The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has seen a $15 million cut to its Behavioral Health Division this year and more cuts are being proposed, despite soaring demand for mental health and addiction treatment programs.

DHHS now faces a $25 million cut to help fund property tax relief.

Behavioral Health Specialists in Norfolk provides short-term residential treatment for substance use disorders.
Neil Broders, executive director, said the COVID pandemic may have contributed to the mistaken assumption any unspent funding must not be needed.

"Really, why a lot of places weren't able to pull down their funding and use it, it wasn't because the demand wasn't there," Broders pointed out. "It's because trying to find staff the last four to five years -- it was a difficult period."

Some Nebraska agencies have spent years rebuilding their staff following COVID. Broders explained they have had to compete with national companies who can pay more and allow people to work remotely. He pointed out employers, especially in smaller communities, have had to increase wages and work harder to recruit and retain staff.

Broders added their residential program only recently became fully staffed for the first time in four years.

"We now have the staff to be at 58 beds and are full," Broders reported. "We receive over 100 referrals a month for those 58 beds. So, we have the staffing now to serve the clients, and the clients are there."

The multi-program CenterPointe, based in Lincoln, has seen a similar increase in demand in the past year.

Topher Hansen, JD, president and CEO of the nonprofit, said their primary care clinic served 500 more people, and they provided over 2,000 additional hours of outpatient clinic care, at least partly because they were able to fill some open positions.

"But the more staff we get, the more availability we have, the more people that come in the door," Hansen observed.

More than half the people CenterPointe served in the last fiscal year reported annual incomes of less than $1,000.

Hansen acknowledged funding for mental health and addiction recovery is not always politically popular, but he stressed it is often a fiscally sound move. He pointed to their "Alternative Response" program, which works with the Lincoln Police Department to send a CenterPointe team, rather than a uniformed officer, for nonviolent welfare checks.

"We have done over a thousand of those in the last year and saved officer time every single time," Hansen emphasized. "We've cut the emergency protective custody incidents in half. We've housed a dozen people, and decriminalized being unsheltered."


get more stories like this via email

Budding flowers, warmer temperatures and longer days are welcome signs to many in Maryland after the long, dark months of winter. Some people might believe warmer weather improves mental health after seasonal depression in the winter months, but that's not always the case. Many people experience increased mental-health struggles as spring rolls around.

When people's feeling in the springtime doesn't meet their expectations, said Cynthia Cubbage, director of family and post-adopt service for the Barker Adoption Foundation, it can make mental-health issues worse.

"When people are looking forward to spring because it's a time of renewal, and those expectations don't happen, and then nothing gets better for them because it's deeper than that," she said, "then they get really stressed and depression can really set in. And it's because of the expectations."

Suicide rates rise in the spring and not winter, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Researchers find that seasonal allergies play a role. A person with rhinitis, which causes allergy symptoms, is more than 40% more likely to be depressed.

Cubbage said there are many ways people can combat those feelings: Get outdoors as much as possible and get out socially as well. But she reminded folks that sleep is vital.

"Definitely prioritize sleep, even though we're having more daylight," she said. "It makes people want to stay up longer - that they should be doing things - and to remember that's a big transition for your body. They should still prioritize their sleep. If they were still going to sleep at eight or they were putting their kids down at eight, that should continue."

Cubbage added that, if you continue to feel depressed or down even after trying those suggestions, it's best to seek out professional mental-health help.

A bill headed to the Montana governor's desk would qualify post-traumatic stress disorder under workers' compensation for the state's first responders.

PTSD is a mental-health condition that someone may develop after a traumatic event. It can result in a range of symptoms from a negative mood and reactivity to flashbacks and difficulty sleeping. First responders report experiencing PTSD at about five times the rate of the general population, according to Relief Mental Health.

George Richards, who serves as president of both the Montana State Firefighters' Association and the Montana State Council of Professional Firefighters, said suicide is one of the top two leading causes of death among firefighters.

"Firefighters, police officers, paramedics, EMTs, experience - working on a gunshot victim or a fatality wreck or a kid death - major trauma-critical calls that really affect the brain," he said.

Richards said the bill had bipartisan support, although some opponents were concerned with the costs. The bill passed a House vote Friday, just before today's observance of Workers Memorial Day.

Until now, Montana was one of roughly a dozen states without a PTSD-related workers comp policy for first responders. Richards said treatment for PTSD will also help with worker retention.

"We want it recognized so they can get the treatment and return to work as a healthy individual with a clear mind," he said.

Treatment can take different forms, Richards noted, from peer-to-peer support to residential treatment programs.


get more stories like this via email

A new report finds that Maryland has made progress in providing school mental health services to its students but work still remains. The report by the national mental health advocacy organization, Inseparable, measures states based on 13 policy targets.

Maryland has improved its ratio of social workers to students. There is one social worker for every 620 students - a decline from more than 2,300 students in previous years. But the state has not implemented, or only partially implemented, five policies, such as expanding Medicaid coverage to include school-based mental health services.

Caitlin Hochul, vice president of public policy with Inseparable, said providing mental health services in schools has major impacts on students and parents alike.

"You're reducing the financial strain on parents," she explained. "You're reducing the need for reliable transportation. You don't need to be taking a lot of time off of school to go travel to an appointment, so it really helps give kids the resources and tools they need to get back in the classroom and learn."

Maryland also lacks mental health screenings of students, a tool that advocates say is critical to identify potential mental health issues.

The Maryland state legislature recently passed laws geared toward bolstering the behavioral health workforce. One law made school mental health professionals eligible for the state's loan repayment plan, and another created a state workforce development program for mental health professionals.

Sen. Malcolm Augustine, D-Prince George's County, said a focus of the state legislature has been working to bring - and keep - mental health professionals in the state.

"It's challenging right now for us to attract and retain these folks," he said. "It's a global issue, so we are trying to do our very best to create opportunities for them to have their loans repaid, opportunities for them to grow professionally, in the hopes that we'll be able to retain and grow our own."

Maryland lawmakers also passed laws requiring education and health agencies to provide guidelines for student telehealth appointments on school days.