MENTAL HEALTH EXPENSES
MONTGOMERY COUNTY ARPA PROJECTS:
HARRIS COUNTY ARPA PROJECTS:
and Suicide Prevention Task Force said they are trying to improve access. The task force was created by Pre- cinct 1 Judge Wayne Mack in 2020, according to previous reporting. The task force began a gap analysis Sept. 20 to determine what services are needed in the county, said Brenda LaVar, a member of the task force and president of the board of directors for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Greater Houston. “When [families] can’t nd help, that’s a real problem,” she said. Uptick in mental health demand According to Cash’s report to com- missioners, calls for mental health services to Montgomery County’s mental health unit are projected to increase to 9,566 calls by the end of 2022, a 101% increase from 2021. Meanwhile, Evan Roberson—exec- utive director of Tri-County Behav- ioral Healthcare, a federally quali ed health center—said statistics show as of June, the center had served 4,251 people in crisis—3,426 adults and 825 children—with the center seeing more children in the rst six months of 2022 than in the four full years prior. However, Roberson said sta ng shortages caused the center’s crisis stabilization unit to close in Novem- ber. He said people admitted to the 16-bed unit are generally uninsured and require hospitalization. Roberson told commissioners Aug. 3 it would require nearly $2 million per year to resta the program, but he said he does not want to sta full-time posi- tions using temporary ARPA funds. “[Having those beds] is one of the biggest needs for this county, for law enforcement,” Precinct 3 Commis- sioner James Noack said Aug. 3. “Not having them is a disservice.” In Harris County, Andrea Usanga— executive director of the Network of Behavioral Health Providers, a collaborative of 40 providers in the Greater Houston area—said during the county’s Aug. 25 press confer- ence that sta ng challenges have exacerbated the demand for mental health services. “At the exact same time where we are seeing an unprecedented num- ber of people who are seeking help for mental health and substance use treatment, we are in a crisis situa- tion with our behavioral workforce. We don’t have enough people enter- ing into the eld, and we have far too many people who are leaving the eld,” Usanga said.
Mental health: $9.03M
Other: $1.38M
Medical supplies & nursing sta : $13.64M
Other: $3M
Assistance programs: $136.91M
Youth programs: $14.41M Administrative: $25.34M
According to project and expenditure reports, Harris and Montgomery counties have recorded spending a portion of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding on mental health initiatives as of March 31.
$22.9M* Total:
$295.73M* Total:
Harris County commissioners allocated another $14.3M from the county’s ARPA funding on Aug. 25 to combat the mental health crisis.
Mental health services: $8.16M
Other public health: $107.04M
*AS OF MARCH 31
LOCAL RESOURCES NAMI GREATER HOUSTON 713-970-4483 www.namigreaterhouston.org TRI COUNTY BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE 800-659-6994 (crisis hotline) 800-550-8408 https://tcbhc.org CLEARHOPE COUNSELING & WELLNESS 1431 Graham Road, Ste. 125, Tomball 281-769-2238 www.clearhopewellness.com MOSAICS OF MERCY 33114 Forest W. St., Magnolia 346-703-0051 www.mosaicsofmercy.com MINDFUL TRANSFORMATIONS COUNSELING 18635 N. Eldridge Parkway, Ste. 102, Tomball 832-843-7629 www.mttomballcounseling.com become a federally quali ed health center, a process which began in 2020 to allow the clinic to receive addi- tional state and federal funding. “We want to have a comprehen- sive service line; we don’t want to create a knee-jerk response to the need, but we want something that will impact our patients and create change,” Simmons said. At the same time, LaVar said Mont- gomery County’s mental health task force is working to complete its gap analysis in December with a recom- mendation of priority initiatives and longer-term needs to present ahead of the Texas legislative session in January. “What’s going to make the greatest impact right now?” LaVar said. “We’re going to produce for this county what we need right now and what we need to look at in the future.”
STATE STATS
A 2022 report from Mental Health America breaks down where Texas ranks in mental health care in the U.S. out of 50 states and Washington, D.C. 24% 51 OUT OF 51 50 OUT OF 51
Texas ranked last in the U.S. for access to mental health care.
Texas ranked second lowest for the availability of its mental health sta .
of Texans reported they were not able to receive the mental health treatment they needed.
SOURCES: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY, MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Barriers to access
Medicaid-accepting providers], even in Harris County, closer to the city of Houston, can be up to a year for an evaluation. Mental health doesn’t wait a year.” Local response To further address the need for services, Erica Cleveland, owner of Mindful Transformations Counseling, expanded to a Tomball o ce in Sep- tember. The rm o ers individual, family and couples counseling and play therapy, she said. “Tomball doesn’t have many coun- seling centers. And being … a new member of [the Greater] Tomball [Area Chamber of Commerce], some of the business owners were coming up to me … saying, ‘Oh my, we don’t have … a lot of counseling here,’” she said. TOMAGWA Healthcare Ministries CEO Timika Simmons said she is in talks with Mindful Transformations Counseling, among other providers, to pilot mental health services for TOMAGWA’s uninsured patients as there are no existing providers to refer patients to. “There’s already a lack of services of mental health within this region for those with insurance. … For our [indi- gent] population, there’s not even places nearby that they can go to,” Simmons said. She said she hopes TOMAGWA can begin partnering with a mental health provider in the next few months and develop a more robust program in a year. Adding mental health services is required for TOMAGWA to apply to
In addition to sta ng challenges, local organizations said lengthy wait- ing lists, a lack of providers and the cost of services are barriers to receiv- ing mental health services. A 2022 report from Mental Health America shows there were 830 resi- dents per mental health provider in the state, ranking Texas second low- est for provider availability in the U.S. Sherry Burkhard, director of educa- tion for Mosaics of Mercy—a nonpro t based in Magnolia that helps residents nd mental health services—said pro- viders often have a waiting list for new clients. “Since [the peak of the pandemic], our call volume has leveled out, … but what we have seen is an increase in the complexity in calls and the di culty in connecting to providers,” she said. In Tomball, Lambert said a cli- ent’s ability to pay and nd an insur- ance-accepting provider complicates access as the out-of-pocket cost per session may range from $125-$250. According to NAMI, 43.4% of adults in Texas reported symptoms of anx- iety or depression in February 2021, of which 26.4%—or 839,000 adults— were unable to get needed counseling or therapy with cost cited as the bar- rier for 45.3% of those. “I think it’s similar across all of Greater Houston … that mental health care is di cult to come by unless you’re extremely wealthy and resourced and can access fee-for-service,” Lambert said. “The wait times right now [for
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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TOMBALL MAGNOLIA EDITION • SEPTEMBER 2022
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