Helping Students With Mental-Health Issues Return to School; News Roundup

Every week Reclaiming Futures rounds up the latest news on juvenile justice reform, adolescent substance use treatment, and teen mental health. 

Helping Students With Mental-Health Issues Return to School (Education Week)
Dr. Laura C. Murray provides recommendations on how to best support youth recovering from mental health issues as they transition back to school after time away.

Teen killed by St. Louis police was in wrong place at wrong time, not a criminal: family (NY Daily News)
On Wednesday Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, was fatally shot by St. Louis police, resulting in protests and arrests. While police say they were in the process of executing a search warrant, and that Ball-Bey was armed, family and friends say that Ball-Bey was a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cousin Tyren Cotton-Booker says the police got the wrong person, noting that Ball-Bey had no criminal background. Family says the teen was on his way home from work, and was still in his FedEx uniform at the time of the shooting.

N.J. family of Sandy Hook shooting victim to hold mental health fundraiser (NJ.com)
Mary Sherlach, a school psychologist, was one of 26 people killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting. In order to honor her legacy and continue her work, family and friends created Mary's Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting mental health in children and adolescents. On August 28th the New Jersey chapter of Mary's Fund will hold its first major fundraiser with a golf tournament in Mount Laurel.

Jerome G. Miller dies; reformer of juvenile justice in U.S. was 83 (Newsday)
Psychiatric social worker Jerome G. Miller passed away earlier this month at the age of 83. Miller is the juvenile justice reformer who in 1972 controversially began shutting down Massachusetts reformatories, an action that brought sweeping changes to juvenile corrections practices across the United States. He is known for the "Massachusetts experiment," which in present day is widely considered a model for treatment and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders.

UW professors join steering committee to tackle racial disparity in juvenile justice (The Daily of the University of Washington)
While efforts to reduce the number of detained youth were met with much success in Washington State's King County, a separate problem came up: the growing disproportion of minority detainees, specifically African-Americans. In response King County has put together a steering committee to develop solutions and tackle racial disparity in the juvenile justice system. King County Superior Court Judge Susan Craighead says this is a national challenge to the current juvenile justice system. Nobody has figured out a solution, and because of the cultural differences between communities across the country, efforts to solve the problem are being handled more on a local level.

Addiction included in PBS series on inner workings of brain (Addiction Professional)
The Brain with Dr. David Eagleman is a new PBS science series, premiering on October 14th, with the goal of helping viewers understand why they feel and think the way they do. The series will include an addiction component, incorporating the story of an addicted woman who tries to train her brain to suppress urges to use.

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