News

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously to approve bipartisan legislation to expand mental health care for rural veterans. The legislation now heads to the desk of President Biden for his signature. The Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans’ Mental Health Act, named in memory of Iowa veteran Brandon Ketchum, establishes new Rural Access Network for Growth Enhancement (RANGE) programs through the Department of Veteran Affairs and supports additional research on rural veteran mental health care needs.

According to the VA, at least one in five veterans return from combat with at least one serious mental health condition, yet 85% of rural residents live in a Mental Health Care Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA).

“I can think of no better way to honor the memory and service of Iowa veteran Brandon Ketchum, who lost his own battle with PTSD after not getting the care he needed when he returned home, than Congress approving legislation named in his honor to secure better care for our veterans,” says Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, a lead sponsor of the bill. “When our veterans return home, the care they receive shouldn’t be determined by their zip code. The bipartisan legislation now headed to the President’s desk will help ensure veterans in our rural areas get the support they need.”

To address the growing number of mental health needs of returning veterans, the VA developed RANGE programs, which provide a small team of specialists to meet the needs of rural veterans with serious mental health and daily living issues. In addition to establishing three new veteran mental health programs, the new legislation bill will direct the Government Accountability Office to study how the VA can improve mental health care for rural veterans to enable better response in the future for veterans like Sgt. Ketchum who request treatment.

Read more at FarmProgress.com.

Millions of dollars’ worth of new housing vouchers are becoming available on Oahu just as a statewide ban on COVID-19- related evictions is scheduled to end in August, leading to fears that a new generation of families is about to become homeless. So a hui of government officials and nonprofit agencies are scrambling to convince more landlords to take advantage of new federal funding to house people already homeless across Oahu and those who are soon to become homeless.

A new program called Oahu Housing Now began placing homeless clients into market-rate rental units in April using nearly $11 million in new federal COVID-19 funds. The program operates similarly to the existing state and county Housing First programs. Landlords are guaranteed rent and utility payments for the life of a lease, repairs for damage, and access to case managers for any issues with clients.

Landlords who might need even more convincing to house Oahu Housing Now clients could possibly receive 13 months of rent for a one-year lease, said Laura Thielen, executive director of Partners in Care, which oversees Oahu Housing Now.

But while Housing First is designed for Hawaii’s most chronically and severe homeless, including those with mental health and substance abuse issues, Oahu Housing Now targets homeless clients “who could be working and newly homeless,” said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator. “This program targets that layer below, the newly homeless who could be working on getting employment.”

Read more at StarAdvertiser.com.

A local Latino director is taking action to break the stigma surrounding mental health in Hispanic communities. “Rompiendo Olas,” or “Breaking Waves”, is a five-minute film in Spanish produced and directed by local Latino filmmaker Adan Avalos. He took on the project to shed light on a subject he says the Hispanic community doesn’t open up about often.

“I wanted to tell that story. I wanted to talk about mental health and kind of remove that stigma and negativity and say, ‘hey, this is okay. This is a part of our lives,'” said Avalos. Avalos says his storytelling comes from personal experience and centers around a young migrant worker who fights an internal battle he’s had growing up in a Latino household.

“I saw it in my family, but again we never talked about it. If you are feeling down or depressed, people say just shake it off. They say it’s just you.”

Avalos believes a lot of it has to do with the culture and wants people to know, it doesn’t always have to be that way.

“There is support for mental health, so don’t suffer in the dark. Go out there and talk to people about it. Let’s remove that stigma around mental health,” he said.

Read more at ABC30.com.

In addition to concerns for physical safety, Asian Americans are saying rising incidents of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic are having a lasting impact on their mental health, well-being, and future careers. Some 42% of Asian Americans say experiencing racial discrimination has the biggest impact on their mental health, according to a survey of more than 2,000 people of all races, including 297 Asian Americans who experienced a hate incident. In the survey, conducted in April by Harris Poll on behalf of the educational campaign Girl Up, the same share of respondents said anti-Asian discrimination had the strongest impact on their career opportunities.

The survey data uncovers how discrimination, reports of which have increased during the pandemic but which occurs systemically, is impacting the livelihoods and futures of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in America, says Tawny Saez, director and cultural anthropologist at Harris Poll. “It shows the domino effect of discrimination. It’s not a one-and-done event — it has long-lasting impacts.”

Negative impact on mental health, friendships, and sense of self “creates an ecosystem of questioning yourself, which all impacts your mindset going into the workplace,” Saez says. That Asian Americans say racism is impacting their mental health is concerning given the racial demographic is among the least likely to report mental health issues and seek out professional help. Advocates say improving mental health access is key, as is bridging the cultural gap in a meaningful way, such as providing information and services in a range of Asian languages and physically locating services within communities.

“Having respected community leaders and members speak out about mental health issues as role models will also go a long way in making it acceptable to seek help,” says Sia Nowrojee, the senior director of global community at Girl Up. “The good news is that people, particularly young activists, are beginning to break the silence around mental health, including on the impact of racism on mental health.”

Read more at CNBC.com.

Dee LeBeau-Hein, founder of Swiftbird Consulting and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has worked in addiction for more than 20 years and provides consulting work for state, federal, and tribal programs in behavioral health, addiction, mental health, and Native American cultural awareness training. Her company offers a three-day training and webinars on cultural awareness of the area tribes in the Great Plains for state and local programs, which includes culture, customs and norms, along with understanding generational and historical trauma.

“They started seeing a correlation between similar assimilation and atrocities that happened to the Native American population in the early colonial period when Europeans came to America and started pushing their way west and our people were being exterminated,” she said. “Eventually we were put on reservations and forced to abide by European culture. Assimilation and cultural genocide all play a part in the historical and generational trauma.”

LeBeau-Hein states that addiction is a symptom of something more significant and is a way of coping with some of the traumatic events that happened in peoples’ lives, like sexual assault, abuse, neglect, low self-esteem, and more. The removal of ceremonial practices and assimilation resulted in significant, deep trauma for Native American tribes. When the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 was passed, the damage had already been done.

“Our people were dealing with various levels of trauma, sexual abuse happening by the government agents, and by priests and nuns in the boarding schools,” LeBeau-Hein said. “The men, their role as providers and protectors for our people, that was taken away when we were put on reservations. They were no longer able to go out and hunt, to provide for our people. Everything was brought in and they lost their way, some of our men lost their way.”

When alcohol was introduced to them, many people became alcoholics and it was used to cope with some of the events. These coping mechanisms, loss of traditional culture, and assimilation led to Native American homelessness becoming a national issue.

“A lot of our people have lost their way in where they belong,” she said. Some feel like they don’t belong on the reservation or in a city, so they’re adrift. Some find a way out, and they strive to honor and respect and encourage the homeless population and chronic users to find their way to recovery.

LeBeau-Hein states that the mental health field now isn’t culturally sensitive or relevant to the Native American culture, but it’s growing in its awareness.

Read more at RapidCityJournal.com.

In Cuyahoga County in 2020, there were 25 deaths by suicide from people 25 or younger, and nearly half of those people were Black, according to data from the Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County. That’s up from previous years, and there’s also been an increase in suicide attempts among young Black people, said Chardé Hollins, chair of the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Cuyahoga County.

“With COVID there is an additional disparity, an increase in isolation and stress,” Hollins said. During the pandemic, 51 percent more girls between the ages of 12 and 17 visited the emergency department because of suicide attempts, according to Hollins.

“So this was very alarming and concerning, and so we wanted to make sure that we were able to put out messaging to this population to decrease the stigma of mental health,” Hollins said.

Hollins’ organization and the ADAMHS Board are partnering with schools and ​​targeting young people ​and their families in specific zip codes for suicide prevention messages. The campaign is called “Life is Better with You Here.” The organizations will promote suicide prevention messaging on billboards, transit advertisements, print, radio, television, and online from June to September 2021. One of those digital spaces is on the Spotify app, which is used to stream music.

Hollins said there is stigma about getting help for mental health, especially in the Black community.

“That is another stigma within the Black community, in order to be strong you don’t talk about your feelings, you don’t need help and support,” Hollins said. The campaign aims to break down that barrier and teach people that mental health is physical health.

Read more at WKSU.org.