This week s mass shooting at Michigan State University is the latest in a long list of such tragedies to happen on a campus, and students in Wisconsin are being reminded to take advantage of resources if they feel overwhelmed by the violence. Monday night s shooting comes just a couple of weeks after a shooting near a university in Texas, and past high-profile shootings have happened from Virginia Tech to Northern Illinois University. Mary Kay Battaglia, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Wisconsin, said seeing the headlines only added to the stress many college students already carry during the academic year. .
A new book by a University of Washington professor on the death penalty finds support for executions may be motivated by people s own fear of death. Philip Hansten, professor emeritus of pharmacology at the University of Washington and author of "Death Penalty Bulls -," argues against the practice. Hansten draws on work by Ernest Becker, an anthropologist who said reminding people of their own mortality made them cling tighter to their cultural views and even increases people s punitive urges in order to defend their culture. .
Most South Dakotans live in federally designated mental-health professional shortage areas, and a new report recommended steps Congress and other decision-makers can take to help states close gaps within the behavioral health workforce, amid a growing demand for mental-health services and a shortage of licensed providers. Kendall Strong, senior policy analyst for the health project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said one solution is to enhance the role of those with mental-health training who do not have the full credentials. She argued behavioral-health support specialists are certainly up to the task. .
RICHMOND — A recently proposed plan has been devised to better fund Virginia's mental-health programs. The new Right Help, Right Now plan calls for $230 million…