The pandemic clarified one thing for all of us in Nevada: mental health care here is severely lacking.
We saw that in the news, with people going nuts at school board meetings, at schools and just everywhere. And UNLV reported recently that Nevada ranked dead last in the U.S. for access to mental health care.
At the same time, we have one of the highest rates of mental illness in the country. And WalletHub ranks us as number one for drug health issues and rehab.
When government isn’t enough to move the needle in a positive direction, can nonprofits in the state fill that void?
September is also National Recovery Month and National Suicide Prevention Month. What’s being done to expand access to mental health and addiction care in Nevada?
WHAT LOCAL NON-PROFITS CAN DO AND THE POWER OF PEER SUPPORT
When it comes to mental health resources like therapy or counseling, not only is it not as available in Nevada as it is in other states, but it's very expensive as well. The cost of a single session with a licensed therapist can be anywhere from 150-200 dollars per session. Many of them also don't take insurance because the compensation they receive from it isn't worth it; not to mention the process can be burdensome to go through. But that leaves those that need mental health resources searching for other ways to get help. Whether they need clinical or support help, local non-profits can provide some relief.
Trinh Dang is the executive director of the Southern Nevada Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) non-profit, and her organization directs those looking for clinical mental health care to organizations that do it for low or no cost at all.
"We have three partners in our community that we work very closely with," said Dang. "When folks do come to us seeking clinical help, or we find that they may need additional support to what we're able to provide, we refer them out to Miracle Minds Therapy, Solutions of Change, or UNLV. They all staff clinical providers, and they also have grant funding that may be able to offer youth and families either low cost or no cost services."
Additionally, since NAMI focuses solely on support help rather than clinical help, they provide what they call peer support, which is where people who have gone or are going through mental health issues sit down and talk to each other. It's not technically therapy, but it can be considered therapeutic as some would say.
"It's a space where folks can come in: check in with each other, share how their weeks going, what's on their mind and what the challenges are," said Dang. "Then we use something called group wisdom, where other folks may say 'You know what? Well, I've been through something similar. Here's something that helped open up a pathway or some doors with different perspectives."
Some may ask the question though, does this method of peer support work?
Sean O'Donnell, executive director of the local substance abuse non-profit Foundation for Recovery says it definitely does.
"We've been organizing and creating mutual aid networks to support one another for years," said O'Donnell. "Peer support originally started in hospitals in France because physicians noticed the benefits to their patients were so much better when current patients were connecting with patients who had successfully recovered. And this doesn't only exist in the behavioral healthcare space, we see this with cancer survivors connecting with people who are newly diagnosed or going through it. We see this with seasoned parents connecting with expecting mothers for the first time. There's so much efficacy and research behind the value of this and social models of recovery, and we need more of that."
WHAT ABOUT RURAL NEVADA?
All the issues Southern Nevada deals with when it comes to mental health and substance abuse resources are even worse in Northern Nevada. The scarcity of locations that offer those resources and overworked staff at resource locations that are there are only a couple of the strains that face rural Nevada.
Josh Cabral, executive director of substance abuse and mental health non-profit, Rural Nevada Counseling in Lyon County, says that traveling long distances for resources can often be a requirement for residents to get the help they need.
"I have four different offices throughout Lyon County, and there still maybe be somebody that lives 50 miles from the closest location that doesn't have a car to get there," said Cabral. "We have counties that are close to us that don't have any providers at all, so we'll provide services to folks who live outside of our county as well."
Additionally, Cabral thinks rural communities face a heavy stigma surrounding mental health and substance abuse from urban populations; where it's assumed that rural communities are just happy go-lucky and stress-free. On the contrary, Cabral says they deal with all the same problems urban populations do, but it might be even worse because sometimes the stigma comes from their own neighbors.
"A lot of people don't really want to acknowledge that mental health or addiction is a thing, or if they do acknowledge that it's a thing, it's some sort of moral deficiency versus chronic, treatable, lifelong processes," said Cabral. "Or, 'Oh, you have a depression? Just get out of bed and go live your life.' And I think that the stigma that I'm referring to has gotten less and less over time, but I think the expectation to just pull themselves out of it and be better is certainly still there. And then you have the folks that, you know, it's not uncommon for everybody to know everybody, and not everybody wants people to know their business. If somebody's having struggles with their husband, wife, or their kids are acting out in school or whatnot, it's not necessarily something that people want to go out and advertise."
WHAT ELSE CAN BE DONE?
Not only are non-profits filling some of the void that local and state governments aren't filling, but citizens themselves can partake in political action to enact change.
O'Donnell from Foundation for Recovery suggests that Nevadans attend public behavioral health policy meetings if they want to make a difference.
"There are five public behavioral health policy boards that exist and they oversee various regions of the state," said O'Donnell. "They are governor appointed members, but the members of the public are always welcome to come to those meetings and share their concerns. What's unique about those behavioral health policy boards is each one automatically gets a bill draft request each legislative session. So it's different than, for example, the Foundation for Recovery going at it alone, trying to get one of our lawmakers to champion a bill. Instead, we can go through the policy boards, because we know they're automatically going to get a bill and we can make our suggestions on what policy changes need to happen."
MORE INFORMATION
National Alliance on Mental Illness - Nevada
Foundation For Recovery
Rural Nevada Counseling
FindTreatment.gov
988 Lifeline
Recovery Day of Service, Sept. 30
Mobilize Recovery Las Vegas, Oct. 6
NAMIWalks Nevada, Oct. 7
Clinical mental health nonprofits that provide therapy at low or no cost:
Solutions of Change
Miracle Minds Therapy
UNLV POWER – A Program for Early Bipolar
UNLV CHARGE UP – Early Intervention Program for Clinical High Risk
Guests: Trinh Dang, executive director, Nevada chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness; Sean O’Donnell, executive director, Foundation for Recovery; Josh Cabral, executive director, Rural Nevada Counseling
