Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at mountainstatespotlight.org/newsletter.

By Henry Culvyhouse, Mountain State Spotlight

HUNTINGTON — After 27 years, Steve McCormick still remembers the last night he worked on an ambulance. 

It was a routine medical call, a transport to the hospital. They didn’t even run the lights and sirens. 

But when McCormick and his partner got there, it turned into a full blown emergency. The elderly patient  wasn’t breathing — they ran a tube down her throat, and McCormick pumped a bag to keep her alive. 

“I felt her last breath in my hands,” McCormick said. “I came home and I told my dad, who worked in an ambulance all his life, that I couldn’t do it anymore.” 

Today, McCormick is a captain at the Huntington Fire Department. For two decades, he’s fought fires, responded to overdoses, worked car wrecks and more. 

“I’ve seen, smelt and heard stuff I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy,” he said. 

All those calls take a toll. When McCormick was screened for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and showed many of the symptoms, he said it was like a kick in the gut.

PTSD among the men and women in fire, police, EMS and at 911 call centers is a nationwide issue: studies have estimated around 35% of police officers, up to 22% of firefighters and almost a quarter of 911 dispatchers suffer from PTSD. In another study, EMS personnel were found to be 10 times more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide than the average American. 

From 2018 to 2021, more police officers and firefighters died by suicide than in the line of duty. 

While there have been no numbers tabulated specific to West Virginia, state lawmakers have repeatedly said over the past couple of years that mental health among first responders needs to be a top priority — it’s one of the many issues, along with dedicated funding and pay raises, that fire and EMS have been requesting help with for years.

Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, is part of an informal working group looking at mental health in first responders. He said the issues are complex.  

“It’s like hitting a yellow jacket’s nest while you’re weed eating — you don’t know which bee to swat at first,” he said. 

 Challenges in accessing mental health care

Dr. Kari Mika-Lude, a West Virginia therapist who specializes in treating PTSD in first responders, said addressing and processing a traumatic event quickly is the key to reduce the likelihood it doesn’t become full-blown PTSD. 

“Think of it like a laundry pile,” Mika-Lude said. “You might have a laundry pile and for every new piece of clothing you put into the pile, you take a little bit  away. But if you don’t take anything from the pile, it gets bigger and bigger until one day, it feels unmanageable.” 

For McCormick, he likens it to sponge under a dripping faucet — eventually, that sponge overflows. It could be a routine lift-assist call, it could be a bit of internal department politicking, but eventually, it overflows. 

And his sponge was overflowing for a while. McCormick described sleepless nights, being in a constant state of high alert, jumpiness, quick to anger, all signs of PTSD.

“I never thought I had a problem,” he said. “When you’re living like that for so long, you just think it’s normal — but you find out, it isn’t.” 

The drive to stay strong in order to help others further complicates issues. Mika-Lude said while the public’s tendency to put first responders on a pedestal might be well-intended, it can push them to keep performing to the point of burnout. 

“Helpers are people too,” she said. “When we’re talking about this, I think that’s something the public needs to remember.” 

McCormick said turning the switch off can be tough; he’s seen guys turn their whole identity into being a first responder. 

“People see my mustache, I might just be wearing street clothes, and they know I’m a fireman,” he said. “It’s hard to make that separation, but look, I’m sitting on my back deck smoking a cigar and drinking a beer, just like anyone else that gets off of work.” 

Suffering alone can cause unhealthy coping techniques, like compulsive gambling, excessive drinking and infidelity, according to Vanessa Stapleton, president of Armor Up WV, an organization that raises PTSD awareness and puts first responders in touch with resources for treatment. 

But she said there are few places in the state for first responders to seek help.

The state already lacks mental health providers — one estimate at a conference last year for EMS and mental health providers said there’s one mental health provider for every 500 people in the state. 

Finding therapists who specialize in first responders is even tougher. And in-patient care — after a suicide attempt or when getting clean from drugs and alcohol — presents its own sets of issues. 

Stapleton said getting inpatient treatment out of state is better for first responders because they’re not in rehab with people they may have arrested or may have saved from an overdose. But the Public Employee Insurance Agency has to preauthorize an out-of-state admission — sometimes taking up to two weeks to give the green light. 

Healing through meditation and trauma therapy

For the past four years, Huntington-area first responders have had another option: Compass, a program established specifically to deal with trauma among the group. 

Located on the top floor of the Huntington Police Department, the office doesn’t have the typical beige walls and harsh fluorescent lights common in most government buildings. Instead, the tones are soft. The lighting is largely natural. There’s no hustle and bustle of keyboards tapping away or a scanner blaring out a call. 

It’s quiet.

Manning the fort on a recent weekday are the tag-team duo of Amy Jefferson, a social worker, and Amy Hanshaw, a personal trainer. With roughly 79% of the city’s police and fire ranks at least popping into Compass — it might be for a coffee, it might be a high intensity training workout — the Amys said the key to the program’s success lies in how it started. 

At first, they didn’t have this office, so the two had to take the program on the road, hanging out at city fire stations and in police cruisers. Over time, they got to know the firefighters and the officers. 

Putting mental health and wellness in the training program for each department also helped. About a quarter of the department’s ranks are made up of firefighters who underwent this training. 

McCormick, who uses the services for meditation and some specialized PTSD therapy, said if this program had started earlier, it could’ve saved even more lives and careers. 

“We’ve had a suicide and we’ve a few quit because of mental health issues,” he said. “I think if this was around, that wouldn’t have happened.” 

State lawmakers work to improve first responder mental health

But outside of Huntington and Cabell County, the support for PTSD among first responders is much more limited. 

Over the past few years, lawmakers have taken some steps toward trying to address the growing crisis. In 2021, they passed a bill to carve out an exception in workers’ compensation law to allow first responders to file claims for PTSD. By and large, worker’s comp claims do not include mental illness caused by the mental stress of the job. But the law included a huge loophole: employers can elect to skip the coverage. 

“This bill was a good old-fashioned compromise — if you’re hungry, it’s better to have half a loaf of bread than to say you don’t want any at all unless it’s a whole loaf of bread,” said former Cabell County delegate Chad Lovejoy, who said giving employers the choice was the only way to get the bill across the finish line. 

Earlier this year, lawmakers set aside more money for EMS systems around the state, which included a provision to implement “critical response teams” to debrief EMS personnel after a traumatic event. Office of Emergency Medical Services Director Jody Ratliff told lawmakers at least one team was in place and more would come. He also said he’s been working with 988, the suicide hotline, to have call takers ride along with first responders so they better help them when they call. 

Statler said he visited the Compass Program and was impressed. During the September Interim session, he recommended his fellow lawmakers do the same. 

“The day I spent my time there, the two directors there answered all my questions and I saw several people come in and out to use that facility,” he said. “It is something.”

McCormick says the program is starting to move the needle at the firehouse, if only just by encouraging conversation. He says he now hears chats over dinners at the station about how guys are doing, checking in with one another. 

“People didn’t talk about this shit 10 years ago,” he said. 

While McCormick is a self-admitted “old hippy at heart” who has been quicker to embrace practices like meditation than others in his department, even he had a tough time accepting help. 

When he screened positive for PTSD, he asked his wife, a licensed therapist, what she thought. 

“It would be foolish to think someone in your job wouldn’t have symptoms of PTSD,” he recalled her saying.  

Even then, McCormick said he had a tough time accepting he had PTSD. It took a nudge from a buddy in the fire service to go see a therapist about it. 

“If he hadn’t vouched for the therapist I’m seeing, I’ll be honest, I don’t think I would’ve gone,” he said. “The things we see, the things we remember, the smelling, the hearing, none of that is going away. But maybe we can get some tools to process it better.”  

If you are facing a mental health crisis, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24/7, at 988. 

Reach reporter Henry Culvyhouse at henry@mountainstatespotlight.org

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Being, a Delaware-based startup, is on a mission to scale its mental health app, which aims to help users create a map of their concerns to better navigate their everyday issues.

The company, which exhibited as part of the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, was founded in 2020 by CEO Varun Gandhi and CTO Abhishek Sharma. The idea for Being stems from Gandhi’s personal experience dealing with anxiety growing up and being unable to find treatments that worked for him.

To get started with the app, you can search for any sort of issues or feelings that you’re currently experiencing. For instance, you can start with “I’m not feeling too great about myself today.” You can then add any additional things you’re experiencing such as “My physical health doesn’t feel great.” If you search for a concern that has not already been added to the map by another user, you can create a new entry.

Once you have added your issues, you can build a map to see an overview of the different things you want to work on. From there, the map will try to make connections in order to give you a bigger picture on why you may be feeling a certain way.

“The map is only growing as people are sharing more and more of their issues,” Gandhi said. “People are moving from one thing to another and the map is developing all kinds of dynamic connections.”

Once you have mapped out your concerns, you can start to address them.

Image Credits: Being

Being currently offers three different ways for users to work through their mental health concerns. The first option is mini interactive therapy sessions designed by licensed mental health professionals that focus on things like Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

The second option is an AI-powered journaling session where you are given certain prompts to reflect on what you’re currently going through. As you start to write, the AI will prompt you with additional questions. Gandhi says the app only features basic AI features because the startup does not want to attempt to replace legitimate science-backed therapy with AI.

The third option is something that Gandhi refers to as a “quick bite” of science-based psycho education that is aimed toward people who don’t have a lot of time to spend on the app but want to quickly understand why they may be feeling a certain way.

Gandhi believes that it’s important to approach mental health from the ground up and start from what a person is currently feeling without automatically giving them labels and boxing them into a specific concern like depression or anxiety.

“We don’t wait for people to go and seek help, we try to approach mental health from the ground up and start from where the person currently is,” Gandhi told TechCrunch in an interview. “We start to see mental health as what the person is experiencing at any point in time, because most of us are not okay in different ways.”

Although the company believes that its app is geared toward any and every one, some people may find the open-ended care model a bit difficult to navigate if they’re used to more direct versions of mental healthcare.

Being is available on both iOS and Android and offers two different subscription tiers. The first tier costs $9.99 per month and offers a DIY experience, while the second tier costs $19.99 and comes with additional support and one-on-one chats with a mental health professional.

The company is currently in the midst of closing a $3 million seed round; it previously raised two pre-seed rounds led by Multiply Ventures and Better Capital in 2021 and 2022 that totaled $1.4 million in funding.

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First-of-its-kind group focuses on offering more resources to agricultural communities

PUBLISHED ON September 21, 2023

The Ohio Agricultural Mental Health Alliance (OAMHA) will focus on mental health in agriculture to ensure Ohio’s farmers, families and communities are better equipped to deal with stress. (USDA, Flickr/Creative Commons)

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — From weather, to rising prices and costs of doing business, to long hours, the weight of keeping the family farm in business can cause incredible amounts of stress and take a toll on a farmer’s mental wellbeing.

A newly created alliance will focus on mental health in agriculture to ensure Ohio’s farmers, families and communities are better equipped to deal with stress.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), Ohio Department of Health (ODH), Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS), The Ohio State University (OSU), Ohio Farm Bureau (OFB), Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, and Farm Credit Mid-America make up the new Ohio Agricultural Mental Health Alliance (OAMHA).

The group’s first action is introducing a new, anonymous survey to seek feedback directly from rural communities.

“Ohioans look out for one another,” said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. “This survey will provide valuable help to numerous communities. I urge our farmers and beyond to answer these tough but necessary questions. You won’t only be helping yourself; you’ll be helping your family and friends.”

“Farmer mental health is such an important issue that is often overlooked until we read about someone we know, or someone in the community, affected by tragedy,” said ODA Director Brian Baldridge. “Our goal is to lift up every farmer, family, and neighborhood and let them know we are here for them.”

The survey aims to gauge stress and how it’s being dealt with. OSU created the survey in partnership with OhioMHAS and ODH; working with OFB they utilized a pilot group to provide feedback.

“Farming communities face different types of stress than those in other occupations, and oftentimes our mental health counselors are unsure of how to handle questions and concerns related to farming,” said Cathann Kress, vice president for agricultural administration and dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University. “This survey will help us all better understand the needs of our farming community and allow us to develop programming to meet the needs of all Ohioans.”

“Farm stress and mental health has been something that has been talked about in whispers for generations and it is time to turn up the volume about it,” said Adam Sharp, executive vice president of Ohio Farm Bureau. “This survey will not only shed light on what is causing stress and how those who are struggling with those stressors cope, it will also bring more awareness to this very important issue and help to provide adequate resources to our rural communities.”

OAMHA will use survey results to determine where resources are needed and help ensure support is available to communities in need.

“We know that Ohioans working in the agricultural industry experience many challenges that impact their mental health, yet, to date, we have very little data to guide our efforts,” said OhioMHAS Director Lori Criss. “This new survey is an opportunity for those in the industry to share their perspectives about their mental health concerns and have a voice in guiding the development of better support for the mental wellbeing of Ohio’s agricultural families.”

OAMHA encourages media, agricultural stakeholders, and all Ohioans to share the link or QR code below to help create awareness. In addition, ODA’s Got Your Back campaign offers information and resources for the agricultural community.  As food and agriculture make up Ohio’s number one industry – our farmers carry a heavy load. It is important to help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.

It takes all of us to create a stronger Ohio.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides residents with one, easy to remember number to call when they or someone they know is in crisis. On average, more than 12,000 Ohioans per month who are experiencing or affected by suicidal, mental health, and/or substance use crises have used the lifeline to receive free, 24/7, confidential support and connections to local resources.

The link and QR Code below will take you to the survey:

https://osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9pHMUc1n2IMMkgm?Q_CHL=qr

— Ohio Department of Agriculture

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A man sleeps next to trash cans in downtown San Diego. Photo by Chris Stone

Under the low hum of cold fluorescent lights in a nondescript office park in Orange County, dozens of Californians gathered to find out if they could get help for their loved ones under the state’s new CARE Court system.

Unless that loved one has a medical diagnosis specific to schizophrenia or some other psychotic disorders, the answer was probably not.

The mid-August meeting was one of a series held by a mental health advocacy group in Orange County with the officials in charge of implementing CARE Court starting in October, about what the new system can and cannot do.

“What we’re here to do is share the facts to help manage expectations,” said Veronica Kelley, Orange County’s chief of Mental Health and Recovery Services.

Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court was Gov. Gavin Newsom’s biggest legislative priority last year — what state lawmakers and local politicians hoped would be one answer to California’s dual, overlapping homelessness and mental health crises. 

The new program allows family members and others to petition someone with untreated mental illness into civil courts, where a judge would order a treatment plan and require county mental health departments to provide it. 

Backed by millions in new state funds, it’s a mandate for those departments at a time Californians have become increasingly frustrated with one of the most visible consequences of the state’s trenchant homelessness crisis — people with the most severe mental illnesses languishing on the streets. 

Counties will be judged on how well they’re able to get people who may be resistant to help inside and into treatment, even though CARE Court is not exclusively a program targeting homelessness. Local mental health officials are warning it won’t be a panacea.

“There’s been a presumption — and this is, to be clear, driven by how the administration talked about CARE Court at the outset — a broad presumption that CARE Court is going to fix homelessness or have a broad impact on the nexus of homelessness and behavioral health,” said Luke Bergmann, director of the San Diego County Behavioral Health Services department. 

In reality, he said, it’s “actually going to be a pretty small program. It’s not going to be this thing that dramatically changes homelessness.”

The program aims to walk the line between forced treatment and completely voluntary treatment for those with the gravest needs. Disability rights groups decry it as a violation of a person’s civil liberties, and a potential path toward conservatorship and the loss of legal rights for those who repeatedly decline care. 

Annette Mugrditchian, deputy director, speaks to community members about CARE Court at the Behavioral Health Training Center in Orange County on Aug. 17. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

CARE Court survived a legal challenge from Disability Rights California and other civil rights groups earlier this year. The group sat on a state working group for the program’s implementation and will monitor its rollout. 

The program was welcomed by some family members of those with severe mental illness, who have complained the state’s privacy and patients’ rights laws only allow their loved ones to be compelled into treatment when in crisis, trapping them in a revolving door of short-term hospital stays and homelessness.

The first courts will open across the state in about a month. Seven counties, urban and rural, have been deep in preparation to be the first to roll out the program in October. 

Los Angeles County, whose roughly 75,000-person unhoused population is the state’s largest, will start the program in December; the rest of the state will follow next year.

Those in the first group — San Francisco, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Stanislaus, Glenn and Tuolumne counties — have had numerous questions to address, such as: 

• Who will find and serve respondents with their CARE Court petition if the respondent is unhoused?
• How can county courts make the paperwork-heavy petition process easy for family members?
• How many mental health treatment beds will counties need to add?
• Where will people live after completing the court-ordered plans?

The state estimates between 7,000 and 12,000 people will qualify. They needn’t be homeless to receive the services, though many who qualify are likely to be unhoused. The state’s homeless population on any given night last year topped 171,000. 

A UC San Francisco study of homelessness statewide this year found that more than a quarter of unhoused people had been hospitalized at any point in their lives for a mental health problem; the homeless services authority in Los Angeles has estimated a quarter of the city’s homeless adults has a severe mental illness. But CARE Court is targeted at an even narrower set of diagnoses and circumstances. 

So counties are also playing a careful game of “level-setting,” Bergman said, “about what this thing will actually be.”

Still, local officials see the program as an opportunity to get more people into mental health care who haven’t been treated, before their condition deteriorates to the point of being put in conservatorships. 

And the state’s Department of Health Care Services says it will be looking out for whether the program reduces emergency room visits, police encounters, short-term hospital stays and involuntary psychiatric holds — and whether it helps people find stable housing.

Managing Expectations

One major uncertainty counties face, officials say, is even knowing how many cases they’ll get. 

That’s in part because the law allows a wide range of people to petition for someone to be in CARE Court, including family members, roommates, health care providers, paramedics, hospital officials or homeless outreach workers.

But the list of actual conditions the program targets is narrow, limited to schizophrenia and related illnesses. 

That could disappoint those whose loved ones have other diagnoses — and create an unknown amount of work for counties if a flood of those family members file petitions. Behavioral health departments must evaluate each person if it’s not clear whether they qualify for the program.

San Diego County estimates it will get 1,000 petitions in the first year and establish court-ordered treatment plans for 250 people; the remainder likely will either not qualify or agree to services voluntarily, Bergmann said. Orange County expects about 1,400 petitions and anywhere from 400 to 600 treatment plans. 

Officials in Riverside County don’t even have an estimate, citing varying data there on the prevalence of schizophrenia in the unhoused population. 

“We really think it’s unknowable,” said Marcus Cannon, the county’s deputy behavioral health director.

Counties want the state to help them manage public expectations. Both Kelley and Cannon said they’ve heard from local leaders who have floated having city workers file petitions for a wide swath of unhoused residents, to get them indoors.

“What the public thinks CARE Court is and what it is are definitely two very different things,” said Michelle Doty Cabrera, director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association. 

In an emailed statement, state Department of Health Care Services spokesperson Sami Gallegos said that counties “are managing public relations among local elected officials and others” to spread the message about who the program is and isn’t for. 

After learning of the narrow eligibility criteria at a community meeting in August, Nancy Beltran considered her options.

Beltran, of Anaheim, said she lives with a family member whose psychotic condition caused him to hit another relative in 2020, landing him in the hospital against his will. She said he’s refused treatment and doesn’t believe he’s sick. Another psychotic episode earlier this year didn’t qualify him for hospitalization, she said, because the symptoms weren’t as severe. 

“I didn’t want it to get to that point,” she said. “I don’t want him to be incarcerated. I want it to be the least restrictive, least traumatic experience.”

She’s still not sure whether the program is for her family member, because they haven’t gotten a clear diagnosis, she said. 

Beltran said she also wishes the program could help a friend, who is already enrolled in therapy sessions for diagnosed schizophrenia, find a place to live. Her friend’s condition, she said, deteriorates because he is unhoused, but he remains on waiting lists for housing. But CARE Court, she was disappointed to learn at the meetings, is only for those with untreated schizophrenia. 

Threading a Needle

Everyone involved in CARE Court in Orange County — from the judge who would ultimately order treatment to the public defender who will represent respondents to the behavioral health officials responsible for finding, diagnosing and treating them — had the same message for the public: The program will be voluntary. 

Critics, however, contend that there’s no way a court process can be voluntary since at some point there is a judge’s order. By law, counties must try at least twice to persuade a respondent to accept treatment before a judge orders it. Even then, the treatment plan, which can include therapy, medication and housing, doesn’t come with much enforcement. Medication can be ordered, but not forcibly administered. 

Judge Ebrahim Baytieh speaks to community members about CARE Court at the Behavioral Health Training Center in Orange County on Aug. 17. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

Over the course of a year, respondents will attend court hearings to see whether they’re adhering to the treatment, and whether the county is providing it. Counties can be fined as much as $1,000 a day for not providing the care; if the person fails to complete treatment they could be considered for conservatorship. 

But county officials stressed that’s not the goal. 

“We have tried for 40 years in this wonderful country of ours to force people with mental illness” to be treated, Orange County Superior Court Judge Ebrahim Baytieh told family members at another community meeting, in a church in Cypress. “Study after study has found it doesn’t work. We all know there’s no magical answer. But we will be patient, and we will be persistent.”

Kelley’s department is training its workers and peer supporters — people who also have mental illness or have recovered who can help guide a respondent through CARE Court — in a well-regarded communication method called LEAP to persuade respondents to accept care. It will offer services to those in CARE Court under a “whatever it takes” approach, whether it’s a ride to the doctor’s office, help enrolling in food stamps, addiction treatment or temporary housing.

The task will take time.

At the community meetings, Kelley and her colleagues repeatedly described a pilot program she ran as behavioral health director in San Bernardino County. The program took referrals from family, police or other community members who wanted to prod those who were resistant into mental health treatment. 

The time it took for county workers using the LEAP method to persuade respondents to enter treatment varied, Kelley said. But on average, she said it took 20 visits if a respondent was housed — and 40 visits if they were unhoused. Visit times varied, from a few minutes to a whole day, so the whole process could take weeks or months, Kelley said.

The timetables set by law for CARE Court are much tighter. 

If counties initially determine a client won’t agree to treatment, they get 14 days to try again before the next court hearing. Kelley said the judges in her county are sympathetic toward those concerns, but not all counties will get such flexibility.

“I can’t do 40 face-to-face visits in 14 days,” she said. 

Civil rights advocates balked at the counties’ suggestion that any program involving the pressure of the judicial system, even a non-criminal court, could be voluntary. 

“If you’re trying to engage somebody, and there’s a petition that involves a court,” there’s less hope of building genuine trust, said Keris Myrick, a mental health advocate who lives with schizophrenia and a board member of Disability Rights California. 

The group is particularly concerned the court process could be ineffective or harmful among Black residents, who are overrepresented both in California’s homeless population and among people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Myrick, who is Black, said she has been subject to involuntary treatment, and described harrowing experiences during which she was handcuffed in the back of a police car or strapped down to a gurney for hours before a doctor visited. She said one thing that actually helped her recover was having a peer supporter who was also African American and related to her experiences, eventually persuading her to get treatment on her own terms. 

She later ran a peer support program in Los Angeles County and trained workers in the county mental health department. Myrick says the state needs to expand those services, as well as housing and social supports to help people live stable lives, without the threat of a judicial order.

Alex Barnard, a sociologist at New York University who has studied involuntary mental health treatment in California, is skeptical about whether the state can appease both civil libertarians and those who want more aggressive treatment. But he said the program’s mandate of a year of persistent engagement is promising. 

“If CARE Courts works, it will probably be because of that,” he said. “It creates some accountability on the provider to keep trying to work with somebody who might be very challenging, and elsewhere in the system would just have their file closed out.”

Long-Term Resources

Those implementation questions are among a list of other practical hurdles counties face for the program to be successful. 

There’s long-term funding. The first seven counties were given $26 million in one-time state grants to start the programs; some have estimated annual costs of the services themselves will far exceed those allotments. 

The state says most services will be covered by Medi-Cal or private insurance, and expects counties to submit reimbursement requests, including the costs of going to court or finding respondents. 

But the nationwide shortage of behavioral health workers has made it a challenge for some departments to hire. In San Diego County, Bergmann’s department plans to add 55 new staff, including 10 clinicians, for CARE Court. Only 35% have been hired so far, a spokesperson said.

And there’s housing and beds, which all agree is crucial to making treatment a success. 

Health officials believe most people who qualify for CARE Court will need a more intensive treatment placement in the beginning, while some may be able to be placed in residential facilities or their own apartments after being stabilized. 

But there are shortages across that spectrum. A 2021 Rand analysis found the state is short more than 4,700 psychiatric inpatient treatment beds and nearly 3,000 residential facility beds such as board-and-cares —long-term housing for people with severe mental illness and one option for respondents to live after they complete CARE Court. 

Included in last year’s state budget was nearly $1 billion in new funding for counties to expand temporary housing placements for those with mental illness, with priority given to people in CARE Court. 

Orange County and some others are using the grants to open new treatment beds. In San Diego, Bergmann’s department will use the money to pay for board-and-care placements. But significant new infrastructure will take years to complete. Over the past five years, Bergmann said, the county has lost a fifth of those residential facilities. 

“In the near term, those funds will help us help people with the fewest resources to compete more” for placements, he said. “It’s not going to all of a sudden create a net increase in infrastructure.”

Marisa Kendall contributed to this reporting.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters.

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Pueblo won’t have a “good grasp” on addressing homelessness until it figures out how to provide mental health treatment that could help stabilize people who are unhoused, Mayor Nick Gradisar said at a community forum earlier this month. 

Gradisar, speaking to community members who attended the forum, said that Pueblo isn’t “going to get a good grasp on the homeless situation in Pueblo at least until we figure out a way to provide mental health treatment that will get people stabilized.” 

Gradisar, before delivering that thought, was asked by an attendee what the city’s plan was to provide help for people who are homeless, particularly with the frigid winter months ahead. 

Gradisar responded by saying there are numerous agencies who offer services to people who are homeless and that it’s his plan for the city to contract with outside organizations to shelter the homeless this winter. He told The Chieftain it’s not his intent as mayor for the city to “get into the homelessness business” but rather provide assistance to agencies that are serving that population.

“The city doesn’t know how to deal with homeless people,” Gradisar said. “Our staff aren’t prepared to do that. There are organizations out there — that is their mission and that is what they do. They do it much better than the city ever could.”

Why improving mental health treatment is a focus for city, Gradisar

Gradisar said based on data he has reviewed, mental illness ranks as one of the top conditions affecting people in Pueblo who are homeless. He suspects that’s partially the case because the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo closed some of its beds during the COVID-19 pandemic and Parkview closed its 25-bed, in-patient adult psychiatric unit last year. 

In 2019, a Pueblo point-in-time count, which tabulated the number of people experiencing homelessness in Pueblo County, revealed nearly one-in-four respondents to the count’s survey reported having a serious mental illness. 

As of Aug. 14, results from Pueblo’s latest point-in-time count, completed earlier this year, had not yet been released. Some local homeless advocates suspect the number of Pueblo’s homeless has grown since that count tallied at least 500 of them in 2019. Pueblo Triple Arm last year estimated there were 700 to 800 people who were homeless in Pueblo. 

“We’ve got to figure out a way to deliver mental health services to those homeless who are afflicted with this mental health disorder,” Gradisar told The Chieftain. “Otherwise, all the housing in the world won’t make a difference.” 

Gradisar last week attended meetings in California on how to address mental health and homelessness. He said he planned to “bring back new ideas and proven research for intervention, services and overall health” in Pueblo. 

Health Solutions is one of a few local agencies that can provide mental health services for people who are homeless. Local homeless advocates have directed some among that population to certain agencies and mental health services, but have acknowledged how receiving treatment for it isn’t always linear, whether that’s because they don’t have the required documents or they experience lengthy wait times. 

More:Pueblo nonprofit seeks to help homeless at new wellness center

Some organizations, such as Crazy Faith Street Ministry and Pueblo Rescue Mission, are exploring opportunities where they’d be able to offer mental health services under the same roof of a homeless shelter. The Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association plans to offer an access point to behavioral health providers for unhoused people when it opens its planned wellness center.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

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The year was 1972. Denny Crum scouted the best talent for what would become a nationally honored men’s basketball program for the University of Louisville. Sitting with the Southern Indiana high school senior and his working class parents at their dining table, Coach Crum made the offer: full tuition, books, room and board if the good looking, popular, intelligent, gifted basketball handler would commit to play for the Cardinals. The deal was signed on the spot.

Flash forward 30 years. That same hoops star sits in a jail weaving little cotton crosses from strands of yarn pulled from socks he might have worn on the court in Freedom Hall. He is addicted to alcohol and whatever else he can get to make sense of and calm his disconnected feelings and thoughts. Driving into the oncoming traffic months before was but one of many high risk, near fatal actions that landed him in the sterile, cold cell he now calls home.

Who does a new jail serve?

Louisville is faced with a $400 million question: build a spanking new jail or not. Before rushing to erect new cages for our fellow Louisvillians accused of lawbreaking, we would be wise to pause and ask serious questions about who we serve and who is harmed by erecting a fortress to protect us from the broken souls we fear. Are our mentally ill and addicted brothers and sisters best served by living in jail cells? Are we?

For years, beginning in the 1960’s, Kentucky was a national leader in community mental health. Across the commonwealth we had well-managed local professionals available for assessment, therapy and medication for the mentally ill and addicted.

As the decades rolled on, policy makers took these locally managed centers for granted and slowly flattened funding with devastating results. At the same time state mental hospitals placed patients back into the community with limited, if any, wrap around support to help navigate their day-to-day living. These policies resulted in thousands of unhoused, broken human beings living fragile, dark lives on our streets, along our highways, in hidden coves and abandoned buildings. Their cardboard signs, dog-eared and rain-stained, beg us for help on street corner after street corner.

When some of these fragile souls are arrested they can get free housing. But not the housing they need. They end up in our city’s understaffed, poorly designed, overcrowded, life threatening jail.

Our winner-take-all dysfunctional capitalist culture, with limited resources devoted to mental health and addiction treatments, easily discards human beings wrestling with inner demons. We don’t want to look at them as their sorry eyes meet ours at the stoplight. We turn away from the soon-to-be bulldozed camps along sidewalks downtown, under the overpasses and in the ditches along the interstates.

Let’s get rid of this ugliness.

If they break the law lock them up out of sight. No matter the cost. We don’t want to deal with them. Anyone for another round of golf at the country club? How about that new menu at the top cuisine spot in the ‘burbs?

But before we turn to our self-comforting ways of dealing with life’s uncomfortable darknesses, we would do well to realize the number of our brothers and sisters living these desperate lives will grow and grow.

Unless we muster our best minds, the minds of those who are enlightened, compassionate and skilled at tackling our toughest civic problems, this crisis will worsen.

Spending $400 million to build a better cage doesn’t address these issues. It just temporarily hides the problem at great monetary and societal cost.

That star basketball player eventually got out of jail. I hold one of the little cotton crosses he made while there. He never got the right treatment he desperately needed for his mental illness and addictions.

He died alone in a rooming house far away, dozens of empty booze bottles under his bed, a syringe on the dresser. This after a life of mental agony, begging on the streets, a series of arrests, month after month in jail cells.

I mourn my brother Jeff every day.

Jim Wayne served 28 years in the Kentucky House of Representatives from Jefferson County. He is the founder of the Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy at Loyola University Chicago, a practicing clinical social worker in Louisville, and author of the award-winning novel, The Unfinished Man.

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A counselor works with a patient at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center in Avondale. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

A patient uses a fidget spinner at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center in Avondale. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

PHOENIX – Valleywise Health is opening a second First Episode Center, an outpatient behavioral health center for young adults experiencing their first serious mental health episode.

It can’t come soon enough, health professionals say.

There is a dire need for programs that address mental health in young adults not just in Maricopa County but across the country, said Dr. Aris Mosley, a psychiatrist and medical director of the Valleywise Health First Episode Center in Avondale.

“When you have someone who has a brain health condition such as schizophrenia, you want to catch it early,” she said.

Arizona youth ranked 49th in the 2022 edition of Mental Health America’s annual report on the state of mental health in America. States with low rankings had a higher prevalence of mental illness such as depression, substance use disorder or some other emotional disturbance, as well as a lower rate of access to care.

“We want people to be able to access the service near where they live,” said Dr. Alicia Cowdrey, Valleywise’s outpatient medical director of behavioral health services, in discussing the First Episode Center’s new location in Mesa. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Dr. Alicia Cowdrey, Valleywise’s outpatient medical director of behavioral health services, estimated that the community needs 14 more facilities similar to the First Episode Center to meet the current prevalence of young people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia in Maricopa County.

Behavioral health experts say early treatment for young adults who have had a psychotic incident can be the difference between having a productive life and one spent in and out of hospitals and psychiatric treatment facilities. Early intervention also can take some pressure off understaffed inpatient psychiatric hospitals.

About 100,000 young people experience psychosis each year in the U.S, according to the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They say a person could be experiencing psychosis if they have delusions, hallucinations, incoherent, confused or inappropriate speech or behavior.

“Any time we have any sort of insult to the brain, it’s going to cause it to develop differently,” Cowdrey said. “We always want to intervene early with psychosis, and every person is different. It typically presents in young adults … but we always want to intervene early so that we can ensure that we can protect the brain.”

Cowdrey likened it to treating a broken arm. “If you went straight to the emergency room and got treatment, you are going to have a better outcome than if you were to wait a year or three years to get treatment. It’s not going to go back together quite as well.”

A patient decompresses with a computer game at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center in Avondale. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Research published in 2018 in JAMA Psychiatry concluded that the early intervention approach for psychosis can improve outcomes. An analysis of 10 randomized controlled trials compared treatment at centers for 2,176 patients with first episode psychosis over two years. The ones in early intervention programs had fewer hospitalizations, were more involved in school or work and were more engaged in treatment than those who received traditional care.

Valleywise’s First Episode team is comprised of a clinical coordinator, medical assistant, nurse, psychiatrist, recovery coach, a school and employment specialist, three team specialists, a registrar and program assistant and two front office staff members. Each client also is assigned a peer support specialist who has had a similar experience in terms of medication and possibly hospitalization and may be able to connect with the individual on a deeper level than the rest of the team..

Since psychosis is typically found more often in young adults, Mosley said, the center provides individual and family support, education and treatment as quickly as possible because the potential damage done to the brain heightens the longer the condition goes untreated.

The center, which treats young adults ages 15 to 25, opened in 2017 in Phoenix and relocated to Avondale the following year. Six years later, the facility is at full capacity with 89 patients. The second location in Mesa received its licensing June 27 and is expected to open in August.

Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center staff enjoys a game of basketball with patients at their fall festival. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Understanding psychosis

Psychosis and its connection to schizophrenia is often misunderstood. Cowdrey said psychosis occurs when a person has elevated levels of dopamine in the brain. The high dopamine level can alter a person’s perception of reality, she said.

Typically, “people might be seeing or hearing things that other people don’t see,” she said. “They might also become paranoid and perceive that things around them are different than how they are. Essentially, the brain is perceiving reality as different, so voices, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia can be common.”

The altered perceptions can cause inflammation in the brain, which can decrease cognition, Cowdrey said.

The initial psychotic episode is what Mosley called the “first break,” adding that many times that phase appears in the form of a mood disorder such as depression. It’s crucial to intervene early, she said, because the combination of dopamine levels and altered perceptions can cause the brain to develop differently, making it harder to treat later.

“It’s an incredibly alarming experience for people to have, as you can imagine,” Mosley said. “If you’re experiencing the world in one way that everyone around you isn’t, it’s pretty uncomfortable.”

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is one of the most common causes of psychosis, and it tends to affect more males than females. According to an article from Harvard Medical School, psychosis affects three out of 100 people in their lifetime, but only one out of 100 people will be diagnosed with schizophrenia.

An individual experiencing schizophrenia has experienced symptoms for a period of time that’s notably longer than psychosis, Cowdrey said.

“If we were to look out the window, most likely … everyone would see a blue sky. But if I had schizophrenia, and I’m looking out the window, my brain might be telling me that the sky is red. There’s nothing that you’re going to be able to do to convince me that the sky’s not red because my brain is telling me that it’s red,” Mosley said.

Patients at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center celebrate at their fall festival. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Treatment at First Episode

The majority of those treated at the outpatient center are referred from hospitals. Each person has an individual program that could include medication, one-on-one therapy and group sessions.

When a person begins treatment at a clinic for brain health conditions or disorders, they typically will see their psychiatrist once a month, Mosley said. She sees her patients once a week during their first month of treatment.

“That allows me to get to know the young person on a better level instead of letting so much time go,” she said. “If I see you once a week, I’m also going to be able to recognize if there are any side effects or difficulties with the medication. I’m going to be able to get those medications under better control and get them optimized more appropriately and quicker for the individual.”

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Medication typically plays a role in treatment and that could be a pill or an injectable, Cowdrey said. Antipsychotic medications will help reduce the dopamine level in the brain, she said, adding that young people often need low doses to keep symptoms under control.

Valleywise Health provides care for Maricopa County’s public health care system and is the primary provider of inpatient psychiatric beds for Maricopa County residents who have been court-ordered to get mental health care. Valleywise hopes to change the stigma around psychosis and schizophrenia, as 43.8 million adults experience mental illness each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The Mental Health Foundations reports that 90% of people with mental health problems say stigma and discrimination play a negative role in their lives.

Cowdrey said the Valleywise approach can “show people that there’s hope that, if they’re diagnosed with a brain health condition, they can get back on track with their life.”

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Recognizing higher rates of Black infant mortality in California, the Perinatal Equity Initiative, or PEI, was launched in 2018 to address causes of this disparity and look at best practices. Under the PEI, San Bernardino Fatherhood, a nonprofit based in Highland, was contracted by the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health to provide fatherhood services. Working with the fathers and partners of pregnant and parenting African American women with a child under a year old, the organization aims to assist in the elimination of Black infant mortality.

Recognized by the state as an impactful intervention, the organization’s 24/7 Dad program, educates men on the tools, behaviors and attitudes needed for fathers to help their children thrive. The program provides 12 group sessions that each last two hours. Participants explore their family history and experiences with fatherhood and then learn the characteristics of a 24/7 Dad. Characteristics include self-awareness, self-care, fathering, parenting and relationship skills. Participants are also given guidance on maintaining a positive co-parenting relationship with their child’s mother. The next 24/7 Dad program will be offered at the end of July at a location that has not yet been announced.

“We help them to understand that when they are a good man, that rolls over into being a father,” said Ryan Berryman, the organization’s executive director. “When they support the mom, they are supporting their child who is their future and their legacy.”

New and expecting dads watch a short video. (Courtesy of San Bernardino Fatherhood)

San Bernardino Fatherhood offers multiple programs including an “Understanding Dad” program over eight sessions, which raises mothers’ awareness of the importance of a father’s involvement in a child’s life.

The organization’s Boot Camp for New Dads is a one-day, three-hour workshop for new and expecting dads. The Boot Camp involves veteran fathers who share their experience and encourage rookie dads. New fathers are encouraged to ask any and all question that they have concerns about in a supportive environment. New dads may learn about supporting new moms, breast feeding, changing diapers, safety and many other topics. The program is made possible in part by a grant from the IE Black Equity Fund through the Inland Empire Community Foundation.

The organization also works to connect fathers to the community and to pay forward the support they are given. Fathers are encouraged to volunteer at schools their children attend and to volunteer in their communities, becoming positive role models.

Fathers are also encouraged to participate with their families at events hosted by San Bernardino Fatherhood throughout the year. Events include the annual Daddy Daughter Dance, which this year was attended by more than 300 people. Additional activities have included Inland Empire 66ers baseball games, jazz concerts and a San Bernardino Raceway family event.

“This creates stronger families and healthy communities,” Berryman said. “There is a lot of research showing that when fathers are involved, kids do better in school, have fewer behavioral problems and infant mortalities decrease. There are so many positives in the community when fathers do well.”

There are very few programs available for fathers who need support to overcome a family history of absent fathers and poor parenting, according to Berryman. He believes that the program gives hope to men who want secure and strong families. He also feels that strong positive fatherhood leads to stronger communities with less crime and violence.

“We want people to recognize the importance of fathers and not give up on them,” Berryman said. “We have a lot of good men out there and fathers who love their children.”

Information: https://sbfatherhood.com/ or 909-567-9508

Inland Empire Community Foundation works to strengthen Inland Southern California through philanthropy.

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At the University of Minnesota Morris, psychology faculty have known for some time about the severe shortage of addiction treatment professionals in rural parts of the state. This year, they’ve developed a way to help address that problem by creating a new program designed to train and prepare students to sit for the state’s licensed alcohol and drug counselor (LADC) exam upon graduation. 

This new pre-LADC program, developed in consultation with Don Jarvinen, chemical dependency certificate program coordinator at Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College, will focus on training students interested in serving diverse and rural communities. 

Heather Peters

Heather Peters, associate professor of psychology at University of Minnesota Morris, heads the program with her colleague, associate professor Kerry Michael. Peters said that many of the program’s graduates will work in rural communities, providing addiction counseling and support for individuals in a range of organizations, including treatment centers, hospitals and correctional facilities.  

It wasn’t a tough sell to get the university’s administration interested in launching the program, Peters said. They’d already been aware of the need statewide for more mental health professionals, and, she added: “When the pandemic hit, the need for mental health support became even greater. The administration said, ‘Now is the time. We want to help solve the problem in Minnesota.’” 

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In rural parts of the state, the shortage of LADCs is stark. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, in the Twin Cities, there are 2,786 residents for every 1 LADC. In rural areas, the number is 13,576 residents to every 1 LADC. And the numbers aren’t any better when it comes to ethnic diversity: In 2019, the Minnesota Department of Health reported that 87% of all LADCs in the state were white. 

Morris seems perfectly suited to help fill some of these care gaps. A significant number of the school’s students — 37.8% — come from Greater Minnesota, and Morris’ student body is, Peters said, “Forty-six percent or so BIPOC — Native American or Asian American or African American or international students. The diversity on our campus is very high.”  

Before the new program was announced, Peters explained that Morris students interested in becoming LADCs needed to complete their four-year psychology degree at the university, then go to a two-year school to take additional classes and complete the required 880 practicum, or internship, hours, at outside mental or chemical health agencies. The new pre-LADC program will make the path to licensure smoother and shorter.  

Peters said that student interest in the new program, which was approved by the state this spring, is strong. “We have 12 students at Morris who are interested already,” she said. “We did a soft rollout and they stepped forward right away.” She explained that the dozen students in the program started taking their required classes at the start of the academic year, and a few of them will begin their practicum hours next summer. 

“The students will now take all the courses with us,” Peters said. To arrange the practicum hours, she explained, “We will be partnering with agencies across the state. I will be reaching out to the providers in those areas to create an agreement with us and the university. They will mostly be treatment centers. That’s where students will have hands-on experience.” 

Partnership creates new opportunities

In this changing world, Peters said that the ethnic and racial diversity on Morris’ campus is an advantage. 

“About a third of our students are Native American,” she explained, adding that the school has official status as a Native American-serving non-tribal institution (NASNTI). “There’s a huge need within rural and Indigenous communities for LADCs. So it makes sense for us to start a program like this.”  And Morris graduates, no matter what their cultural or ethnic background, have a strong understanding of the importance of diversity in all of its forms, she added: “We have tried to infuse multicultural issues throughout our curriculum. In psychology, we try to develop the cultural sensitivity of all of our students.” 

The partnership with Jarvinen and Fond Du Lac, which has been built over years, has been helpful in shaping Morris’ Pre-LADC option. “We talked to Don to gain his guidance as we were creating our program,” Peters said. 

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In the not-so-distant past, LADC licensure could be earned with a two-year degree. Then, the state of Minnesota changed the education requirement to a four-year degree. Those holding two-year LADC certificates are allowed to practice with their certificate for five years, but after that will need to earn a four-year degree for their license to remain valid. 

Together, Jarvinen, Michael and Peters developed a new pathway program so Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College LADC students can now earn their four-year degree at Morris. Peters said that the university’s NASANTI status, combined with their “long-term, meaningful, mutually beneficial relationship with our tribal partners” helped the group earn a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to make the project possible.  

“We created an online psychology program at Morris,” Peters said. “We built an agreement with Fond Du Lac where their LADC students are going to be able to enroll in our online program so that they can get their four-year degree.” 

This partnership is unique in the state and should help to further boost the number of LADCs of color, Peters said. 

“I think we are innovative in regards to how we partner with tribal institutions, really doing it as a reciprocal relationship to make whatever we do a win-win situation for both parties involved,” she said. “That is a novel approach.”  While most non-native institutions have not always had equitable partnerships with tribal institutions, the Morris-Fond Du Lac partnership has a long history, Peters added: “I think it is important that the focus is on the relationship and maintaining it over years. That’s the kind of meaningful partnership we want to foster.” 

Helping at home

Krista Gloppin came to Morris’ pre-LADC program through a circuitous route. Growing up, she knew relatives who struggled with addiction, and she never really knew how to help.

Krista Gloppin

“There is some alcohol and substance use history in my family,” Gloppin said. “That’s been hard to watch.” The best way to support these relatives never felt clear, she explained: “There is no textbook that says, ‘This is the one way to help somebody through.’ It is difficult to be a loved one of somebody going through that.” 

When Gloppin, 37, decided to finish her college degree, it made sense to enroll at Morris. She already lived in town with her husband and two elementary school-aged children, and she wanted to build a career in social services. 

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Gloppin’s original plan was to earn a criminal justice major with a psychology minor. Then she met with Peters, who told her about the new pre-LADC program. “I didn’t know about it,” Gloppin  said. “It wasn’t on my radar. But Heather is my adviser. She explained that it was offered to all students. It just interested me.” 

The more Gloppin learned about the program, it the more she felt like earning her LADC license could be a perfect fit for her interests — and her career. “I always knew I wanted to do something in a helping capacity,” she said. “This felt like a good way to accomplish that. If I was going to be able do it while doing the coursework here at Morris it worked out for me.” 

It also helped to know that LADCs are in high demand statewide and that she shouldn’t have a hard time finding a job once she completed the program. “It is predicted to be one of the largest needs coming up through human services,” Gloppin said. “That reinforced my decision.”  

Gloppin, who is Native American, is also committed to living and working in Greater Minnesota. “I would hope to find a job within that capacity in this area,” she said. “We’re staying in Morris.” 

With the decision made to join the pre-LADC program, Gloppin is now focused on completing her coursework and looking forward to diving into her practicum next year that she hopes will include working in a local agency that supports clients with substance use disorder. 

Gloppin said it feels like being an LADC is a role she’s been prepping for for most of her life, and she can’t wait to take the next step.  

“I think my parents influenced me,” she said. “They looked out for people who could use help or compassion. That’s always been the kind of jobs I’ve held. I’ve been most happy in roles where I am supporting people in the community. It has always been on my mind and on my heart. I can’t wait to make that my career.”  

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Waldron-Kuhn

By Annika Morschauser

Contributing Writer

NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – Poor mental health has been on the rise in students, and CESA 7 is fighting the increase by hosting programs to give adults that work with youth the tools to help.

Two free programs are being held this summer.

From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on July 25-26, the Youth Mental Health First Aid program will take place which helps adults who work with teens to identify mental health distress, give the student support and guide them to mental health services.

On Aug. 8, the “Suicide Prevention Training QPR: Question, Persuade and Refer” program will have two sessions — one noon -2 p.m. and the other from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

This program will educate participants in how to question, persuade and refer someone who is showing signs of having suicidal thoughts.

The program involves role-plays for immediate practice of the skills they’ll learn.

The CESA-7 Director of College, Career and Life Readiness Marcia Waldron-Kuhn works with mental health programming and support.

She explained how mental health is being recognized, what’s causing the increase and how it’s being prevented and treated.

There is a combination of many different factors that are causing this increase in poor mental health.

COVID-19 and social media are just a couple of factors as Waldron-Kuhn pointed out, “These students never get to shut off, so they’re constantly in contact with one another.”

This could be a cause, but there is no solid evidence to support that it directly impacts mental health.

The CDC provides data on the causes as the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) tracks the percentage of students across the United States that answer yes or no to any given prompt such as if they’ve been bullied.

This data, which is open to the public, is then used by schools to see where there needs to be a change to bring the percentages down as they’ve been on the rise for the last couple of years.

“The action step is getting people prepared and knowledgeable on how to have those courageous conversations with one another to reduce that stigma in asking for help and support and again getting that idea of we’re all in this together,” Waldron-Kuhn said.

One action taking place is encouraging teens to have positive protective factors.

A protective factor which would be an extracurricular activity or having a trusting relationship with at least one adult helps that student to be less likely to fall into poor coping techniques if their mental health declines.

It’s also helpful to recognize that “one person’s coping skills can be another person’s stress,” as Waldron-Kuhn described.

For example, being extremely busy and involved in school activities can be helpful for one student but can be extremely stressful for another student.

Teens don’t always recognize what coping skills are best for them, which is one topic that is covered by the different programs that are being offered.

“Hope Squad” and “Sources of Strength” are programs within many of the schools in the district that are there to support students, prevent suicide and reduce the stigma behind mental health.

Along with that, more schools are encouraging teachers and staff to attend training sessions such as the ones being offered this summer.

In addition to school programming, local and state legislators have recognized the need to support mental health and suicide prevention programs like these in schools, as they’ve allowed room in the budget to support them financially, as Waldron-Kuhn said that time and money are the major factors behind mental health programming.

For example, Kids Get Ahead funding by the state government is used by school districts to fund their mental health programming such as “Hope Squad”, “Sources of Strength” and other programs and services.

Waldron-Kuhn explained, “So that’s really the work that we’re trying to do, again, reducing the barriers for training, getting that training to be free and open to the community and really trying to get as many people out there to be able to advocate and support student mental health as well as adult mental health.”

She added that other programs are available, such as Trauma Sensitive Schools, which are aware of Adverse Child Experiences (ACE) that can affect children later in life if not addressed and treated.

She also mentioned restorative practices that build a community of support and reduce stigma surrounding mental health.

In addition to these, the “Behavior and Mental Health Summit” for educators is coming up in August and will be held at Sheboygan Falls High School.

As a reminder from Waldron-Kuhn, “You don’t know who’s struggling. You just need to be kind and supportive.”

CESA 7 is a Cooperative Educational Service Agency created by the state legislature to connect schools in the greater northeast peninsula area of the state, including Brown and Kewaunee counties.

For more information, visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TrIRmuUVzFVOR112jX4ZX1eTmnegKJukXr3pm8PXW44/edit  or https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d7OlfYF_1hybVI0x8YM1Qj1pPTV3vDnHNBlHdYKklhY/edit.

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