Boise State Public Radio and the Idaho Statesman have teamed up to better understand Idaho's fragmented mental health system. In a series we're calling "In Crisis," we'll explore why so many Idahoans aren't getting mental health care until they're in the middle of an emergency.
We'll show you how social workers have partnered with law enforcement to provide crisis care to people dealing with emergencies. We'll show you how hospitals and the court system have stepped in to fill the gap in mental health care. And we'll explain why people getting mental health care through Medicaid have watched their services change over the last year.
We'll introduce you to people who have gone through mental crisis, drug abuse, jail, hospitalization and personal struggles. Some of them are just starting their journeys to recovery, some are now helping other Idahoans navigate mental illness.
You'll find each piece of this multimedia reporting collaboration here.
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Katherine Jones/Idaho StatesmanShannon Guevara stood in a courtroom in front of her peers — a group of people who, like her, had committed felonies but whose severe mental illnesses… -
Frankie Barnhill/Boise State Public RadioAccording to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nearly a quarter of Idahoans are living with a mental illness. Idaho has one of the highest suicide… -
All week Boise State Public Radio and the Idaho Statesman have been reporting on Idaho's fragmented, underfunded, and threadbare mental health care… -
Katherine Jones/Idaho StatesmanNine-year-old Kendra sits in one of the private rooms on the second floor of Boise’s Downtown public library with her community-based rehabilitation… -
Katherine Jones/Idaho StatesmanIdaho prisons, jails and courtrooms aren’t just parts of the criminal justice system. They also have been tasked with providing treatment to Idahoans with… -
Darin Oswald/Idaho StatesmanIt’s a sunny September afternoon, and the room is packed. It’s like a movie theater before the lights go down — the buzz of nervous energy, nattering… -
Katherine Jones/Idaho StatesmanSeveral people interviewed by the Idaho Statesman and Boise State Public Radio did not want to be named or quoted because of stigma surrounding mental… -
Darin Oswald/Idaho StatesmanThe voice started when Shawna Ervin was 16 years old, and it hounded her for two years.It told her to hurt herself.“It was relentless and wouldn’t stop… -
Joe Jaszewski/Idaho StatesmanTwo years ago, Philip Mazeikas answered the front door of his family home. The course of his life changed when he opened it.At 24-years-old, Mazeikas… -
Joe Jaszewski | jjaszewski@idahostatesman.com/Idaho StatesmanPhilip Mazeikas, now 26-years-old, started noticing signs of his mental illness when he was 18."I started thinking there was a prophecy about me rising to… -
Emilie Ritter Saunders/Boise State Public RadioIf you or someone you know is in crisis, here are some phone numbers to call:Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255Idaho's 24-hour crisis line:… -
Katherine Jones/Idaho StatesmanRoy Vopal didn’t expect to live at a Boise Rescue Mission shelter in Downtown Boise this year. But the 60-year-old had a serious knee injury, then…
