How many more lives need to be lost before we see mental health as an urgent issue requiring change?

As someone who has been touched by this crisis personally, I feel as though as a state and as a country we have lost enough. In 2015, I lost my aunt to a mental-health related addiction. In her time of need following her divorce and the death of her mother, she did not have access to mental health resources and, as a result, turned to alcohol. Had she had more access to appropriate services, I might still have my aunt with me.

You often hear stories of the effect “deaths of despair” have on families and friends left behind, but you never think that you yourself will be in that position until it happens to you.

In the year 2023, 123,000 adult residents of Connecticut reported having suicidal thoughts. On a national level that number is at a staggering 12,151,000 adults.

Those numbers seem huge but remember, that is only the number of incidents that were reported. Without proper treatment, such mental health crises can lead to catastrophic events, as evidenced by the average of 10.8 out of every 100,000 Connecticut residents who commit suicide each year. In addition, in recent years Connecticut’s “deaths of despair” total has increased four times faster than the national average

As a state Connecticut needs to do more to protect its citizens from the ongoing mental health crisis. 55% of adults with a mental illness receive no treatment; in part that is due to factors such as cost and availability of providers, according to the 2023 State of Mental Health in America Report.

One of the first steps in getting citizens to receive treatment is through making access to care more achievable. One way to do this is through setting up mental health urgent crisis centers. These centers are designed to provide assistance to those who need mental health support. Just as an urgent care center provides care for those experiencing physical injury or illness these mental health centers provide mental care for those in dire need.

The state of Connecticut is already beginning this work; it has opened centers in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and New London. However, these centers are not enough to serve the entire population of Connecticut, as mental health professionals have commented that the state “had a disastrous shortage of inpatient resources and outpatient resources for both kids and adults.”

One way to fund the opening of these mental health centers is through a bill currently in the legislature that would give funding to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services in order to allow them to build urgent care crisis centers across the state. Through doing so, the services already helping so many people in parts of the state can extend their reach to the rest of the population of Connecticut struggling with their mental health.

At these urgent care centers, professionals are trained to assist with mental health crises and are therefore better equipped to treat patients in times of dire need. Previously, patients experiencing suicidal thoughts would be referred to an emergency room where they may experience long wait times of around 186 minutes. Through creating more mental health-centered locations this care can be provided quicker which is necessary in these dire times. This would also help to limit the amount of people who are in the emergency rooms for mental health related reasons.

At the end of the day the message is obvious; providing access to mental care services during times of crisis can help to save lives. The way to do so is through passing Bill No. 5121 in order to fund the creation of mental health urgent care centers across the state.

Hailey Conklin is a junior at Sacred Heart University, majoring in health sciences-public health.