The Laker/Lutz News

Central Florida Behavioral Health Network

COVID-19 has had wide-ranging impacts on mental health

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The COVID-19 pandemic — with its associated lockdown, and even without it — has created mental health challenges that have played out in assorted ways, according to a panel of experts who addressed the topic in a Zoom session organized by the League of Women Voters Hillsborough County.

“I heard from parents of children who were maybe 6 years old, bedwetting, acting out aggression, not wanting to leave home,” said Natasha Pierre, executive director of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Hillsborough.

She said she was not prepared for the number of college students who reached out, who were dealing with work, parents having COVID, roommates having COVID, or not having insurance.

“I heard from a lot of veterans. Veterans, who because of the stillness, were having memories of combat,” she said.

She heard from women who had experienced military sexual trauma or date rape.

“Because of the stillness, once again, these memories are coming back,” she said, noting many of those women had never reported the assault.

She also heard from retired people, who were financially stable, but felt socially isolated.

The pandemic created a mental health crisis, with people feeling overwhelmed by frustration, fear and stress, she said.

The first step for getting help is to let someone know you need it, said Pierre, who has lived with mental illness for more than 20 years.

“We know that there are people that are being affected by a mental illness, and they’re not talking. They are living in pain. Suffering in silence. They’re existing in a silo,” said Pierre, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder ultradian.

She shares her experiences, with the goal of helping others.

“When it comes to public awareness, we know that storytelling saves lives,” Pierre said.

“The only reason I am speaking to you tonight — with certainty — is because I had great insurance at a time when I needed it most.

“The reality is that the vast majority of the people who need the treatment that I got, will not receive it,” Pierre said.

Stigma and self-stigma are the biggest barriers to people seeking help, she said.

But she added, it’s important for people with mental health challenges to know: “‘You’re not alone. You’re not the only one feeling anxious when you leave home. You’re not the only one concerned about going back to work. You’re not the only one that is in active grief.”

An essential part of helping those who are suffering is to simply be present, she said.

“Sometimes support is: ‘I’m so sorry that happened to you. That sounds awful. That’s probably hard on you. What can I do to help. I’m going to check on you later tonight.’

“Hurting in a silo, in my experience, causes people to lose their lives. Suffering in silence leads to decreased and diminished hope, and if there is anything people need right now, people need hope.

“They need hope that tomorrow will be the day that a job calls me back.

“Tomorrow will be the day where I have insurance.

“Tomorrow will be the day where I can fall asleep and remain asleep through the night.

“That tomorrow will be the day where I am less paranoid, or I am able to keep food down.

“As long as we can fuel and empower hope, in our communities, we have a chance to reduce the number of people who take their lives,” Pierre said.

She continued: “I’ve heard it many times, you know, ‘People who die by suicide, they take the easy way out.’ As a person who has had suicidal thoughts, as a person who has been suicidal, that is not true.

“When that’s an option for you — you’ve run out of options. You’ve run out of hope. You are hopeless, (you’re thinking) there’s no way life can change,’” she said.

She said she keeps telling her story and talking about the work that NAMI and mental health community partners do, in an effort to change that trajectory.

“We want to get to someone before they make that decision (to take their own life), before they have that plan,” Pierre said.

Suicide calls spiked
Sunny Hall, vice president of client services for the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, said the call volume ramped up because of COVID-19.

Suicide calls increased dramatically, she said.

“What was super alarming to us was (that) calls from kids, ages 13 to 18, went up 36% — suicide calls from kids 13 to 18 went up 36%,” Hall said.

A spike in suicide calls is not unprecedented, she said, noting there was jump in the volume after Robin Williams took his own life, and the same with Kate Spade.

During COVID, Hall said, “the suicide calls started going up and they stayed up, and they’re still up.”

She highlighted another startling statistic involving sexual assault calls: “We saw a 70% increase in people who met their assailant online. People were meeting their assailant online, then they were going to physically meet them,”

Hall also addressed COVID-19’s impacts on children.

“One in 500 kids in our country have lost a caregiver, they’ve lost somebody close to them, to COVID. There’s a lot of anxiety,” Hall said.

“Kids in school are seeing teachers or teacher’s spouses, dying, especially in the last three, four months.

“I was talking to someone in the Pasco school system the other day and the social workers have responded every week to a death of an adult in the Pasco County school system. So, that’s what’s happening to kids. Those triggers lead them to some acute needs, related to mental health,” Hall said.

Alan Davidson, chief clinical officer for Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, said the aging population also has felt the extra mental health challenges because of COVID-19.

Some have experienced social isolation; others have chosen or have been forced to retire early; some have had trouble accessing specialized care or day-to-day assistance that they need; and, some have faced a whole new set of adjustments, as changing circumstances have caused them to move.

Hall said the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay has honed its focus and its mission to ensure that no one faces crisis alone.

The panelists encouraged anyone needing help to reach out to let someone know.

Need help?
Here are some numbers you can call:
Suicide prevention lifeline: 800-273-8255
NAMI Helpline, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.: 800-950-6264
Crisis Center of Tampa Bay: 2-1-1 (to connect with local resources)

Published December 08, 2021

Panel discusses race, social justice issues in America

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Finding meaningful solutions to enduring race and social justice issues in America — begins first with open, honest, respectful conversations with one another.

That was the overarching theme of a group of panelists taking part in a virtual seminar called “Equity in our Nation.”

Tim Beard is president of Pasco-Hernando State College (Courtesy of Pasco-Hernando State College)

The Sept. 14 event, hosted by Pasco-Hernando State College, brought together local speakers of diverse race and religious backgrounds.

The panelists spent three hours expressing their views on the current state of America, and offering suggestions for how to improve systems to increase fairness, justice and educational equities.

Social justice issues have come front and center — in the wake of persistent nationwide protests in response to incidents of police brutality and other racially motivated violence against Blacks.

Having a safe haven in higher education and faith-based structures to debate differing ideas and have meaningful dialogue is the foundation to facilitate change in what’s become a nation divided in recent months, said PHSC president Tim Beard.

Beard, who is Black, put it like this: “We all perhaps would agree that our country is very divided right now. I’ve never seen it this divided in my little short 58 years. I think it’s going to take sessions and platforms to learn how to listen to each other. None of us know it all, but together, we can make America a great nation.”

James V. Williams is senior pastor of Clearwater’s Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church. (Courtesy of Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church)

That message resonates with Pasco Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Bryan Banner.

In a period rife with social unrest, Banner has “serious skin in the game” being a Black man who works in law enforcement, and who has three sons.

“I always say: I don’t think there’s much that can’t be solved over coffee and some conversations. That’s just my approach to life and problem-solving,” said Banner. “Before we point guns at each other, before we take up arms and kill each other, how about we attempt to have a conversation?”

Panelists also agreed that being humble and treating others how you want to be treated are paramount to improving society, on the whole.

Protesters stood on the side of the road at the intersection of State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, chanting slogans during a peaceful protest on June 6 to try to raise awareness for the need to take action to end systemic racism. (File)

“When you have a problem, you don’t fix the problem by becoming the problem,” said James Williams, a Black senior pastor at Mount Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church in Clearwater.

“In this nation, we’ve come to a place where we reach conclusions about someone based on the narrative of the day. What do I mean? Instead of giving a person the opportunity to show you their character, we generalize them, we’ve come to a conclusion about them, based on a previous experience. …What if we give people the opportunity to show us their character, before assuming that they are what we’ve experienced?,” Williams said.

Rabbi Jeff Zaremsky of Beth El-Shalom in New Port Richey and St. Petersburg similarly observed “loving one another” and “having a heart that puts the other person first and cares about them” can collectively instill sustainable social justice throughout communities.

Black in America
A significant portion of discussion veered into the Black experience in America.

Pasco-Hernando State College trustee Al Hernandez (Courtesy of Pasco-Hernando State College)

AdventHealth West Pasco/North Pinellas community engagement coordinator Trevor Williams underscored the struggles people of color face today in the U.S., resulting from what he claimed is a nation originally founded “on racist beliefs and the notion of white supremacy.”

Those ideals, Williams said, remain steeped in policies and procedures “that are not made to factor in minorities and furthers the gap of equality.”

As an example, he said, “Black people who commit a crime are more likely to receive a harsher punishment compared to a white person who committed the very same crime with the same exact background.”

Williams, who is Black, also detailed how segregation is still prevalent in school systems, noting large percentages of Black and Latino students receive a weaker quality of education growing up in poorer communities, therefore placing them at a greater disadvantage in health and social outcomes compared to white counterparts.

He then summed up the obstacles overall: “Let’s just say that if my name was “Travaris” and not “Trevor” my chances of receiving a callback for an application would be cut in half.”

Pasco Alliance for Substance Addiction Prevention (ASAP) community health coordinator Bonni Snider supplemented those points — stating people of color have felt invisible and marginalized throughout American history.

“For years, minorities have been thought of as less than human; thought of as more of a condition than a person,” Snider said.

It’s something Snider has experienced firsthand, as a biracial woman.

“I have been asked numerous times, ‘What are you?’ and when I hear that question, it makes me think I’m seen more as an object than I am as a person. My response typically is, ‘I’m a human.’

“How many times can a non-minority, someone who’s Caucasian, say that they’ve experienced those same things?”

Snider went on to reference the provision of the original 1787 U.S. Constitution, which allowed Southern states to count slaves as three-fifths of a person in population counts.

Rod Cunningham, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) community outreach director (File)

The so-called Three-Fifths compromise, she reasoned, perpetuated the marginalization of Blacks for generations.

“If you fast forward, Blacks have often been seen for many years as waiters, cooks, shoe shines, field hands, service individuals, and when you think about service individuals, we don’t see them until we want something from them or until we want to ask them a question,” Snider said.

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) community outreach director Rod Cunningham echoed those beliefs, too.

Cunningham, who is Black, shared how he’s been blessed to have a 29-year military career, received a quality education, robust financial situation and stable family life in the U.S.

But, he emphasized, “If I get pulled over (by police), I don’t feel so privileged, because my black skin won’t always get me out of that situation.”

Systemic racism and classism, Cunningham said, is underscored today in the U.S., via mass incarceration, privatized prisons, crime laws and so on.

He argued such systems have kept down people of color because society has been conditioned to reject convicts — through stripping voting rights and limited career prospects, exacerbating recidivism.

Cunningham observed: “At one point you’re gonna get frustrated making $9 an hour, and you’re going to do something illegal…”

Equity starts with personal responsibility
Preventing negative outcomes and other challenges minorities face can be mitigated with personal responsibility and demonstrating a strong moral and ethical compass, some panelists argued.

Al Hernandez, a member of the PHSC board of trustees, is an example of a minority living the American dream.

Hernandez, a Cuban immigrant, came to the U.S. “with two pennies and nothing else.”

Pasco Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Bryan Banner (Courtesy of Pasco Sheriff’s Office)

Today he’s a market vice president at Humana and proudly holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Nova Southeastern University.

With that, Hernandez pushed back on victimhood culture, which he believes has become all too prevalent in the U.S.

“We need to be careful, as we look at ourselves and our communities. The reality is, you’re going to make your life — you do have the responsibility and you do have the personal responsibility for yourself, for your family, for your kids.

“At the end of the day, we’re all Americans, and we’ve got to start seeing ourselves as Americans first, and really get to that point of view.”

He continued: “The reality is, we’re all going to encounter issues. We’re all going to encounter situations in life. Some of them, whether it’s fair or not, is somewhat irrelevant. It’s what you do with it, and how do you actually overcome these obstacles that are going to happen in your life.

“Personally, I don’t allow anybody or anything, regardless of whether I have an accent or not, to tell me or to change my career path or to change where I’m coming from. As a person, you have to have individual responsibility to work hard, to do what is required of you to be a good member of society.”

Zaremsky added onto those views.

“The change starts with us,” Zaremsky said. “We need to look at ourselves, and that’s where the change needs to take place, and having equal laws and equal ramifications for decisions—whether good decisions or bad decisions.”

Even with the ongoing calls for social justice, the Jewish leader put into perspective America’s eminence, also warning against the ills of socialism and communism.

“We’re the least prejudiced, with the least injustices. We’re the freest and most equal country in the world, thus we should not burn it down,” Zaremsky said.

“We keep from having an unjust balance of power by allowing freedom of speech—not censoring tweets of people we don’t like, or not allowing dissenting opinions on panel discussions or on college campuses.

“Echo chambers cause prejudice, injustice, and imbalance of power. Freedom — free speech, free market, religious freedom — are the best defenses against unjust, imbalances of power. Because of our wonderful constitution, every citizen can lawfully address injustices,” Zaremsky said.

Other panelists and speakers included Emery Ailes, PHSC LIFE (Linking Faith In Education) coordinator; Joe Bohn, University of South Florida College of Public Health professor and community engagement director; Shauna Hale, assistant U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Florida; Tonicia Freeman-Foster, Central Florida Behavioral Health Network change specialist; Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Shawn Crane; and, Imam Hassan Sultan, CEO of the Muslim Connection in Tampa.

Published September 30, 2020

School district expands mental health services

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The Pasco County school district has been ramping up training and tapping into outside sources, in its quest to build a better mental health support network for students.

Statistics from across the school district underscore a compelling need for increased services.

District figures show that more than 1,200 suicide assessments were done last year of students in elementary, middle and high schools.

The breakdown showed that 463 suicide assessments were reported at the elementary school level; 408 at the middle school level; and, 308 at the high school level.

There also were nearly 600 threat assessments across the district, with 278 reported at the elementary level; 134 at the middle school level; and, 186 at the high school level.

Jeannine Welch, Melissa Musselwhite and Vicki Papaemanuel are leading up efforts to expand mental health services within Pasco County Schools. (B.C. Manion)

District data regarding Baker Act cases reported 171 at the elementary level; 211 at the middle school level; and, 207 at the high school level.

Baker Act cases involve individuals who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others who are referred for mental evaluation.

“We obviously have many students that need significant support from us, relating to mental health,” said Melissa Musselwhite, the district’s director of student support programs, during a school board session on mental health held this summer.

Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning pointed to the suicide assessments.

“Twelve hundred and sixty — 463 just in elementary school alone,” Browning noted.

He also observed there were more suicide assessments at elementary level, than in high school.

“The same with threats,” noted School Board Chairwoman Alison Crumbley. “It’s (threats) higher at elementary.”

Jeannine Welch, senior supervisor for student support services, told board members that it’s  difficult to pinpoint what the statistics mean. For instance, a suicide assessment could refer to a student who was assessed, but not in any danger.

Musselwhite also said more information is needed: “Do we have the same standard for kids we are referring, let’s say for suicide assessment?

“If the kid has scissors and says, ‘I’m going to stab you,’ or ‘I’m going to stab myself,’ do we have a common practice across the district how we respond to that?

“Those are questions. I don’t know. We really need to analyze the data more deeply,” Musselwhite said.

Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Schools David Scanga said the statistics are telling.

“It does reflect the stress level of elementary that probably 10 years ago we didn’t see,” he said. “So, the stress on the families, the stress on the communities, the stress within the building. I hear what Melissa is saying, but we also know and agree that there are things in elementary that we’re dealing with that are more frequent — not that they were never there — but they are more frequent than they were in the past.”

To help address the needs, the district has been collaborating with Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, which has allowed the district to expand its services.

Central Florida has worked out a memorandum of understanding with all of the providers, so the district doesn’t have to obtain a separate contract for a specialized service, Welch said.

Students receiving services are run through a voucher system.

That helps stretch the district’s spending capacity because if a child is eligible for Medicaid, or would be potentially eligible, those dollars are used first, Welch said.

The district has added key personnel and has expanded training efforts.

It has added mental health coaches to coach school-based student services staff regarding mental health initiatives.

The mental health liaison has been able to help analyze data, and also has provided “literally, someone to call instantly in order to be able to problem-solve with some of the situations we have within schools,” Musselwhite said.

The district is working to improve its supports for students.

When a student has been Baker-acted, for instance, the district wants to be sure it supports that student when he or sure returns to school.

“We want to make sure that it’s truly done as a safety net for them,” Welch said.

“We’ve had kids that have been gone for a week and come back, and said they’ve been on a Disney cruise. They weren’t on the Disney cruise,” Welch said.

The district has ramped up training.

“We are required to train staff and make sure they have first-aiders at schools. When this first came out, we had zero trainers,” Welch said. “This summer we’ve trained 688 staff members.”

The district continues to build on its capacity, she said.

“We spent this year building up trainers,” she said.

“It shouldn’t just be the administrator. It should be others that, these are embedded practices that live on, regardless of the leadership,” she said.

“The state has rolled out a new threat assessment  protocol that we’ll be training all student services and administrative staff, in the next month (by Oct. 1),” Musselwhite said.

“The majority of the day will be around the threat assessment, behavioral threat assessment that the state mandated, using a specific  tool and a training platform,” said Vicki Papaemanuel, who will be overseeing the training for the district.

“The second half of the day will be around threat to self or suicide assessment,” she said.

Threat assessments
Elementary: 278
Middle: 134
High School: 186
Total: 598

Suicide assessments
Elementary: 463
Middle: 408
High School: 308
Total: 1,260

2018-2019 Baker Act Data
Elementary: 171
Middle: 211
High school: 207

Source: Pasco County Schools

Published September 18, 2019

Seeking answers in the opioid battle

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U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis wants all voices to be heard in the quest to combat the nation’s opioid crisis.

The congressman met with the Pasco County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP) on March 27 to discuss the issue and listen to reactions to proposed federal legislation related to the opioid crisis.

The public meeting, held at the community center at Land O’ Lakes Heritage Park, attracted dozens of people who are interested in the issue.

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis recently met with the Pasco County Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP), to discuss and solicit feedback on federal bills related to the opioid crisis. The House Health Subcommittee has heard 26 bills as a starting point related to opioid legislation that will be rolled into one large bill to be passed out of the House by the end of May. (File)

It piggybacked off a similar ASAP meeting in August, where Bilirakis provided an update on federal efforts to combat opioid abuse.

So far, the House Health Subcommittee has heard 26 bills as a starting point related to opioid legislation that will be rolled into one large bill to be passed out of the House by the end of May.

The bipartisan bill, CARA 2.0 Act, builds on the original Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act by providing $4 billion in additional resources for opioid prevention and treatment.

The funding was earmarked as part of President Donald Trump’s $1.3 trillion long-term spending bill, which passed March 23.

Throughout the 90-minute session, ASAP members shared personal stories and presented ideas to help solve the opioid crisis.

Opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in 2016, more than any previous year on record, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. An estimated 40 percent of those deaths involved a prescription opioid, the agency says.

Members of ASAP, including Beth Piecora, advocated for additional peer support specialist programs. In this type of program, people who have significant personal experience with struggles pertaining to mental health, psychological trauma or substance abuse provide support to people who are currently struggling with those types of issues.

Piecora, a representative for Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, said federal dollars are needed to train and employ an increased number of those peer specialists.

Peers often can be instrumental in leading someone to pursue treatment, Piecora said.

She also suggested background check screenings be eased when hiring such specialists. “Some folks that have that lived experience sometimes have those certain things on their record,” she explained.

Others mentioned Narcan — a life-saving emergency opioid treatment — should become more readily available for addicts and their families.

The medication is the first and only FDA-approved nasal form of naloxone, which helps blocks the effects of opioids on the brain and restores breathing.

Besides enhancing distribution efforts, ASAP members said Narcan should be subsidized for consumers, particularly those uninsured. Without a prescription, the medication can cost more than $130.

One speaker even suggested requiring doctors to provide Narcan as part of prescribed pain medications.

While grant programs are available to receive free Narcan through nonprofits, barriers still remain in getting quick, easy access, ASAP coordinator Monica Rousseau said.

“You can access Narcan for free, but it usually involves a lot of paperwork…and it’s kind of obscure. It’s also very difficult to get it in a moment when you have people struggling,” she said.

Crisis needs to be attacked on many fronts
Meanwhile, Pasco Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Art Rowand inquired about creating a policy to allow law enforcement to place addicts into treatment, without arrests.

The law enforcement officer said such a measure could help eliminate the cycle of drug abuse, and cut down on overdoses and deaths.

“Basically, the only thing we have to take care of the situation…is to arrest them,” Rowand said.

Some ASAP members stressed that Bilirakis and other policymakers continue to address comprehensive addiction issues, including alcoholism.

“Opioid is now the new kind of thing, and everybody’s aware of it, but I don’t want to leave out treatment for alcoholism,” said Dena Lynch, who spoke on behalf of Alcoholics Anonymous.

“It goes hand in hand, and there’s a lot of people using drugs that also drink, so I think you can’t disregard that as far as treatments. A lot of people in all walks of life have alcohol problems, and it’s really easy to focus on opioids.”

Other suggestions included:

  • Additional measures to help juveniles with addiction treatment
  • More impactful opioid and drug education in schools for younger-aged children
  • New educational opportunities for parents of drug addicts
  • Additional ‘sober living’ houses that also are affordable
  • An increased number of child and adolescent psychiatrists
  • Improved access for psychological services and treatment for the LGBTQ community
  • Mandatory needle exchanges
  • Additional faith community nursing programs

Bilirakis said he wants to schedule a discussion next month with a handful of stakeholders, to continue to brainstorm about possible legislation related to fighting addiction.

Addressing the audience, the congressman said, “We can get your voice heard up there and really get these things into law, but we’ve got to find out what works.”

He continued: “You can throw all the money in the world at something, but if you don’t do it right and it’s not effective, then it doesn’t do anybody any good.”

Published April 11, 2018