The Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce's Policy Makers Series on Tuesday spotlighted local efforts to address mental health.
County Chair Phyllis J. Randall, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. John Rittell, Sheriff Mike Chapman, Claude Moore Foundation Senior Deputy Executive Director Dr. Bill Hazell, and Northern Virginia National Alliance on Mental Illness Rebecca Kiessling will help the community spoke about the challenges they face. .
Chapman highlighted changes in the department's approach to dealing with mental health-related calls and efforts to train officers to de-escalate situations.
Chapman said the other half of the department's responsibility when it comes to mental health is taking care of lawmakers.
“We do a lot of things for members of Congress who have been hit by traumatic events. Whether it's chaplaincy programs that we do or peer-to-peer counseling, some trauma “I once had a police officer involved in a shooting incident, and we called in a police psychologist for that,” he said.
He said mental illness is often linked to drug abuse, and while the specific drugs have changed over the years, the one currently at the forefront is fentanyl.
“Each year, more than 100,000 people die from overdose nationwide. Approximately 70 percent of those deaths are due to fentanyl overdose,” he said.
Loudoun County has fewer fatal overdoses than surrounding jurisdictions, a statistic that Chapman attributes to community cooperation.
Panelists discussed the need for improved access to treatment, crisis response, and empathetic communities.
Rittel said the priority for the administration right now is to ensure immediate crisis response for residents who need someone to talk to, someone to respond to, or somewhere to go.
“The starting point for that system is a 988 call line, like 911, but for mental health concerns. It started as a suicide hotline, but it actually evolved into a mental health crisis line. “Anyone can call the hotline and trained Crisis Support Center staff will direct them to the appropriate services,” Littel said.
Mr Hazell agreed that it was important to involve more people in mental health services and said that was the focus of the Claude Moore Foundation.
She said filling the behavioral health workforce is especially difficult because it requires close collaboration with state and federal governments.
“In the tech industry, if you can make the education system support credit transfer and credential stacking, the only time it really comes back to the government is for security clearance,” Rittel said. “But in the medical field, pretty much everything we do is defined by government laws and regulations. Particularly when it comes to behavioral health, it's paid for by the government. You're employed by the government. And without a real, strong partnership with government, we can't do much about how the system works.”
Lt. Col. Christopher Sawyer, who represented Chapman during the panel discussion, said he believes having a engaged community is also an important but overlooked factor.
“I think it's very stigmatizing when people raise their hands and say, 'I'm really struggling with something,' or 'I'm depressed,' or 'I struggle with anxiety.' That's not a conversation we normally have,” he said.
He said social media contributes to people having only superficial interactions with others.
“We need to be in a place where we have community, where we have family, where we are to someone and we are to someone,” Sawyer said.
littelI He added that perhaps people have forgotten how to have meaningful interactions.
“Mental health is not a silo. We all need to be able to do this together,” Kiesling said.
Randall said social media is particularly affecting pre-teen girls who see what seems like a perfect beauty standard to achieve, but realize that what they see isn't reality. He said he doesn't have the tools yet.
“The other thing that's happening with our young people is that every mistake they make, everything they do, everything they say, is now online,” she says, adding that even simple mistakes He added that the embarrassment can last for years. It has a negative impact on their mental health.
Kiesling said another part of the problem is that parents think their children are immune to the effects of drug use.
“Parents will say, 'Well, that's not my child,'” she says. “And when you see fentanyl in a joint, that's anybody's child.”
She told the audience about her daughter, whom she called “the golden child of Northern Virginia,” who has straight A grades, is a star athlete and takes AP classes.
“My son, who was 14 at the time, didn't want to practice or perform or do anything that would raise red flags,” Kiesling said.
It took a while for Kiesling to “try to get his head out of the sand.”
“Statistically speaking, I should have lost her medication,” she said.
Randall said mental illness is not limited to one type of person and can affect people from all types of backgrounds.
“It doesn't matter how great you are, whether you're white or black or poor. I don't care,” she said.
