SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state is suing the travel insurance company Allianz, saying that its policy of excluding mental health issues from coverage is discriminatory.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the company refused to cover 485 claims from Washington residents from January 2014 to August 2019, including cases where people had to cancel or change travel plans due to an Alzheimer’s diagnosis or due to a family member’s attempted suicide...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced a $25 million project on Thursday to help youths recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project Bounce Back is a public-private partnership that includes initiatives to provide mental health services and expand youth development programs...

EAGLE RIVER, Mich. (AP) — An Upper Peninsula sheriff in Michigan's smallest county is making a public plea for more mental health treatment after a young driver smashed a car into trees to try to end a life...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A criminal justice reform package focused on targeting insubordinate and overly aggressive officers while giving more mental health assistance to police and deputies was approved Tuesday by a Senate committee...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton has asked the Oregon Department of Justice to review the deadly shooting of a man by Tigard police...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Mental Health says it is fulfilling requirements to provide community-based services, and it is asking a federal judge not to order the state to make changes in its mental health system...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A retooled criminal justice reform package unveiled on Wednesday by North Carolina Senate Republicans contains new databases to discourage misbehaving law enforcement officers from remaining on the job and expanded mental health assistance for police and deputies...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A mental-health worker at a state prison in western New Mexico says she was harassed and threatened by superiors after reporting details of an apparent rodent infestation, under a lawsuit filed Tuesday in state district court...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alameda County in Northern California violated civil rights by failing to provide proper mental health services, especially in a jail where 19 people have committed suicide since 2014, according to federal report released Thursday...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is losing another member of his cabinet to President Joe Biden's administration...

DALLAS (AP) — A man who Dallas police fatally shot after he pointed what turned out to be a replica handgun toward officers was recently discharged from a treatment center for mental illness, his family said...

LANHAM, Md. (AP) — Officials in a Washington suburb marked the groundbreaking this week of a mental health treatment center funded by money diverted from a police training facility...

PHOENIX (AP) — Federal coronavirus relief funding will help schools hire 140 counselors and social workers as children return to classrooms with pandemic-induced stresses and isolation, Arizona schools chief Kathy Hoffman said Monday...

NEW YORK (AP) — A leading mental health expert and commentator has a book deal his publisher is calling an “authoritative yet compassionate guide to managing mental health challenges" anticipated because of the pandemic...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee phone line that offers callers mental health support during the COVID-19 pandemic has added an option to talk via text messaging...

McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — Seven officers involved in the in-custody death of a Black jail inmate in Texas whose family members say may have been suffering a mental health crisis have been fired, a sheriff said...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — More than 350 people died of drug overdoses between January and November 2020, which the Rhode Island Health Department said was more than any previous year on record...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday to lay the groundwork for an emergency suicide and mental health hotline...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Providence police last year dealt with a huge increase in the number of calls for people going through a mental health crisis, which police and experts say was in large part because of the coronavirus pandemic...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is reviving a proposal to put $250 million into a trust fund that would help expand mental health services for school-aged children...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Shayla McCartney remembers where she was when the pandemic closed her university...

PASADENA, Md. (AP) — A Maryland police officer shot and killed a man while responding to a call for a welfare check from a mental health facility, a spokesperson said Thursday...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted a critical need to maintain or boost funding for schools, mental health treatment, child care scholarships and other programs, advocates told House budget writers Tuesday...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire will receive more than $9.4 million in federal grants to help fight substance use disorder and bolster access to mental health services under the coronavirus relief package signed into law in December, the state's congressional delegation said Friday...

BOSTON (AP) — The New Hampshire Senate has given preliminary approval to a bill aimed at improving children’s mental health at a time when the number of children waiting for inpatient psychiatric care has grown dramatically during the pandemic...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Mississippi to file a plan to upgrade its mental health services as part of resolving litigation that's been ongoing for at least half a decade...

CLEVELAND (AP) — Staff at an Ohio mental health treatment center for children illegally restrained and injured residents and failed to inform state authorities when it occurred, the Ohio Attorney General's Office alleged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the owner of the facility...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A new initiative is aimed at providing more mental health services to college students...

Vermont is much closer than many other states in getting kids fully back to in-person learning amid the pandemic but even with improvements to remote learning and some in-person instruction it's not sufficient and many students are struggling, Gov...

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police will stay out of many mental health crisis calls and social workers will respond instead in parts of northern Manhattan starting this spring, an official told lawmakers Monday...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A pilot program in Oakland to dispatch counselors and paramedics to mental health crises, instead of armed law enforcement officers, that was scheduled to start in January is having trouble getting off the ground...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday that he's going to issue an executive order stipulating all school districts in the state have at least two days of in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic...