Mental Health: On Our Minds

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide deaths increased in 2021 for the first time in two years.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people grieve and find support.

In the days after the Uvalde shooting, state agencies and health care providers went to the community to offer support. One of those people was psychiatrist Sabrina Browne with UT Southwestern Medical Center. She spoke about community healing from traumatic events.

A study of about 400 patients from UT Southwestern Medical Center's Weight Wellness Program and other similar programs found mental health problems contributed to weight gain. Center Director Dr. Jaime Almandoz led the study. He told KERA’s Sam Baker why he focused on the second year of the pandemic.

A Dallas youth theater company is exploring the way the pandemic affected young people’s mental health through a new play.

Texas leaders have targeted trans youth, their families and gender-affirming care practices for months. It’s exacerbated feelings of anxiety and fear in trans youth, who already experience higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide than their cis peers. Mental health practitioners can help navigate these feelings, but finding and accessing an affirming therapist in Texas can be a challenge.

Dallas ISD’s Mental Health Services Department supports children and their families through life and learning challenges. After Executive Director Tracey Brown learned of the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde where 19 children and two adults were killed, she said it was “all things crisis response support” for her and the clinicians she oversees.

The COVID-19 pandemic worsened stress, anxiety and depression for young people—especially young girls. Those are things the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas have addressed through their mental health patch, called Okay to Say. It’s one part of a wider prevention effort to mitigate worse health outcomes for young people as they grow up.

Federal health officials are reporting a spike in mental health issues among high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The past few years of the pandemic have shifted Texas neighborhoods, as both people and places have been lost to the COVID-19 virus. Close to 1 million people have died from the virus in the U.S. since March 2020.

It's been two years since the first reported case of COVID-19 in North Texas. Best friends Tamra Nicole and Lauren Bridges have weathered job uncertainty together as their industries changed during the pandemic.

Dallas city employees who experience a traumatic event on the job will now have hours of paid time off.