Therapist Kiki Radermacher was one of the first members of a mobile crisis response unit in Missoula, Mont., which started responding to emergency mental health calls last year. That pilot project becomes permanent in July and is one of six such teams in the state — up from one in 2019. Katheryn Houghton/KHN hide caption
Oakland City Vice Mayor and Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan says sending police to mental health and behavioral calls they aren't trained for is a mistake cities keep repeating. Philip Pacheco/ AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Michelle Huston, left, and her daughter, Lauren Magaña, reflected on their careers as social workers during their first interview with StoryCorps in Atlanta in 2018. Hillery Rink for StoryCorps hide caption
Some people land in the hospital over and over. Although research suggests that giving those patients extra follow-up care from nurses and social workers won't reduce those extra hospital visits, some hospitals say the approach still saves them money in the long run. Oivind Hovland/Ikon Images/Getty Images hide caption
Lenh Vuong, a clinical social worker at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, checks on a former John Doe patient she recently helped identify. Heidi de Marco/KHN hide caption
Shannon McGrath, pictured with her son Rayder, says it has been a lot easier to make her medical appointments recently, thanks to help from a "patient navigator" — assigned to her by Kaiser Permanente — who arranged McGrath's transportation. Kristian Foden-Vencil/OPB hide caption
Legal issues — evictions, domestic violence, or insurance claim denials, for example — all too often can cascade into problems with bad medical outcomes. Sam Edwards/Caiaimage/Getty Images hide caption
A project now under construction in Cleveland will eventually house the Case Western Reserve University's medical, dental and nursing schools, as well as the Cleveland Clinic's in-house medical school. Courtesy of Cleveland Clinic hide caption
Gerald Franklin, who was diagnosed with autism as a child, is now lead developer for a website that matches workers with prospective employers. Job-related videos, he says, can help people with special needs showcase their talent. Courtesy of Gerald Franklin hide caption
Aurora Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee has found that connecting people with primary care doctors reduces the number of emergency room visits. Courtesy of Aurora Health Care hide caption