Maggie Pritchard

We have all been witness to many protests and public outcries in this country over the past year: “Black Lives Matter”, “No Justice – No Peace”, “Back the Blue”, “Stop the Haters”, “Mask-up”, even “Be kind”.  All worthy sentiments, calling attention to our ability and opportunity as citizens to take action and make change happen in our communities.  But there has been no similar outcry about what in my opinion is the biggest crisis of all: the mental health crisis, which can no longer and should no longer be kept silent.

Make no mistake, there is a mental health crisis in in New Hampshire.  Today as I write this opinion piece, there are 45 adults and 24 children in emergency rooms across this state waiting for inpatient beds.  There are hundreds more who are on wait lists for outpatient treatment, while the community mental health centers, who are responsible for treating the most vulnerable patients, currently have upwards of 225 staff vacancies.   But the sound of silence is deafening.  Why aren’t more of us outraged when there are not enough beds to treat people with illnesses that are as serious as those of the cardiac patient, the stroke patient, or the cancer patient?

The pandemic has only increased the demand for mental health services for people of all ages in our state. Nearly half the people in the United States say the coronavirus pandemic is adversely affecting their mental health, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The loss of hospital beds, the closure of 24 hour care homes coupled with workforce shortages have left scars that further complicate a response to the influx of patients. There are days when I feel like the child who puts her thumb in the dike and it is just not enough to stem the flow.

In 1989, the Granite State was recognized as having a mental health care system that was a model not just for the rest of New England, but for the whole country. In the 1980s, New Hampshire was among the first states to deinstitutionalize people with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses in favor of community-based treatment. While our state experienced early successes getting patients out of hospitals and closer to their homes, current times reflect a seriously challenged system of care. Reimbursement rates have been among the lowest of all states and well below the national average, with one much appreciated adjustment occurring in the past two years.

I am asking that we take time to understand the crisis, to talk about the crisis and to plan NH’s future approach to mental health care, both strategically and comprehensively. We are making progress but our approach has and continues to be “bandaging the bleed”; versus a strategic long-term solution that targets the existing gaps and those likely to appear in our future. The fact is that the steps we took forward were taken with many more steps backward. It is heartbreaking to have to tell a family member or a patient we are doing the best we can with what we have, knowing full well it is falling short of what they need and what I would want for my own loved ones.

But we can each do something to influence change:

Encourage our children to consider a career in mental health.

Talk to elected officials about adopting proactive legislation that supports the system of mental health care.

Ask our local schools to reinforce curriculums that will help children understand and appreciate the importance of mental health.

Lobby the Legislature and the University system to promote and ensure degree and certificate programs that target our workforce shortages.

And finally, let compassion and medicine dictate our mantra to fix this system! New Hampshire’s ten community mental health centers serve more than 50,000 seriously mentally ill adults and children each year. Make no mistake, the heart and soul of our citizenry is suffering from our silence. We can be silent no more.

Maggie Pritchard is the treasurer of the New Hampshire Community Behavioral Health Association and the CEO of Lakes Region Community Mental Health Center in Laconia.