ROCK HILL, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) During the pandemic the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, has seen an increase of 65% in contact made to its national help line.
NAMI is seeing mental health cases continue to rise during the pandemic. NAMI Piedmont Tri-County leaders say anxiety can be like a smoke alarm in the brain.
NAMI Piedmont Tri-County Executive Director, Betsey O’Brien says, “Some people can turn that off by just using coping strategies that they have. But sometimes, you need a fire extinguisher, right? So with the fire extinguisher, if it isn’t working that can be like doctors appointments, medical appointments, therapy appointments, and if all else fails you know, things just go up in smoke, and that’s when you need to go to the hospital.”
Right now, one and five adults and one and five children in the U.S. have diagnosable mental health conditions. And leaders say now there’s a shortage on medical professionals that can treat those cases.
Rock Hill pediatrician, Dr. Martha Edwards, says the pandemic has impacted everyone mentally, especially kids — and there has been a shortage of medical resources. She says she’s seeing more people start conversations about physical and mental health and it’s impacts.
“Over the last decade or s, I feel that families are more open to seeing physical problems sometimes starting in the brain and sometimes mental health problems start in the body. So really our brains are parts of our bodies, it’s all one — and so I do hope that people kind of get the message that we need to work on both,” says Dr. Edwards.
NAMI leaders say even prior to the pandemic there was a shortage of mental resources saying there simply aren’t enough doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists.
“What families are being told when we refer them to do list of our resources is, either they’re not taking new patients, there’s a long delay in getting an appointments, and that’s not optimum,” says O’Brien.
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson is speaking with medical professionals and mental care experts in our area about the rise in cases and shortage of care.
