informed and educated about their rights amid th…


Participants in Multnomah County's Nurse-Family Partnership program experience a 56% reduction in ER visits for accidents and poisonings. (KAMPUS/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Multnomah County plans major public health cuts to address a $21 million budget gap and the Oregon Nurses Association said the cuts put programs for f…

Social Issues

play sound

Black residents in Illinois are almost eight times more likely to be homeless than white people, with lack of livable wages and affordable housing …

Flooding in Frankfort almost reaches a basketball net Sunday as the Kentucky River is expected to keep rising. (Liam Niemeyer/Kentucky Lantern)

Environment

play sound

Frankfort is one of a number of communities across Kentucky grappling with a deluge of flash flooding from torrential rainfall over the past several d…

Social Issues

play sound

April is National Second Chance Month but across West Virginia, resources to help people leaving prison find gainful employment are dwindling…

Social Issues

play sound

April is Second Chance Month, with extra focus on helping people with a criminal past keep from becoming repeat offenders. In steering Minnesota …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021