Dozens of Minnesota barbers and hairstylists received training this week to be mental health advocates in the Black community.

On Monday, the participants gathered at the Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis for training with The Confess Project, a nationwide initiative, and community partners.

The project is dedicated to building a better mental health culture for Black boys and men through barber shops.

Partners in Minnesota are expanding the focus to include hairstylists and their clients.

“You get some of those clients that are like ‘Hey, give me a haircut and get me out of here,’ but most of the time it’s just like a therapy session,” Flint’e Smith, Right Choice Cutz barber, said.

The community calls Right Choice Cutz in Crystal a safe space.

(KSTP-TV)

Clients trust Smith to give them a clean cut and a listening ear.

“I feel like a therapist sometimes just listening to some of these

House Democrats are aiming to hold a floor vote Friday on a bill that would provide states funding to replace law enforcement with mental health professionals.

The Mental Health Justice Act would provide grants to states to hire, employ, train and dispatch mental health professionals “in lieu of law enforcement officers” during emergency calls involving at least one person with a mental illness, according to the bill’s text. The legislation was reintroduced last year by Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who said it would reduce violence against people with mental illnesses.

DEFUNDING POLICE, VILIFYING THEM ‘AT EVERY TURN’ CONTRIBUTING TO OFFICER SUICIDES, EXPERTS SAY

“We should be connecting people in crisis to care, not tossing them in jail,” Porter said in a statement at the time. “Mental illness is not a crime, and we have to stop treating it like one. Most

Vitamin D supplements are widely recommended to prevent bone fractures in older adults — but a clinical trial, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicinefound that they may not do much after all.

In 2011, the National Academy of Medicine (then called the Institute of Medicine) recommended the general public get between 600 and 800 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily. That recommendation was based on past research showing that the vitamin may support bone health by aiding in calcium absorption and decreasing bone turnover, which causes bone deterioration.

Subsequent studies have yielded contradicting results; some concluded supplementing with vitamin D was beneficial, while one even found that high vitamin D levels caused by taking supplements could be harmful and cause more falls. Other trials have looked at both calcium and vitamin D together, making it difficult to analyze the vitamin’s effects on its own.

That