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A big “thank you!” to the subscriber who called out the difficulty in being able to see the links. Moving forward, all links will be in bold. If that doesn’t help much, let us know.

Question: An eviction rate is the number of evictions per 100 renter homes in an area. Which large city (population of 100,000 and above) in the United States has the highest eviction rate?

News

Mandated treatment

In 1999, a 32-year-old woman, Kendra Webdale, died in New York City after being shoved in front of a subway train. The man who pushed her, Andrew Goldstein, had been released from a mental hospital just over two weeks earlier.

In response to this, The New York legislature passed Kendra’s Law, which allowed someone with severe mental illness to be ordered into “assisted outpatient treatment” (AOT) as a condition for living in the community. People who failed to comply could be detained by the police or could face involuntary hospitalization.

Twenty years later, more than 40 states have passed some form of AOT legislation, with an estimated 9000 people under AOT orders nationwide. Although some data show that AOT orders can help reduce homelessness, arrests, and hospitalizations, some research has also found that compulsory treatment is no more effective than voluntary treatment.

Amid concerns over homelessness and crime, states are continuing to pursue strategies for addressing mental illness:

• In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a budget expanding eligibility for AOT orders and allowing courts to renew orders within six months. The original law required “violent behavior” but the new budget eliminated this requirement.

• In California, lawmakers are also looking to expand AOT. A few months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposal that could “compel as many as 12,000 people into forced treatment”

As social workers, we respect the dignity and worth of every person. Although we acknowledge that we must help people obtain care, especially when their mental health may prevent them from doing so, we must also be mindful of the slippery slope of mandated treatment. If history has taught us anything, it is that good intentions can have destructive effects.

Furthermore, we must be mindful of the systemic issues at hand. There is a housing crisis, which is contributing to greater amounts of homelessness and suffering. Furthermore, as we know, the great majority of homeless people are not perpetrators of violent crimes. Finally, there are other methods for helping those with mental illness, including peer-respite centers, which “provide crisis intervention along with support from mental health care workers who have direct experience with being shuffled through psychiatric and drug treatment systems themselves”.

Other social work-related news

• Why Has the Misleading “Chemical Imbalance” Theory of Mental Illness Persisted for So Long?

• There has been a huge backlash against Caredash over its practicing of creating “shadow profiles”, or profiles of thearpists that have no affiliation with the company

Reads on research

• A study which examined data from 21 billion Facebook connections covering 84 percent of U.S. adults ages 25 to 44 found that children who had social relations with peers from high-income families ended up with higher incomes themselves.

• California millionaire’s tax, which funds mental health programs throughout the state, may have prevented 5,500 suicides

Reads on policy

• Last November, in an attempt to address the state’s addiction rates and access to treatment, Oregon passed Measure 110. The measure outlined a plan to spend $300 million every two years that would pay for “drug treatment and recovery services. Two years down the road, the law “isn’t playing out as expected”

• A recently passed bill in Buffalo expands the scope of practice for licensed mental health counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists and licensed psychoanalysts, creating a pathway for those professionals to, finally, diagnose patients on their own without the supervision of a psychiatrist or clinical social worker in certain settings

Tech, social work, and cool opportunities 😎

• Today’s featured company is Everytable. The company’s mission is to make nutrious fast food, but to offer it at lower prices in areas which are underserved and have little or no access to nutritious food. Furthermore, the company launched Everytable University, which allows entrepreneurs from marginalized backgrounds to complete a training program, which sets them up to eventually own a franchise. (Btw, they are not sponsoring this newsletter. We just found the company very interesting)

• Watch John Oliver’s take on Mental Health

• Clinical Operations Manager at Little Otter

• VP of Clinical Programming at Charlie Health

• Eating disorder startup Arise launches with sights set on commercial and Medicaid markets

Answer: North Charleston, SC, had the highest eviction rate at 16.5%. In terms of the total number of evictions, New York City leads the nation with over 36,000 evictions in 2016.