As mental health calls increase, Maine police seek and find backup ways to respond
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During his first six months as the Biddeford Police Department s community engagement specialist, Jacob Hammer has handled 314 referrals of people in crisis or struggling with their mental health. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
On June 16, one man called Biddeford police more than 15 times. Sometimes he told dispatchers he needed to talk about his mental health, other times his words didn’t make much sense. He said he didn’t need police officers to check on him, but he kept calling back anyway.
Calls like these to local police departments are increasingly common in Maine and across the country, prompting public safety officials to re-examine how they’re interacting with people with mental illness and to hire mental health clinicians better equipped to work with people in crisis.
By Ryan Shepard
Photo: Getty Images
Richard Sherman has issued his first public statement following his arrest in King County on July 14. In a statement posted to Twitter, Sherman apologized to his friends, family and fans and explained that he has been working to overcome personal challenges over the last several months. I am deeply remorseful for my actions on Tuesday night. I behaved in a manner I am not proud of. I have been dealing with some personal challenges over the last several months, but that is not an excuse for how I acted, he wrote. The importance of mental and emotional health is extremely real and I vow to get the help I need. I appreciate all of the people who have reached out in support of me and my family, including our community here in Seattle. I am grateful to have such an amazing wife, family and support system to lean on during this time.
Created: July 16, 2021 05:23 PM
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide. Viewer discretion is advised.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) An 11-year-old boy in the 6th grade at Waterloo Middle School recently took his own life. Gio Bourne’s mother and sister sat down with News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke to share his story in hopes of helping other families.
Gio Bourne was always making his family laugh. He just was a sweet boy, always giving, always willing to help someone,” his mother Angelicia Smith said.
Gio Bourne and his mother Angelicia Smith.
Photo provided by family
But the 11-year old had a hard time making real friends at school.
Attorneys for the men accused of killing
Ahmaud Arbery are requesting that a Georgia judge bar reporters from the courtroom during the jury selection process set to begin later this year.
The lawyers representing
Greg and
Travis McMichael, the father and son charged with the murder of 25-year-old Arbery last February filed a motion Wednesday (July 14) to keep the media out as potential jurors are questioned, the
William Bryant, a neighbor who joined the father and son in pursuing Arbery while he was jogging through a Georgia neighborhood, is also facing murder charges in the case.
In the motion filed to the court, the defendants’ legal team moved to have a three-step process in the jury selection process. First, potential jurors would be asked to answer a written questionnaire before being brought into the courtroom one at a time to answer questions from the judge and lawyers for both sides. The third proposed step would be to further question potential jurors in grou
Listen 12 min MORE “The show was both exciting, but it disrupted the regimen that kept him in line,” says Morgan Neville of Anthony Bourdain. Photo courtesy of Focus Features.
The sheer sensory and intellectual joy of travel was embodied in Anthony Bourdain, so the confusion, grief, and sheer disbelief of the early morning headlines of June 8, 2018 shook the world to its core. Anthony Bourdain was gone, and it was hard to take that a man who gave such meaning, pleasure and belonging to so many felt so alone. Now three years later, Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville pays tribute in his film, “