RICHMOND, Va. - With reforms underway in Virginia for children's mental health services, lawmakers and advocates want to hear from people dealing with the issues every day. Voices For Virginia's Children is hosting a community conversation Thursday in Charlottesville.

Executive director Margaret Nimmo Crowe says there will be a brief panel discussion that will include lawmakers looking to rewrite state policy. But she says most of the time will be for frank and open talk, including folks who know about the issue first-hand.

"Providers of mental health services, families who have children who experience mental health disorders tell us what is working and what is not working," says Nimmo Crowe. "What services are you able to get easily and what types of treatment are still needed?"

Nimmo Crowe says for the last five years they've been working on a long-term effort to improve access and funding for crisis services. She says lawmakers could make major changes to the system over the next few legislative sessions.

"We want to make sure those changes are informed," she says. "That policy makers are really hearing from the people on the ground, who either need the services or are trying to provide them."

She says much of the focus has been on adult mental health but it's important not to ignore children's needs, even if the issue is hard to talk about.

"We know that half of all mental illness begins before the age of 14, so if we're leaving the children's system out of the solution, we're really missing a big part of it," Nimmo Crowe says.

State Sen. Creigh Deeds will be on the panel. A year ago Deeds was violently attacked by his son, who was suffering from a mental illness. Since then Deeds has led much of the effort to reform Virginia's mental health services for children. Nimmo Crowe says it was crucial he be there.

"For us it was very critical to have him be part of this, not only to share, but also to hear what people are saying, because he is heading up the four-year legislative study commission."

Thursday's event is free and open to the public. It'll be held at the Jefferson School City Center in Charlottesville. Some snacks will be served, starting at 6 p.m.


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A study by New Mexico State University shows the number of suicides among U.S. Hispanics is on the rise, in part because they are buying more guns.

Jagdish Khubchandani, public health sciences professor at New Mexico State and the study's co-author, said suicides by Hispanic adults in the group increased by more than 70% between 2010 and 2020, while their population grew only 25% over the same period.

"I wanted to see what's happening with Hispanic middle-age people 20 to 64 years," Khubchandani explained. "Because this is a unique population given their upbringing, their acculturation, experiences in the United States."

He pointed out Hispanics are using fewer passive, and instead more lethal suicide methods, noting during the study period, firearms were most commonly used among non-elderly Hispanic adults. Researchers analyzed a decade of mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For those in crisis, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is now accessible at 988.

Khubchandani stressed among all the racial groups, Hispanics were the most likely to acquire multiple guns during the pandemic, citing a need to protect themselves or prevent themselves from being victimized.

"But as I wrote in the study, most of the time these guns will be used to kill household members and not be used for protection from bullies and racists," Khubchandani stated.

Khubhandani reported in the U.S., approximately 100 people die of suicide each day, or 45,000 per year. He added the mortality rate for HIV is 15,000 people per year, and he believes suicide needs the same research attention afforded the immune disorder.

"And all drug companies want to sponsor trials and studies and government wants to fund studies," Khubhandani observed. "I have not seen many studies funded by the government on suicide prevention for white, nonwhite, male, female; nothing."

The study also found southern and western regions of the U.S. had the highest suicide rates for non-elderly Hispanic adults in 2020. Colorado had the highest rate, with New Mexico second highest at a rate of about 24 per 100,000 people.

Nonprofit social workers in New York are seeing a shortage of people coming into the field, abdicating it for telehealth work.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth began to fill the gaps for in-person visits. However, the shift to a semi-virtual landscape has left some nonprofits without applicants to fill open positions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, telehealth visits increased by 154% in 2020.

Angela Piccininni, associate director of clinical services at YES Community Counseling Center, is concerned about the kind of hands-on experience new social workers are getting.

"Prior to COVID, they would have internships in nonprofits and agency-based work at hospitals, similar to ours, which would lead to an exposure of the real missions of social work," Piccininni recounted. "And after training, we would begin to employ these new graduates."

One way she feels people could be drawn to in-person work is a re-evaluation of nonprofit- and agency-based social work, with hopes of incentivizing employees. Although it has become widely used, she said it could be a mismatch for people with more severe mental-health problems.

Telehealth marks a turning point for how people receive mental-health treatment, and it could be here to stay. According to a 2021 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, many clients saw a reduction in their symptoms of mental illnesses when they used telehealth, or a hybrid model.

Piccininni thinks the approach can be limiting, adding there are some things a person might not be able to notice on a computer screen.

"Much of what we do as therapists is observing, and working through nonverbal communication," Piccininni noted. "You cannot detect that when you're seeing someone's head or their shoulders. We're often finding individuals coming to session, that are in virtual treatment, that are in their car, that are driving or in public settings."

Social work may be shifting into a virtual environment, but it is not slowing down the growth of the field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of social workers is expected to grow by 9% nationally during the next decade. New York is expected to see a 6.6% growth in social workers over the same period.

School districts across the state of New York are facing a shortage of social workers.

According to an audit by the state comptroller's office, New York City schools are not providing enough social workers per school.

The report showed 423 schools are without social workers, while most of the schools with at least one social worker do not meet the recommended ratio of one social worker to every 250 students. Rural school districts are seeing a retention problem since they cannot afford to compete with their urban counterparts.

Martha Shultz, northeast division director of the National Association of Social Workers New York State Chapter, said a primary issue is noncompetitive salaries, since district leadership might not understand what a school social worker does.

"That stems from this kind of misunderstanding, or lack of understanding, or desire to learn about really what is social work and what can they offer," Shultz contended. "In schools, there's been a push for every building to have a school social worker. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that school leadership or even the school board knows what a social worker does at a school. They just know they have to have one."

Schultz pointed out another part of the problem is a pipeline issue, because many rural colleges and universities do not offer graduate-level social work programs. She has seen numerous empty positions without applicants, with a lack of education by district leadership being a deterrent.

Schultz added social workers might start at the bottom in school districts, despite many years of experience in other areas of social work. The issue of social-worker shortages goes beyond schools and has reached the state's Office for Mental Health.

Samantha Fletcher, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers New York State Chapter, said social workers are bearing the brunt of the shortage. One challenge she found is the growth in caseloads social workers have to deal with, arguing high caseloads contribute to faster burnout.

"They don't want to work in a situation where they know they're in a lose-lose position; that they know they can't give their clients what they need," Fletcher explained. "If you're seeing eight or more clients a day, how do you have time to do a suicide evaluation for another client or deal with a crisis from another client."

In 2021, two bills were introduced in the state Legislature to address caseload caps for social workers and for child protective service workers. Both are still in committee.