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For Robin Miyamoto, a clinical psychologist in urban Honolulu County, Hawaii, the past year marked the hardest she’s ever worked.

Telehealth, which she made use of during the COVID-19 pandemic, let her still reach clients in the absence of in-person visits. But she found it difficult to draw boundaries, as she and other providers agreed to offer weekend or late-night sessions with patients in need.

On top of that, she says, she’s had more patients asking for help than ever before.

“We’re seeing much higher rates of anxiety – both COVID-related but also finance-related, employment-related,” Miyamoto says. The Hawaii Psychological Association, of which Miyamoto is a past president, saw a 60% increase in applications for pro bono care during the pandemic due to the loss of insurance, she says.

“A lot of depression, isolation,” Miyamoto adds. “And then I have a huge number of adults requesting assessments for (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) because of work from home … people are questioning their ability to stay focused and pay attention.”

When it comes to mental health, Honolulu County is the country’s top performer, according to the 2021 U.S. News Healthiest Communities rankings. The annual project assesses nearly 3,000 counties and county-equivalents across the U.S. on dozens of metrics that show and shape health and well-being, in categories ranging from equity, housing, and the economy to population health, public safety, and food and nutrition.

But the pandemic has meant significant challenges for Hawaii when it comes to mental health – ones that providers are now working to meet through comprehensive care.

Read more at USNews.com.

Fifty years ago this summer, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs. Today, with the U.S. mired in a deadly opioid epidemic that did not abate during the coronavirus pandemic’s worst days, it is questionable whether anyone won the war.

Yet the loser is clear: Black and Latino Americans, their families and their communities. A key weapon was the imposition of mandatory minimums in prison sentencing. Decades later those harsh federal and state penalties led to an increase in the prison industrial complex that saw millions of people, primarily of color, locked up and shut out of the American dream.

An Associated Press review of federal and state incarceration data shows that, between 1975 and 2019, the U.S. prison population jumped from 240,593 to 1.43 million Americans. Among them, about 1 in 5 people were incarcerated with a drug offense listed as their most serious crime.

The racial disparities reveal the war’s uneven toll. Following the passage of stiffer penalties for crack cocaine and other drugs, the Black incarceration rate in America exploded from about 600 per 100,000 people in 1970 to 1,808 in 2000. In the same timespan, the rate for the Latino population grew from 208 per 100,000 people to 615, while the white incarceration rate grew from 103 per 100,000 people to 242.

The deleterious impacts of the drug war have, for years, drawn calls for reform and abolition from mostly left-leaning elected officials and social justice advocates. Many of them say that in order to begin to unwind or undo the war on drugs, all narcotics must be decriminalized or legalized, with science-based regulation.

Drug abuse prevention advocates, however, claim that broad drug legalization poses more risks to Americans than it would any benefits.

Read more at APNews.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. Yakama Nation Behavioral Health Services, has been selected as the Partner of the Month for September in honor of National Suicide Prevention Month and National Recovery Month.

Yakama Nation Behavioral Health Services, is a wellness center whose goal is to identify strengths of the individual, family, extended family, and the community while healing past traumas, resolution of current difficult situations and encourage building supportive healthy family relationships in Washington.

Some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

• Intake/Assessment That Includes Diagnoses;
• Treatment Planning;
• Safety Planning;
• Counseling Therapy with Qualified Staff and Social Services Professionals;
• Anger Management;
• Domestic Violence Perpetrator Treatment Program;
• Therapeutic Outreach for Students at Tribal School, Mount Adams School District, Toppenish School District, and Wapato School District;
• Special Projects Unit of Grants for Suicide Prevention;
• Mental Health Promotion Program;
• Healing Seasons Project; And
• Victim Resource Program.

Learn more about the Yakama Nation Behavioral Health Services and their belief to provide equitable behavioral health services to the Native American population in Washington.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) and National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED) National Facilitation Center cordially invite you to attend a webinar on developing a budget for grant applications. This opportunity intends to provide technical assistance to NNED members and minority-serving and under-resourced community-based organizations (CBOs).

The webinar will provide an overview of project budget development, explain the importance of an accurate project budget, introduce budget terminology, and offer tips and advice on cost estimates. The webinar will include a question and answer period and contact information for follow-up. Automated closed captioning will be available on the webinar platform. The event will also be shared on Facebook Live at fb.com/nned.net.

Please contact Perry Chan at Perry.Chan@samhsa.hhs.gov if you have any questions.

“Elevate CBOs” is an overarching policy-driven initiative at SAMHSA’s OBHE to build capacity, increase the visibility, and highlight the unique role of CBOs serving under-resourced communities in behavioral health.

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After lengthy argument in Alameda County Superior Court, veteran Jay Robert Soliven won consideration of his vet status and was released without bail to prepare for a treatment program with the Veterans Administration, probably through Veterans Court. Judge Colin Bowen acknowledged Soliven’s military service and mental health issues but raised concerns regarding public safety. It was explained that Soliven was going through crises during the time of the offense, as opposed to having a criminal history.

The defense emphasized the importance of ensuring that Soliven receives drug treatment and external support available to him through the VA, while the judge reiterated his preference to have some sort of mechanism in place to ensure that Soliven goes through the program.

After working out the logistics, Judge Bowen opted for a 14-day own recognizance (no bail) to East Oakland Recovery Center to ensure that Soliven would be prepared for transportation and initiation into the VA program.

As a condition of his release, Soliven is ordered to comply with all the directives of the program and representatives from the VA.

Read more at DavisVanguard.org.

Maui Behavioral Health Resources, Maui’s largest nonprofit provider of substance use and mental health treatment services, announces several new staffing positions and organizational changes. Organization leaders say the changes were implemented to “meet the rising need of substance abuse treatment and mental health services due to the pandemic.”

“These changes will strongly benefit our clients, as we have staff with excellent experience who can now better utilize their skills and expertise in their new roles,” said Jud Cunningham, CEO of MBHR. “During the pandemic, we saw where our staff shined the most, and we want to build on these strengths going forward.”

Maui Behavioral Health Resources is an umbrella organization of three nonprofit agencies: Aloha House, Mālama Family Recovery Center, and Maui Youth & Family Services. All three agencies seek to provide mental health and substance use disorder treatment to Maui residents.

After operating independently for many years, the three agencies merged in 2008 to share and maximize their expertise, reduce overhead costs and eliminate service duplication. Together, the three agencies provide services to nearly 8,000 individuals in the Maui community each year.

Read more at MauiNow.com.