Too many teens in Washington state were struggling with mental health issues before COVID rocked their world. Then the pandemic hit and made their situation worse by further limiting their access to care.
This is especially true in the Tri-Cities, where there are not enough places in the region for children and teens to find the professional help they so desperately need.
Officials with Lutheran Community Services Northwest say families dealing with a youth mental health crisis know that being wait-listed for treatment is a harsh fact of life, and it is “doubly so” in the Tri-Cities.
Chelsea Klicker, communications specialist for the Tri-City regional branch of LSCNW, told the Tri-City Herald that there are not enough places in our area for children and teens to find reliable care, let alone in an outpatient setting where they can stabilize safely at home without having to be admitted to a hospital.
Fortunately, though, some progress is being made. The agency recently expanded its youth therapy programs to a second location in Pasco.
At any one time, the organization has 250 youths getting services from its home base office in Kennewick, but 30 to 40 of those youths have Pasco addresses.
Now, those teens won’t have to travel as far. A new LCSNW office opened earlier this month in the Broadmoor area in Pasco, thanks to a $510,000 grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce.
The 6,724-square-foot remodeled facility will help meet demand on the Franklin County side of the river and alleviate the crowding at the Kennewick location. The extra space also provides the potential to provide more critical services to even more teens in need if more funding and more counselors can be found.
Like many other agencies in the health care field, the organization in the Tri-Cities has experienced staff shortages and that’s been limiting how many kids it can help.
The sooner those jobs are filled, the better.
As it happens, the state recently released the results from the latest Healthy Youth Survey, and it shows that a significant number of teens are feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
The survey is distributed to students in 6th through 12th grade every two years, and the results are used to gauge teen health and behavior, and use of alcohol and drugs. Student participation in the survey is anonymous and voluntary.
Statewide last year, 7 of 10 students in 10th grade reported feeling nervous, anxious, on edge, or not being able to stop or control worrying.
More than 9,000 high school sophomores were surveyed. Of those, 38% reported feeling so sad and hopeless at times during the past year that they stopped doing their activities they enjoy. And 20% in this age group considered attempting suicide.
In Educational Service District 123 — which includes Richland, Pasco, Kennewick and other school districts in the region — 40% of 10th-graders surveyed felt sad or hopeless, and 23% considered attempting suicide.
To see detailed results of the survey, go to askhys.net. It shows that significantly fewer teens are smoking, drinking and using drugs, which is encouraging.
But teen depression is still a major concern.
State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah called the report “worrisome” in a news release.
“Mental health is a part of our children’s overall health and well-being,” Shah said. “It is imperative that we all continue to work together to fully support the whole child by providing information and access to behavioral health resources to youth and the trusted adults in their lives.”
So we know there is a problem, the question is how to address it. It’s great that LCSNW is expanding, but we need a community-wide approach to help these kids — not a patchwork of individual agencies doing the best they can.
At the federal level, Sen. Patty Murray is pushing for a bipartisan mental health package.
She leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is considering increased spending on mental health services in schools, more telehealth services for youth and more financial support to train mental health workers specializing in helping children and teens.
We hope she can help push this package through, and that it can be used to really make a difference in our children’s lives.
Mentally fragile kids should not be put on a wait list.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 12:59 PM.