In April 2024, the state signed on to the Marsters v. Healey settlement, a federal court-enforced agreement to transition at least 2,400 residents with serious mental illness and other disabilities out of nursing facilities and into community settings over eight years, backed by projected investments exceeding $1 billion.
Mental Illness
Posted inCriminal Justice
A ban is not a plan
THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT has reminded us that we are not going to ban our way to social justice and public safety. The SJC on December 15 declared that […]
Posted inUncategorized
A pot research bonanza
Massachusetts, despite its Puritan “blue laws” past, showed more of its blue state liberal leanings through a 2016 ballot question that made it one of 10 states to legalize recreational […]
Posted inUncategorized
Temperatures plunged during homeless census count
AS SNOW SQUALLS and plunging temperatures took over Massachusetts for much of the last two days, no one felt it quite as hard as the homeless. The polar vortex arrived […]
Posted inOpinion
Alzheimer’s a growing public health crisis
STATE SEN. BARBARA L’ITALIEN’s mother, Claire, lived with her and her family for 20 years near the end of her life. Claire helped raise Barbara’s four children, enabled Barbara to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Clawbacks threaten mental health services
IMAGINE BEING WORRIED sick, struggling to find a mental health clinician to treat your 12-year-old child who is so anxious that he has not been able to go to school […]
Posted inThe Download
A question of mental illness
“Did they have a magic wand that somehow cured mental illness?’’ That poignant but simple question comes from state Sen. Kenneth Donnelly, a former Lexington firefighter, after the Boston Globe’s […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Patrick Kennedy comes clean
Patrick Kennedy wears his heart on his sleeve, his manner far more confessional than calculating. That said, his timing couldn’t be better. The youngest child of Ted Kennedy has written […]
