RICHMOND, Va. -- Mental-health support groups are sponsoring an advocacy day today in Richmond, urging lawmakers to back funding to help Virginians deal with a growing mental-health crisis.

Gov. Ralph Northam aims to boost funding for the STEP-Virginia behavioral health system initiative, according to Bruce Cruser, executive director of Mental Health America's Virginia office. He said the program aims to provide equitable mental-health care throughout the state, regardless of local funding.

"The big push now will be outpatient mental-health services for children and adults, and mobile crisis teams, and peer and family-support services," he said, "as well as veterans' services."

Northam's new budget would add more than $175 million to the STEP-Virginia program. A recent Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report showed the program is falling short of its 2021 goal of providing same-day assessment for all mental-health outpatients.

Cruser said some rural parts of Virginia can't attract enough practitioners to meet the needs of a growing number of patients with mental-health challenges. He said the coalition also is pushing lawmakers to get more federal funding for a student-loan repayment assistance program for eligible mental-health providers.

"It would increase the number of practitioners by having an incentive," he said, "so the state would, say, provide payment of 25% of their loan debt each year in exchange for a year of service in an underserved community in Virginia."

A recent Mental Health America report showed that the Commonwealth consistently ranks near the bottom, at 41st among states, for providing access to a trained medical-health workforce. Meanwhile, the number of adults diagnosed with mental illnesses in Virginia has grown in the past four years, with the state ranking 40th in the nation.

The JLARC study is online at jlarc.virginia.gov, the Mental Health in America report is at mhanational.org, the Northam budget proposal is at governor.virginia.gov, and the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health is at dbhds.virginia.gov.


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PIERRE, S.D. -- Suicide-prevention officials in South Dakota are reminding residents facing a mental-health crisis there are resources available, after the state reported some alarming statistics this month.

The Department of Health said that in the first quarter of this year, 59 South Dakotans died by suicide. That compares with 28 in the same period last year. It also puts the state on pace to exceed last year's total of 186.

Sheri Nelson, suicide prevention director for the state's 211 Helpline Center, said in 2020, many people were feeling a heightened sense of mental stress caused by the pandemic, prompting them to rally around each other.

She said for some, that feeling might be different this year.

"As things are opening up, they get that feeling back again of, 'I'm going through this alone,'" Nelson explained.

Nationally, health experts noted similar observations about people supporting each other last year, with preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showing a nearly 6% decline in suicides in the U.S.

In South Dakota, the Helpline Center provides crisis support 24 hours a day throughout the year. It also offers training in the area of prevention.

While going through a global crisis might create more awareness, Nelson noted lingering effects still can be felt. She pointed to past events, such as the SARS epidemic or the 2008 financial crisis, when there were increases in suicides among certain demographics.

"There was that increase in suicides," Nelson recounted. "But the main thing is to let people know that there is help available to them, and they do not need to go through this alone."

She added there must still be conversations to remove any remaining stigma about a person going through a mental-health crisis. Prior to the pandemic in 2019, South Dakota had the eighth-highest suicide rate in the United States.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Budget cuts to the Wyoming Department of Health are causing reductions in mental-health and substance-abuse services, with bigger impacts projected after July 1.

Andi Summerville, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers, said centers are losing $7.5 million in state contracts to serve people who don't have insurance or can't afford to pay.

The cuts come as centers are receiving a significant increase in crisis calls.

"We're still at that level presently today, where crisis calls are much higher than they've ever been," said Summerville. "In terms of timing, this certainly compounds an already difficult pandemic."

Many of the calls are from people who have never received mental-health services in the past.

Centers are laying off providers and staff, reducing hours, discontinuing programs, and will soon be forced to reduce the number of available residential beds for mental health and substance abuse.

Summerville said she understands the current fiscal constraints facing lawmakers, but she said she believes the cuts will increase costs to taxpayers over the long term.

If centers aren't able to keep doors open, hospital emergency rooms and other agencies will absorb much higher costs when people are not able to access basic mental-health and substance-abuse care.

"Early services keep them in their family, can help keep them in their community," said Summerville. "When they can't access those services, and their condition continues to worsen, then police departments get more phone calls for emergencies that are driven by mental-health crises. They show up in ERs."

She said centers are obligated to see every patient that shows up, but worries that soon there may not be a provider left on staff to greet them.

Summerville and other advocates are urging lawmakers to add staff in order to tap federal grants the state is currently leaving on the table, expand Medicaid, and other stop-gap measures to help mitigate the impact on Wyoming residents in need of mental and substance-abuse care.




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NEW YORK -- As the pandemic wanes, experts advised it's important to recognize the impact of the fear, loss and isolation it caused on children's mental health.

Data from the Children's Hospital Association showed between April and October last year, hospitals saw a 24% increase in mental-health emergency visits by kids ages five to 11, and for ages 12 to 17, the increase was 31%.

But parents may not always recognize the symptoms of trauma and grief.

Dr. Shea Lott, lead clinician for the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Easterseals, pointed out in a webinar on "Helping Our Children Navigate Through Trauma," children experience grief differently than adults.

"For children, you typically will get a lot of physical symptoms, like headaches, stomachaches, and those kinds of things; not wanting to do things that they usually enjoy," Lott outlined.

New Yorkers can find resources for helping children and families cope with COVID-related stress and trauma through the New York State Office of Mental Health, online at nyprojecthope.org.

Dawn Khan, a parent of two teenagers in Manhattan, said she began to notice changes in her 15-year-old daughter's behavior and outlook last summer.

"She's definitely exhibited signs of depression," Khan observed. "Her interpersonal relationships have suffered; she's much more withdrawn than she used to be."

She added her daughter has been seeing a therapist, and with schools reopening, she is beginning to reengage socially and appears to be happier.

Vicki Jay, CEO of the National Alliance for Grieving Children, noted the upheaval of the pandemic has impacts that will last a lifetime, and it has affected everyone.

"We've all experienced loss and change, and disappointment and trauma, this year," Jay recounted. "And it's not going to be over with; there's not a switch to flip. It becomes a part of who we are, and it's what we take forward with us."

In a recent poll by the American Psychiatric Association, 48% of parents said the pandemic has contributed to mental-health problems for at least one of their children.