Cypress Edition | June 2022

PEOPLE Rebecca Farrell

2022 HEALTH CARE EDITION

COMPILED BY JISHNU NAIR

IF WE DO TRY TO LOOK AT SILVER LININGS, OUR EXPERIENCES OF THE PANDEMIC HAS OPENED THE DOOR MORE IN TERMS OF BEING ABLE TO TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH, ABOUT NORMALIZING CONVERSATIONS ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH. ” REBECCA FARRELL, PROGRAM AND OUTREACH DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS, CENTRAL TEXAS

Program and outreach director, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Central Texas

Rebecca Farrell serves as the program and outreach director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Central Texas aliate. The national nonprot works to educate and provide resources on mental health. Farrell said the pandemic laid bare existing deciencies in mental health care. But as mental health came to the forefront in the pandemic, conversations about mental health became more “mainstream”—which she hopes will lead to greater education on mental illnesses. Answers have been edited for length and clarity. WHAT IS THE STATE OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE TWO YEARS INTO THE PANDEMIC? So the pandemic really has

amongst our youth and adolescents. … Since 2017, suicide has become the eighth leading cause of death for our children ages 5-11, and it is the second leading cause of death for our youth ages 10-24 since 2018. ... So when we look at our health care providers, … what we have witnessed during the pandemic is higher levels of empathy fatigue, … And so we have noticed that people are mass-exiting their places of employment, because they’re expe- riencing so much emotional distress, anxiety and depression.

WHAT ARE SOME BARRIERS TO ACCESSING CARE? So when we look at access to care, we want to look at what’s available … instead of quality. The second aspect we consider is of those providers, how many actually look like individuals who are seeking [care] back home? So we know that [Black, indigenous and people of color] members are less likely to seek help, even if it exists, because they may not have a provider who looks like them.

… The other reasons that we have a lack of access to health care is insur- ance. … If you are underinsured, then you’re really limited in the scope of where you can go and receive [care], or even if you don’t have insurance [you’re] really limited. And how many geographical locations or communi- ties oer free health care or have free health care clinics? And then, if you have Medicaid, certain health care systems have a cap on how many Medicaid patients they will accept.

brought to light two primary issues. The rst one is how extensive the gaps in our health care systems are, and then the second—which people might not have been aware of—is how we lack the support and resources for addressing our youth and adolescents’ mental health. … And with that, what we have noticed is that there’s been an increase in the number of ER visits, especially

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CYPRESS EDITION • JUNE 2022