Travis County plan to open mental health diversion center to get those accused of low-level crimes mental health treatment instead of jail

Travis County leaders are moving forward with plans to build a new mental health diversion center.Mental health diversion centers “divert” those accused of low-level crimes to get mental health treatment instead of going to jail.  In Travis County, 40% of the jail population deals with mental health issues. Travis County

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Study ranks Texas low for access to mental health resources

Mental Health Resources for Our Community, Our Health » HealthStreet »  College of Public Health and Health Professions » University of FloridaMental Health America, a nonprofit devoted to promoting mental health and addressing the needs of people with mental illness, has again ranked Texas dead last in the nation for access to mental health resources.  In the category tracking prevalence of mental illness and rates of access to care for adults,

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The Frightening Truth About Youth Fentanyl Use

“Recently, a patient’s high-school senior experimented with an opioidFentanyl: The 'New' Talk Between Parents & Teens - Mega Doctor News and never woke because it was laced with fentanyl,” said Michelle P. Maidenberg Ph.D., MPH, LCSW-R. Fentanyl is now the number-one cause of overdose deaths in the country. It surpasses heroin by a large margin.  Expanding awareness and education is … Continue to full story .......

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5 Warning Signs Your Child May Be Vaping

Whether your child is at home or in school, it is important to be on the lookout for risky behavior like vaping.  Many youth fall prey to this hidden habit, as fancy marketing campaigns, fun flavors, and friends and family use lead some to believe it’s a healthier alternative to Continue to full story .......

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Synthetic Pot Sales Reach $2 Billion Despite Safety Fears; The next Spice? 

A new generation of synthetic drugsJohnson County DA says Delta-8 'cannot be sold to the public' made from hemp is undercutting the legal cannabis market — and raising concerns about contaminants and side effects including seizures and lung injury. The new drugs, with names such as Delta-8, HHC and THC-O, offer a psychoactive hit similar to that of traditional

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TxCOPE: a new Texas overdose tracker app fills gaps in state data and response

Drug overdoses have become a major issue throughout the nation and right here in Texas, but a lot of the data we have today doesn’t give us the full story.  TxCOPE, an app developed at UT Austin, report more than 70% of overdoses are under-reported because state data only

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Fiscal Notes: Fentanyl Flowing into Texas

comptroller seal(AUSTIN) — In response to the number of opioid-related drug deaths stemming from prescription misuse over the course of the last 20 years, Texas and 13 other states filed a lawsuit against several pharmaceutical companies for their role in causing the opioid crisis. As a result, Texas will receive an … Continue to full story .......

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Family of a Ohio student who died of alcohol poisoning after a frat hazing see $3 million in a settlement from the university

Cory and Shari Foltz, the parents of a Bowling Green State University student who died in an alleged hazing incident.

The family of a student who died from alcohol poisoning while pledging a fraternity will receive nearly $3 million from Bowling Green State University to settle its lawsuit.  Foltz died of alcohol poisoning in March 2021 after a fraternity initiation event where there was a tradition of new members finishing

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www.forever15project.org — tells stories of four Hays CISD students who died of fentanyl poisoning in 2022

During the summer of 2022, the communities in Hays CISD began to see an increase in overdoses, poisonings, and deaths related to fentanyl. www.forever15project.org tells the stories of four Hays CISD students who died from fentanyl in 2022. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is often the ingredient used in counterfeit pills purchased … Continue to full story .......

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Hays CISD families put up billboard with faces of students who died from fentanyl in 2022, and already a death this year

image of fentanyl awareness billboard with three hays cisd students who passed from overdoses.Just one week into 2023 and a Hays CISD student is dead from a fentanyl overdose. The Hays County Sheriff’s Office told KXAN it happened on Jan. 2.  The news comes as a fentanyl awareness billboard was unveiled next to I-35 in Kyle.  It shows three Hays CISD students who … Continue to full story .......

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Youth overdose deaths jumped in the U.S. with a quarter of the deaths connected to counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.

A container of fentanyl pillsCDC data shows that between July 2019 and September 2021, middle school and high school aged children in the U.S. reported using less illicit substances in 2020. However, there was a 94% increase in overdose deaths within the same group during that period of time, and a 20% increase from

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2021 SAMHSA Survey for Mental Illness and Substance Use Levels Show 21.9% of Population Used Illicit Drug

SAMHSA Awards $166 Million for HIV Prevention and TreatmentAnnual National Survey on Drug Use and HealthKey findings show that among people aged 12 or older in 2021, 61.2 million people (or 21.9% of the population) used illicit drugs in the past year. The most commonly used illicit drug was marijuana, which 52.5 million people used. Nearly 2 in

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