By JADEN BEARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – The state is experiencing a surge in calls to 988, its mental crisis hotline, a trend that’s been occurring since it launched in July, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Marianne Huff, the president and CEO of the Mental Health Association in Michigan, says the growing number of calls for help are an ongoing result of the pandemic – particularly affecting adolescents and young adults.
The association conducted a series of screenings from 2019-21 to identify potential mental health conditions.
Huff said that the young people and children who were screened scored at higher, more severe levels than other age groups who underwent screening.
According to the association, 30% of the participants screening 2022 were experiencing symptoms of depression, 19.4% were experiencing symptoms of bipolar disorder and 18.28% were experiencing symptoms of anxiety.
“COVID was traumatic because of the fact that we didn’t know anything about this virus. We kept getting all kinds of information,” Huff said. “We didn’t understand the mechanics of this virus super-well. There was no vaccine. So everybody was in a state of fear.”
“And then you add the fact that people lost their jobs,” she said. “There was social isolation.
I remember hearing a lot of people talking about having elderly family members in the hospital dying. They couldn’t even see their loved one who was dying.”
Huff says the pandemic exposed problems with access to mental health services.
“We’ve always had issues with the ability of individuals to access mental health services across the country,” she said, but the pandemic underscored the shortage of mental health care professions in Michigan and other states.
The association is working to make mental health services more accessible, as well as providing education and training on related topics.
Associate psychology professor Tiffany Abrego of Wayne State University said that another possible reason for the spike in hotline calls is that people are becoming more comfortable reaching out for help.
“There is still a lot of stigma around seeking mental health services, but I think it’s getting a little bit better in terms of people asking for help more frequently,” she said.
When people ask for more help, more people are needed to provide services, Abrego said.
However, there are fewer people available to provide services in Michigan, she said, as a lot of mental health providers have been leaving their practices “because of the influx and the severity of mental health issues.”
Huff said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to ensure the state has enough social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and psychologists.
“That’s one of the big problems too, that we have a shortage of mental health professionals” she said.
Whitmer’s office announced in January that Michigan plans on expanding access to mental health services throughout the state.