June is Men’s Mental Health Month, and advocates in Ohio and elsewhere are working to end the stigma and judgement men often face when struggling with mental illness.
Research shows that the prevalence of mental health problems is increasing among children and adults, but men are less likely to seek treatment.
Javon Howard, manager of men’s engagement initiatives for the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Assault, said men need to understand that it’s OK to experience trauma and find ways to better connect with their emotions.
“Bringing awareness to this month and raising awareness of men’s mental health is important because we want to encourage men to reach out for help,” Howard explained. “We want to encourage men to be able to recognize when they need help and understand how to use the tools that are around them.”
Research shows that women are significantly more likely to develop depression and anxiety disorders in adulthood, while men are more likely to develop substance use disorders and antisocial behavior. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women, and both categories are on the rise.
Howard said men often believe that seeking mental health care will make them look weak, and that in a culture where men are often told to “get over it,” “be a man” and “stop being a wimp,” he said. He added that the fact that most of Ohio is rural rather than urban poses special challenges for men seeking help.
“Ohio is a rural state, so the reality is that it’s hard for people to get services,” Howard emphasized. “When you live in a community where everybody knows each other, it makes it harder to get an accurate picture of what’s going on for you.”
Howard added that Men’s Mental Health Month highlights the rise in the number of men suffering from stress, anxiety and depression across the country, and his organization wants to change attitudes about men seeking help to overcome their problems.
Disclosure: The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Assault contributes to our fund for coverage of budget policy and priorities, domestic violence/sexual assault, health issues, and women’s issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, please click here.
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Nearly a year after the COVID public health emergency officially ended, Colorado has seen a significant drop in Medicaid enrollment and an increase in the number of uninsured people.
That presents a challenge for community mental health centers like Jefferson Mental Health, which has seen Medicaid enrollment declines exceed previous projections and remain below pre-pandemic levels since January.
Dr. Chiara Kuenzler, president and CEO of Jefferson Mental Health Center, said the center currently faces a severe funding shortfall of $6 million.
“The people we serve are under extreme stress and struggling to get their health care benefits restored. This is impacting not only their access to behavioral health care, but all of their health care needs,” she said.
The nonprofit KFF acknowledged in its 2023 Colorado Fact Sheet that the need for behavioral health is greater than ever, with more people than ever reporting mental health and substance use issues.
The urgent need for help for these clinics was underscored by Kara Johnson Hufford, CEO of the Colorado Behavioral Health Council, who noted a projected shortfall of $24 million to $29 million across these centers that could lead to reduced services, longer wait times and lower quality of care.
She added that many people who lost their Medicaid coverage and now have private insurance also seek care less frequently or forgo care altogether because of copayments and deductibles.
“More people than ever before are uninsured. Some people may no longer qualify for Medicaid but give up on it because they can’t afford private insurance or the mental burden of the enrollment process is too great,” she continued.
Johnson-Hafford predicted the program will be eliminated if reimbursement mechanisms can’t keep up with demand. Despite efforts to address the issue, such as helplines and complaints processes, underfunding remains a significant concern, she said.
Disclosure: The Colorado Behavioral Health Council contributes to a fund for reporting on health issues and mental health. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, please click here.
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Article by Mara O’Malley of Kent State University’s News Lab.
The broadcast version was reported by Farah Siddiqi of Kent State University and the Ohio News Connection Collaborative.
According to the Ohio Department of Aging’s Summary Assessment of Older Adults, suicide deaths among adults age 60 and older have increased 40 percent over the past decade.
The spike in suicide rates has been especially dramatic among men over the age of 85. Currently, the suicide rate in Ohio for men over the age of 85 is four times higher than the national rate.
The Ohio Department of Aging has found high rates of depression among adults over age 60. Coleman Health Services, a nonprofit that provides behavioral and mental health services in 10 Ohio counties, helps some of those patients.
“This is a disease, and it can be effectively treated,” said Brian Welsh, chief medical officer at Coleman Health Services. “When you can’t get out of bed, can’t get through your day, withdraw from others, feel suicidal, feel hopeless, and can’t live the life you need to live, then you’re not living the life you need to live.”
Welsh said depression can be especially hard for older adults who have experienced a loss.
“As we get older, we experience more and more losses, some of which are physical losses, some of which are social losses,” Welsh says, “and then there are the physical issues that sometimes come with decline, like decreased mobility, arthritis, increased pain issues.”
Coleman Health Services is working to include more accessible services for seniors in cases where mobility issues prevent them from coming in for help.
Karin Kravetz, vice president of the Portage County Mental Health and Recovery Board, said three seniors died by suicide in Portage County last year. They typically had health issues or chronic illnesses, Kravetz said.
Additionally, a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than half of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. are due to suicide.
“Our most recent survey found that 48 percent of Portage County residents own a gun,” Kravetz said. “When you have a gun in your home and access to the means to kill, impulsive decisions can happen much faster.”
The Mental Health and Recovery Board now holds training sessions every few weeks on the signs of suicidal thoughts.
“We’re trying to increase suicide prevention training and reach out to different community groups,” Kravetz said. The more people who get the training, the more people she hopes will be able to recognize the signs.
The Ohio Department of Aging, working with the Ohio Health Policy Institute, assessed the causes of a 40% spike in suicide rates among people over the age of 60. The main challenges they cited were people’s living environments and access to important resources around them.
Improving the mental health and well-being of Ohio’s older adults requires a multifaceted approach, as they are also at risk for fraud and elder abuse, may experience social isolation and may be more susceptible to disorders such as hoarding disorder.
Seniors can fall into the traps because they feel a sense of kinship with those they are scamming and because they feel lonely, explains Richard Meeker, a therapist who works with Senior Citizens’ Community Area 5. If someone calls claiming to be from the IRS and asks for their banking information, seniors may feel anxious or panicked and answer the phone without even taking a moment to think about who is on the other end of the line.
“There are a lot of scams going on right now that are targeting individuals emotionally,” Meeker said. “I talked about social isolation. If you lose a spouse and have less contact with family and friends, you become more introverted and you crave human attention and people who show you interest.”
Empowering older adults and giving them back some control over their lives is one of the most important things we can do, Meeker said, and community aging agencies help them do that by providing transportation, finding caregivers and getting them out and about.
“We change all the time in our lives as the decades go by,” Meeker said, “but one of the really great things about older adults is that they’re able to adapt and overcome things, and through that adaptability they become empowered.”
This article was written by Mara O’Malley for the Kent State News Lab, a collaboration produced in partnership with Media in the Public Interest and funded by the George Gund Foundation.
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Child advocacy groups are pressuring the California legislature to pass a bill that would increase oversight of health plans that deny mental health services to children. Currently, if a child’s mental health condition isn’t covered by insurance, parents must ask their health plan for a review. If services are still denied, parents can ask the state for an independent medical review.
Richaun Francis, senior director of behavioral health at the nonprofit Children Now, which sponsored the bill, said this is a serious issue.
“This bill provides that if a plan denies care to a youth mental health service, it must automatically review that denial, rather than a parent having to call and ask for it to be reconsidered. In the case of emergency services, that review is automatically sent to the state,” she explained.
The California Health Insurance Association opposes the bill, arguing that the additional screening would delay treatment and add unnecessary costs to the health care system. Services most frequently denied by health insurance include inpatient mental health treatment and medication and surgery for gender identity disorder, according to cases posted on the state’s Department of Managed Health Care website.
Francis said when parents escalate the fight to an independent medical review, they often win.
“Almost 70 percent of claims submitted to the state are denied by an independent medical review process, and the vast majority of those turn out to be claims that should actually be covered by health insurance,” she said.
Senate Bill 294 would also require the state to publicly disclose the number of independent medical review claims the state receives each year and how they are resolved. The bill has already passed the state Senate and is now before the state Assembly’s Health Committee.
Disclosure: Children Now/KIDS COUNT contributes to a fund for reporting on children’s and youth issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, please click here.
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