Behavioral health council discusses delays and mental health challenges amid pandemic

The Hill County Behavioral Health Local Advisory Council discussed event delays caused by COVID-19 as well as how the pandemic has affected peoples’ mental and behavioral health during a meeting Monday.

Members of the council discussed a number of events they were planning which have all needed to be postponed or put on hold due to the pandemic including the Taco John’s Crunch for a Cause Fundraiser which, National Alliance on Mental Illness Havre President Crystal Laufer said, may no longer be possible at all.

Vice-Chair and a Student Support Services Counselor at Montana State University-Northern Amber Spring said she had made progress getting “Every Brilliant Thing,” a play that grapples with mental illness that has recently been making stops all around Montana to come to Havre and Rocky Boy, but the pandemic has likely put a stop to that.

Efforts to repair the LAC’s website have also been put on hold due to the pandemic.

Montana State University Hill County Extension Agent Jasmine Carbajal said that with so many events affiliated with LAC and otherwise being pushed back to fall of this year, some of them might become impossible.

“Fall is gonna be busy, everything is getting pushed out… all these other ideas that we had might not happen because September is going to be such a busy time,” she said.

Northern Professor Curtis Smeby said he had similar concerns and felt that plans made at last month’s meeting for the film festival may need to be pushed back even further.

“I don’t have a sense of whether we’ll be back in the fall,” Smeby said.

He said he thinks even if social distancing came to an end, very few people would turn out for the film festival and things won’t be back to normal until effective treatment or a vaccine is developed. He said he personally thinks the event should be postponed to next year.

However, the council discussed the possibility of holding a virtual showing of some of the films online in the meantime, though no solid plans have been made yet.

Spring said she was planning to hold a workshop on Question, Persuade, Refer — QPR — a program that helps people recognize the signs of, and prevent suicide crisis, last week, but it had to be postponed.

She said she is also working on getting a virtual training session going through WebEx sometime in the next few weeks. She said if the sign up is high enough she might do more than one.

The council also discussed how the pandemic has been affecting people with mental health challenges in the county.

Spring said she’s been working on normalizing emotional responses on Northern’s campus, letting students know that they aren’t alone in their anxiety’s regarding the pandemic. She also said she’s seen the pandemic have significant negative effects on her patients.

“I can definitely say from a practitioner’s standpoint that almost all of my clients, this is the topic that they talk about,” Spring said.

She said she’s seen people with anxiety and depression are having a particularly difficult time during the pandemic.

“The thing that’s the saddest to me is the people who have made really healthy coping mechanisms for their depression and anxiety, but now they can’t utilize those because of sheltering in place,” she said.

Spring said finding alternative ways to stay socially connected has been a struggle for many of those who face problems like depressions and anxiety, and that they need to be told, as well as everyone else struggling through the pandemic, that they are not alone.

“It’s important for people to recognize, the things they are feeling, other people are feeling too,” she said.

Spring said the pandemic necessitates that patients and their mental health care providers find alternative ways to cope with their struggles now that many of their go-to coping techniques have become impossible.

“I don’t have answers to that, but I think it’s something for us to think about,” she said.

Council Chair Andi Daniel said this has been a topic of discussion at Montana’s Peer Network in the last few weeks.

“One of the things you tell people in recovery is to not be isolated, and now we’re all isolated,” she said.

Council Member and Social Worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs Sharon Dolph said the pandemic presents opportunities, despite its negative impacts on people’s mental health.

“It’s like we’re all being sent to our room collectively to reevaluate life,” Dolph said.

However, she said, even that opportunity presents its own challenge for many people.

“Finding a new sense of priority and finding a new sense of meaning and purpose is a challenge,” she said.

Dolph said, despite the situation, possibilities are out there for people who need help.

“There’s a lot of good forces in the community,” she said.

Daniel said she hopes that this time of isolation shines a spotlight on alternate methods of helping people with mental and behavioral health challenges, particularly in rural areas that have always faced these kinds of difficulties.

She said https://www.smartrecovery.org and https://www.supportgroupscentral.com are good resources for people looking for help during the pandemic.