HEALTH
First Person: The mental health model of ‘forced treatment’ doesn’t work
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As someone who lives with depression and anxiety, I wonder: Could we be having a different conversation about mental health?
First person: Pittsburgh’s museums have a diversity problem.
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Pittsburgh art museums have a problem. The artists they amplify and the staff they employ are not diverse enough, which means that our communities and our city as a whole suffer as a result. Because our museums don’t accurately reflect our population, many of our residents aren’t being served.
I’m a third-generation Black female living in this Pittsburgh nightmare.
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Compelling personal stories
told by the people living them. When I was 6 years old, I sat cross-legged in my grandmother’s living room. My hands framed my face as I hung onto her every word. She told a story highlighting horrific ways human beings treated each other, and she described juxtaposed realities of the people who lived in the same town. I thought it was the next installment in a series of fables she was telling.
FIRST PERSON
Yes, Pittsburgh; it’s racism.
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Since Tuesday, the airwaves and Twittersphere have been full of Pittsburghers discussing the newly released report entitled, “Pittsburgh’s Inequality across Gender and Race.” After spending the last 10 months getting the most up-to-date, comprehensive data, developing a brand new methodological approach and writing a 96-page report about the current status of Pittsburgh’s gender and race inequality, I am glad radio hosts, TV news anchors, newspaper reporters and city residents are engaging with our findings. Yet, it is simultaneously infuriating to hear these same Pittsburghers attempt to rationalize the observed inequities and claim they are not “racism.”
FIRST PERSON
My preference for buses puzzles some people. But consider the benefits of ditching your car.
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Compelling personal stories
told by the people living them. Each weekday, I wake up in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, take two buses to reach Moon Township and walk about half a mile to get to my workplace. The whole commute takes between 60 and 90 minutes, and it perplexes just about everyone. My parents tried to talk me out of taking the bus; one of my coworkers has called my commute a trek; and, in the early days of this “trek,” my friends often asked me how my commute was going right after or instead of asking, “How are you?”
Why should the way I get to work garner so much attention? Though my parents often bike around my hometown in suburban Philadelphia, they drive when they need to make longer trips.
FIRST PERSON
Sun still shines on your heavy head
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"My first mental health crisis almost took my life. Recovery gave me an opportunity to build my life worth living," writes singer-songwriter Jamie Kunning.
FIRST PERSON
A three-quarter home in Pittsburgh was a key stop in my recovery from opioid addiction
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I attended inpatient rehab again, and when my mother wouldn't let me live at home, my only option came to be a three-quarter house. It worked for me and, while I acknowledge the opinions of those who criticize three-quarter houses, this is my story.
FIRST PERSON
Reporting through trauma: Investigating the opioid crisis while my father was homeless
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From 2017 to 2018, I investigated the opioid crisis in Southwestern Pennsylvania while my father was homeless in Pittsburgh. He was dying in the street as I wrote about others experiencing the same reality.
DEVELOP PGH
Disparities between Pittsburgh neighborhoods persist. This project tries to understand why.
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About 14% of poor white people in Pittsburgh lived in high-poverty neighborhoods (those with 30% poverty or more), but a staggering 59% of poor black people did, according to an analysis I completed using data from 2017 American Community Survey estimates. These trends are alarming.
FIRST PERSON
‘Complete Streets’ is supposed to improve pedestrian safety. You wouldn’t know if you’re walking to school.
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There are many forms of safety for school crossings that are expensive, but high-visibility paint for crosswalks to a school — how hard can that be?
