A Black Lives Matter protest more accessible to those in the disabled community is being organized for next Friday in Portsmouth.
About half of those who experience a substance use disorder during their lives will also experience a mental health disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. And studies show the reverse is also true: About half of those with mental illness will also experience substance use disorder. Some experts put that number even higher.
Yet despite that close relationship, the two conditions are too often treated separately, according to experts in both fields.
Throughout January, Granite Staters in emotional and mental health crisis reached out 4,152 times to a new program designed to streamline mental health services in the state.
“It has taken us a bit by surprise. It’s a pretty heavy response,” said Eric Eason, an account executive with Beacon Health Solutions (cq), a national company that was awarded the contract for administering New Hampshire’s Rapid Response Access Point.
Since the pandemic hit, visits from family members and volunteers in nursing homes in New Hampshire have been severely curtailed. That’s to protect vulnerable residents — about 80% of COVID-related deaths in the state have occurred in long-term care facilities. Still, workers in nursing homes and family members say that residents are suffering mentally and emotionally from missing out on visits with their loved ones and social opportunities within the nursing home.
The pathogen that provoked lockdowns this past spring is only one of many worries for public school students who may be nervous watching their parents lose jobs or seeing family members get sick, or possibly die. Some students are tangled in abusive home lives they can’t escape from. They may be falling behind in their academics because of the lack of routine or a quiet place to study.
(Peer leadership students at John Stark High School work on a mental health awareness project for younger grades. (Courtesy photo))
