Karen Brown

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People with mental illness are jailed at a much higher rate than the general population — but should they be? To separate criminal cases from clinical ones, about 150 special mental health courts have cropped up nationwide in recent years.  WFCR’s Karen Brown reports on a new court in Springfield — the second in Massachusetts, after Boston. First aired on WFCR on July 28, 2010.

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State budget cuts in Massachusetts this year have led to some wrenching choices, and critical mental health services have been hit. To save the jobs of 80 caseworkers and other services within the Department of Mental health, the state plans to cut two intensive programs for the chronically mentally ill – including one based in Springfield.

This story aired on WFCR on January 29, 2010.

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Thanks to the federal G.I. bill, the number of veterans on American college campuses is expected to jump by 30 percent this year — some estimates put it at 100,000 people nationwide, with about 400 at Umass-Amherst alone. But even with financial help, the transition from combat to campus can be tough.

Story first aired on WFCR, Sept. 30, 2009. A version also aired on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Oct. 10, 2009. Click here for national story.

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“A Burden to be Well: Sisters and Brothers of the Mentally Ill” is a 30-minute radio documentary that delves into the often unexamined experience of “well” siblings who grow up in a family coping with mental illness. It profiles two sets of siblings in particular: a New Hampshire family dealing with their middle daughter’s bipolar diagnosis while trying to raise two other children; and a pair of twin sisters, one with schizophrenia, and the other – a psychiatrist – without. This documentary, which aired in 2006 on WFCR and NPR (in shortened form) won a PRNDI award, among others.

Written and Produced by Karen Brown
Edited by Mary Beth Kirchner, American Radion Works

First aired on WFCR in Amherst, MA on June 8, 2006.

Reporting was made possible by a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship in Mental Health Journalism.

Upper photo: Deb, Audrey, and Rose Stanas
Lower photo: Carolyn and Pamela Spiro

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“The Wild Child: Coping with a Bipolar Youth”is an hour-long radio documentary that follows three young people, and their families, as they navigate adolescence with a severe mental illness. The piece includes first-hand accounts from the young people themselves, as well as information from researchers and advocates. This story aired in 2005 on WFCR and on PRI’s American Radio Works. It won a national Edward R. Murrow Award and First Place from the Association of Health Care Journalists, among other awards.

Written and produced by Karen Brown.
Edited by John Dankosky.

A version of this story aired on NPR (1-18-05), “Public Schools Struggle with Bipolar Disorder.” To listen, click here. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4457271

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Springfield, MA is trying out a new protocol for ending homelessness — a program called Housing First. The idea is to give apartments to the chronically homeless (often mentally ill or addicted to drugs), and THEN offer services to get their lives back on track. Not the other way around.

Aired on WFCR in 2007.