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Peachtree – Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital has been awarded a five-year, $1.2 million grant to study the mental effects of COVID-19 by offering tele-psychiatry and enhanced in-patient as well as out-patient behavioral health services in Cherokee and Graham counties.
Funded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the grant will allow clinical research into the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic upon local governments and economies, public health and individuals in terms of addressing community needs and plans for sustainability in the post-pandemic era.
Ana Bowleg-Swan, behavioral health program coordinator for Erlanger Western Carolina, said services have already begun, as during the Erlanger community health needs assessment last year it became apparent that there was a serious need in far-western North Carolina counties to address the “stigma that prevents people from seeking mental health care and sticking to it.”
Bowleg-Swan added that “in small towns, it’s particularly difficult because if you seek therapy and everyone knows everyone and talks about your appointments or seeking help, you can be labeled as crazy, and that keeps so many people from seeking the help they so desperately need.”
Bowleg-Swan also makes a point in that many people in the region get discouraged in seeking behavioral treatment because of long wait times between making a call and actually being seen by a provider. In addition, there can be a lack of communication between providers as well as a lack of mental health-care providers willing to move to rural areas.
Apart from the stigma and other challenges people perceive that can be a deterrent to seeking treatment, rural areas also suffer from, according to the parameters of the grant and the geography of the region, lack of transportation and insurance to cover the costs of therapy. The tele-psychiatry portion of the newly implemented services are impacted by the lack of access to high-speed internet or connectivity at all.
Services first began in Andrews at the Erlanger primary care provider practice with in-person consultations.
“Physical health and mental health are the same ,” Bowleg-Swan said. “They are equal and co-exist to help the whole person successfully deal with life’s difficulties. It all begins with how we talk about mental health at the primary care provider level.”
To help understand how to speak about mental and physical well-being, the grant provides money for outreach including providing pamphlets, billboards, visits to both area schools and involvement with faith-based community and ministries.
“To combat the stigma of how we speak about mental health, education is first and foremost,” Bowleg-Swan said of the planned community outreach.
In order to make people more comfortable in discussing mental health with their primary care provider, offering in-person therapists in the same environment allows patients to access treatment as if they were already visiting their regular health-care provider.
Although in-person therapists aren’t always able to assess a person’s physical pain, which is deeply linked to depression, and inherent in people battling chronic illnesses like arthritis, cancer and Lupus, the multimillion-dollar grant will allow more in-depth study of how to improve the limited services in our area.
Graham County only had one mental health-care provider per 1,010 people. This lack of providers has spurred Erlanger to help bridge the gap in access to quality mental health care options, considering that in Graham county “9 percent of households experienced during 2020 overcrowding, high housing costs and both lack of kitchen or plumbing facilities.”
While it may not be immediately apparent the correlation between plumbing or housing deficiencies and a better mental health outlook, it gives Erlanger an opportunity to better reach the communities in far-western North Carolina with outlets for coping with some of the challenging aspects of living in a rural and mountainous region already known for and sometimes proud of its isolation.
Data collected by Erlanger through public health surveys from 2020 shows that in Cherokee County, “16 percent of adults report 14 or more days of poor mental health per month.” These statistics show the early effects of the isolation the area’s residents encountered during various phases of mandatory lockdowns and travel restrictions.
Travel restrictions in the two county area aren’t just limited to pandemic-era mandates, but are also affected by weather and, again, sometimes lack of transportation access either in the form of personal vehicles or public transportation.
To help combat these regional problems Erlanger is eager to provide this expansion of both out-patient and in-patient behavioral health services so as to help “reduce the amount of people reaching crisis and expand whole person care with an end goal of providing integrated health.”
Details: erlanger.org/erlanger-western-carolina-hospital/about and opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/ARPA.