Mental Illness

Keisha Acres and Abbey Kuzcka both lost loved ones in the shooting last year at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. They want people to take the country’s growing mental health crisis more seriously.

An independent expert who has monitored the mental health care was terminated reducing the transparency around an often failing system.

Federal and state officials have urged reforms at the rural facility for people with mental and developmental disabilities. But the state-run center still has more allegations of abuse and neglect than any other in Illinois.

The 24-year-old with developmental disabilities was brutally beaten by his caretakers inside an Illinois-run facility with a long history of patient abuse.

In July, Missouri officials debuted 988, an emergency mental health hotline that connects callers to dozens of organizations around the country based on the caller’s area code. The hotline’s overhaul means crisis response organizations need more workers and money to pay them. Advocates are concerned that the state has not committed to funding the hotline for the long term.

During the first month of a national mental health crisis line, calls to Missouri mental health centers have gone up 30%, state officials said. The three-digit 988 line routes all calls to suicide prevention hotline crisis centers.

Betty Frizzell is the former police chief of Winfield, Missouri. Her memoir, “If You Can’t Quit Cryin’, You Can’t Come Here No More," explores her family's history of poverty, crime and mental illness.

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