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Mental health forum on tour in Texas makes stop in El Paso

El Paso Times (TX) - 8/28/2014

Aug. 28--Changing the way mental illness is viewed and providing the mental health services to children, adolescents, jail inmates and veterans and others were topics that the "Texas State of Mind" forum addressed on Wednesday in El Paso.

The forum by the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute is touring the state to bring together mental health professionals and community leaders to talk about mental health issues.

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, Meadows Mental Policy Health Institute CEO Phil Ritter and Sharon Butterworth, a Meadows board member, were among the featured speakers at the forum, which took place at the Doubletree Hotel in Downtown.

Law-enforcement officers and health care providers also talked about mental health issues. Nearly all the speakers agreed that overcoming the stigma that some erroneously associated with mental illness is a major challenge for communities.

"Each of us has a friend or relative with behavioral health issues," Butterworth said. "This is why we must work together to change attitudes toward mental illness, and create a mental health system where people can get the care they need."

Butterworth also serves on the board of the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has served as a catalyst for healthy living in the region that joins numerous education and civic and health organizations on a range of topics, from healthy eating and exercise, smoke-free communities and mental health.

Meadows, which is based in Dallas, is highlighting several mental health policy initiatives aimed at improving care and access to care for veterans, children and people with mental-health problems who are caught up in the judicial system.

According to research by Meadows, each year 175,000 children in Texas suffer from severe mental health needs, half of mental illnesses begin by age 14, and suicide is the second leading cause of death of youths 10 to 24 years old. Despite a 50 percent increase in state funding for mental health, less than a quarter of Texas youths with severe mental health needs receives care.

David Morris, CEO of University Behavioral Center in El Paso, and Dr. Marcelo Rodriguez-Chevres, chief medical officer of the Emergence Health Network, both stressed that early intervention, in some cases as early as the pre-school years, is the key to helping young people with mental illnesses turn their lives around.

"We also need more mental health care providers in El Paso," Rodriguez-Chevres said, a sentiment that others echoed for both children and adults with mental health needs.

El Paso police Sgt. Charles Denio Jr., and El Paso Sheriff Lt. Michaela Hebeker, said that hundreds of people with mental health problems have encounters with law enforcement, are placed inside the county jails and many have nowhere to go once they are released from jail.

Denio said all city police officers receive training on how to handle people with mental health issues. Hebeker said as many as 700 inmates with mental health problems end up in jail because they can't get the ongoing help they need anywhere else.

"They come back a lot. The success stories are very few," Hebeker said.

Forum speakers said some communities are trying mental health diversion programs that channel people into the mental health system, whereas the more common programs allow participants only after they enter a plea to a charge.

O'Rourke and Moody, who serve on respective Congressional and state veterans affairs committees, vowed to continue helping veterans returning from war to receive care on a timely basis.

State Sen. José Rodríguez and state Rep. Joe Pickett, both Democrats, said in video messages to the forum that they will continue to push in the next legislative session for the funding and programs that communities like El Paso require. They said the timing is paramount because the legislative Sunset Advisory Commission is reviewing all of the state's agencies that oversee mental health policies and programs.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at 546-6140.

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(c)2014 the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas)

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