News

A bill to establish a veteran suicide prevention pilot program passed unanimously through committee in the Colorado State Senate, laying the groundwork to further empower local organizations that serve veteran communities.

Senate President Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, a Marine Corps veteran, introduced the bill in late February as one way to address veteran suicide and suicidal ideation. It calls for the Colorado Department of Human Services to establish a five-year pilot program in El Paso County, the home of the Air Force Academy and the region in the state with the highest population of veterans. The program would partner with local nonprofits to offer “no-cost, stigma-free, confidential and effective” behavioral health care for veterans and their families.

The pilot program would create individualized treatment plans for conditions that can contribute to suicidal ideation, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, military sexual trauma, traumatic brain injury, and substance abuse. Identifying and treating those contributing factors is key.The pilot program would be a bottom-up approach that lifts up organizations that are already doing “tremendous” work in the community.

Read more at ThePuebloChieftain.com.

Communities of color face a burgeoning wave of mental health problems as a result of how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people interact and grieve, experts warn. “We’re about to have a mental health epidemic because of COVID,” says Vickie Mays, a professor of health policy and director of the UCLA Center on Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities. Mays said mood disorders, substance abuse and suicides are increasing in racial and ethnic communities in the United States, driven in part by the social isolation required to prevent spread of the coronavirus.

Urban communities are particularly susceptible to a resurgence in mood disorders and substance abuse, given that they’ve been subject to some of the worst waves of COVID-19 cases in the nation, said Dr. Allison Navis.

Separation distress, dysfunctional grief and post-traumatic stress are also interfering with the daily lives of many Americans who lost a loved one to COVID, according to a study published recently in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. “Existing research shows that grief from deaths during the pandemic was felt more acutely than that following both deaths before the pandemic and deaths from other natural causes,” says study author Lauren Breen.

Mays expects it will be down to social organizations in various communities to provide the bulk of the help people will need as a result of the pandemic.

Read more at USNews.com.

Hawaii state agencies fail to collect and track accurate data about Native Hawaiians and programs that are supposed to help them, according to a report released by Papa Ola Lokahi, a Native Hawaiian health advocacy organization, and the Hawaii Budget & Policy Center. Native Hawaiians face disproportionate impacts in numerous areas, including health and economics, according to the joint report. But data about the community is often obscure and lacks Native Hawaiian input, whether during the collection process or in determining how the data is used, the authors say.

The Hawaii Legislature was considering a resolution backed by the Office of Hawaiian affairs this year that would urge several public agencies, including county police departments, to release disaggregated data on Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders. The proposal also sought a task force to analyze and provide recommendations on how the state collects, processes, retains, and shares demographic data.

One of the chief complaints was that Native Hawaiians are often lumped together with Pacific Islanders and even Asians, which obscures the complex nuances, as well as the unique strengths and weaknesses of Hawaii’s Indigenous people.

The authors noted that Hawaii’s State Judiciary does not collect any ethnic or racial data. State programs funded to help Native Hawaiians also aren’t adequately tracked to see if funds are actually being used for that purpose, the report said. It also recommended that organizations seek the counsel of the Native Hawaiian community in developing programs for the community.

Read more at HonoluluCivilBeat.com.

Native American Connections (NAC) opened its newest behavioral health and supportive housing campus in Phoenix. The Patina Mountain Preserve Wellness Center and Dunlap Pointe Housing Community embraces the organization’s focus on health, housing and community.

“There is a homelessness crisis right now in Phoenix – and across the country. There’s also a community need for a caring and supportive response to substance use disorders. The colocation of Dunlap Pointe with Patina Mountain Preserve offers the opportunity to end someone’s homelessness while also providing easy access to help a resident with their substance use and behavioral health needs.” said Diane Yazzie Devine, CEO of Native American Connections.

The Wellness Center offers 48 treatment beds in an environment that incorporates traditional Native ceremonies – including talking circle and sweat lodge – in a holistic approach to healing mind, body and spirit. Dunlap Pointe provides 54 permanent supportive housing units, targeted to veterans experiencing homelessness. With the opening of the new Patina Mountain Preserve, NAC will increase their total number of residential treatment beds from 70 to 118, increasing annual capacity from 500 adults to 800.

Read more at CisionPRNewswire.com.

Trying to get a traditional Mexican household to acknowledge the importance of mental health can feel like trying to break a curse. It’s like a jinx that has been weaved through generations, masked by religion and left to the children of immigrants to crack open.

The Latinx community faces unique barriers to mental health assistance such as language, stigma and legal status that directly impacts insurance coverage, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. More than half of young adults ages 18-25 do not receive treatment for their mental illnesses.

The Latinx culture tends to be private. It’s a culture that rarely talks about their own issues at home. The phrase “la ropa sucia se lava en casa” is embedded in the community which makes it difficult to talk to others, even specialists, about mental health for fear of being labeled “crazy.”

Social support from friends and family also plays a critical role in the mental health of Latinx students, according to Tara Suwinyattichaiporn, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Communications who conducted a study on the Cal State Fullerton community.

Read more at DailyTitan.com.

Over the past year, the U.S. has seen a rise in hate and attacks against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since March 2020, STOP AAPI Hate, a reporting center launched by San Francisco State University, Chinese Affirmative Action, and Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council, has recorded over 3,800 cases of anti-Asian hate.1 Due to the uptick in violence and hate against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, AAPI-identifying mental health experts are sharing how racism has impacted the mental health of the community.

Being subject to racism not only causes bodily injury and harm toward communities of color but also impacts mental health and overall wellbeing. “I observed, especially last year, when COVID was happening, huge trends of insomnia, anxiety, feelings of depression, and hysteria,” Clarice Hassan, LCSW, a licensed therapist practicing in New York, says about her AAPI clients.

Due to cultural factors, seeking mental health help within the Asian community is not always easy — not everyone may feel comfortable accessing professional help. “People were already experiencing quite an amount of distress, racial trauma, and post-traumatic stress since the start of COVID,” says Jeanie Y. Chang, LMFT, CMHIMP, CCTP, licensed clinician, and AAPI mental health expert.

Chang and Hassan both outline resources available to help AAPI people find a therapist or seek funding for mental health care.

Read more at VerywellHealth.com.