Thoroughly
Springfield Business Development Corporation’s 2024 Healthcare Outlook makes one message clear. The Springfield Metro is facing a mental health crisis that our community urgently needs to understand and address.
Suicide rates in the Ozarks are 20 percent higher than Missouri as a whole, Clay Goddard, president of Burrell Behavioral Health’s Southwest region, said during a Healthcare Outlook panel discussion. The suicide rate in this region is 60% higher than the national average.
The panel included representatives from behavioral health companies working to treat growing mental health issues in the Springfield metropolitan area, including Brightly Behavioral Health (Burrell’s parent company), the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, and the AIDS Project of the Ozarks. It consisted of (APO) and Arc of the Ozarks.
Who should I call?
If you or someone you know is suffering, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 988 or texting. Burrell Behavioral Health’s 24-hour crisis line is available at 1-800-494-7355.
Suicide rates in the Springfield metro increased by 30% from 2019 to 2022, Katie Towns, director of public health for the Department of Health, said at an event held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Springfield. Mental health and substance abuse are listed as No. 1 and No. 2 health priorities in Springfield as the coronavirus pandemic exacerbates existing problems.
“These problems have not improved during the pandemic,” Towns said during a Health Outlook panel discussion attended by more than 250 people. “The pandemic has kind of opened the door and shed a lot of light on the mental health issues that are plaguing our community.”
“Hey, how are you?”
Towns said the Springfield-Greene County Health Department recently launched an advertising campaign targeting Ozark men, who are statistically more likely to commit suicide than women. The campaign is titled “Hey man, you good?” Launched by the Community Partnership of the Ozarks (CPO) and funded by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks (CFO).
“Unfortunately, here in our community, men are disproportionately affected by suicide more than women,” Towns said.
Men over the age of 45 are most at risk for suicide in Springfield, Towns said. There is a serious plan behind this campaign to engage men in that age group in conversations about suicide, depression and suicidal ideation.
“We learned what exactly we need to say and how we need to phrase the conversation, because that’s important in this field,” Towns said. Ta.
As part of the organization’s Be Well Community Initiative, Burrell sends representatives to Springfield employers to talk with workers about mental health and suicide, Goddard said. The goal of these talks is to prevent workplace tragedies.
“I have lost a colleague to suicide and I know how heartbreaking it is,” Goddard said.
Autism center meets growing need in Springfield
In addition to suicides, other mental health issues are also on the rise in Springfield. According to Tim Digon, executive vice president of Ark of the Ozarks, the prevalence of autism in children up to the age of eight in the country is 1 in 36. This represents a 317% increase in autism diagnoses since the start of the 2000s.
Ark of the Ozarks will open a first-of-its-kind autism clinic in Springfield in January 2024. The new center aims to conduct approximately 500 autism assessments per year and provide a variety of services to individuals diagnosed with autism and their disabilities. It’s family, Daigon said. Services include family therapy, counseling, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and other treatments.
The clinic serves people from infancy to adulthood and offers programs specifically designed for parents of children diagnosed with autism.
“It can be extremely stressful, not only for the person diagnosed, but also for their family,” Digon says. “The divorce rate for people with children with disabilities is over 80%. The divorce rate for people with children on the (autism) spectrum is 86%.”
The need will continue to grow as mental health professionals learn more about autism and how to diagnose it. By 2029, there will be 40,000 children diagnosed with autism in Missouri, Digon said. The center aims to increase its evaluation capacity to 1,000 cases per year.
“Right now, I would say we don’t have enough diagnostic capacity or support to do that,” Digon said. “We’re going to have to find ways to support people on the (autism) spectrum.”
The center has just begun offering a new treatment called magnetic resonance therapy (MeRT). Digon said the center’s therapy machine is the first of its kind for autism treatment in Missouri. MeRT is a highly customized use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to treat a variety of neurological conditions.
“Essentially what it does is it destroys old pathways and creates new ones,” Digon said.
The treatment, approved but not approved by the Federal Drug Administration, lasts six to eight weeks and consists of 36 sessions. Sessions are approximately 30 minutes long and occur 5 times a week. Digon said 68% of autistic children treated with MeRT improved their vocal and language skills.
“At this point, autism is not curable,” Digon said. “I want to make that clear. Again, it’s very helpful.”
Silence is the enemy of good mental health
If there’s one lesson from the healthcare landscape that Towns wanted to share with attendees, it’s that the more we can openly discuss these issues, the better the mental health of the Springfield community will be. That means.
“So many people are suffering in silence,” Towns said. “The more that silence becomes a factor, the more we will continue to be affected by depression, anxiety, and ultimately suicide.”
Towns said the Department of Health considers suicide rates as a measure of the overall mental health of the Springfield community.
“If we can hit those numbers and move in the other direction, it will also have an impact on improving the mental health of our entire community,” Towns said.
Goddard said he hopes some of these issues will be resolved in Springfield in the future.
“Really, for me, what I’d like to see come out is that we haven’t had this conversation in five years,” Goddard said. “This is something we are effectively working on as a community.”
“This is a community problem. It’s going to require a community solution.”
