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Southern Neighbor | 7 spokesperson Stacy Shelp said. “There’s a lack of services for K-12 for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Time commitment, insurance, transportation and a lack of understanding that children can have mental health issues are among them. There needs to be guidance, and having a clinician in the school is great.” Janet Cherry, system of care director for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, said that if students are able to be more open to instruction and able to absorb material thanks to access to mental health services, then bringing clinicians into the school is the way to go. The North Carolina State Board of Education recently passed new mental health policy legislation that aims to increase the number of mental health professionals in public schools across the state. “(It will) give some direction in bringing on board mental health specialists in schools and also give advice on how to deal with capacity for access to these services,” Cherry said. “It should also help with addressing sustainability.” A lack of education surrounding the issue of mental health care seems to be the stem of much of the stigma concerning what exactly mental health issues are and who they can affect. This can be damaging to the efforts to create policy that benefits patients in need, Price said. “This same stigma has kept policy- makers, corporate interests, media, the military, schools and the general public at a distance from accepting mental health care as a normal part of life,” Price said. Shelp said the county hopes to tackle these issues with three main priorities: restoring funding for mental health services from birth to age 5, providing greater in-school mental health service in K-12 and providing easier access for all patients. Cilenti also reiterated the importance of focusing on 0-25 patients. “Evidence-based behavioral health research has shown that early intervention can produce better outcomes for patients as they age,” she said. These services will not only help students but also should give their families increased access to mental health care, as well, Cherry said. The second vulnerable focus group is the non-English speaking population. Orange County is home to immigrants and refugees from many countries. In addition, the county has a vibrant Spanish-speaking population, Shelp said. Shelp said simply bringing in more Spanish-speaking therapists would not be a sufficient solution to the problem. A recent assessment of Orange County mental health and substance abuse services lists two main goals for increasing access to mental health care for non-English speakers. For one, there needs to be more diversity in the languages that mental health and substance abuse services are offered in, including Spanish and Karen, according to the report. The report also lists cultural competency training as a necessity to help health care providers better understand how to work with refugee and undocumented populations. County-wide reform in how non-English speaking patients are approached and helped is necessary to actually tackle the problem, Shelp said. Moving forward, the next question to address is how these service improvements will be paid for. The Orange County manager is presenting the budget for the next fiscal year on May 2. This report will then be passed on to the Board of Commissioners for final approval. Overall, the county hopes to be able to begin addressing the mental health care gap by the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2017. Mental health care resources are not just a useful expense, but a necessary one, Cherry said. “Our Department of Public Instruction feels that increasing mental health care access is very important and essential to the continued learning and well-being of our students.” Source: National Alliance on Mental Illness Orange County Age 14 50% of all chronic mental healthillnesses begin by this age 10 years the average time between the appearance of symptoms of mental health issues and intervention 20% of adults have had a mental health issue Hispanic, Black, and Asian adults are less than half as likely to use mental health services as white females. For the sake of equity and humanity, we should know where the gaps exist, to what extent it exists and then design ways and means to address the gap. Renee Price Graphic by Emily Gregoire We welcome new associate Courtney Cooper DDS New expanded hours include Wednesday evenings until 8pm and all day Friday. 110 Banks Drive, Chapel Hill 919.942.5652 • www.keithtaylordds.com