Spotlighting Mental Health: Stamford Health Aims To Help Those In Need

STAMFORD, CT — The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every facet of daily life, and mental health is at the forefront.

According to Ellen Komar, the chief nursing officer at Stamford Health, the amount of COVID-19 patients actually decreased over the last two years in Stamford, mostly because people were hesitant to come into a medical facility.

But as restrictions have lifted and society continued to adjust to a new normal, mental health cases have increased among adults, and especially children, a trend seen across the country.

"I think the pandemic has exacerbated an existing problem. I think the stress levels that children and families are under are increased and therefore any underlying issues get exacerbated," said Dr. Heather Machen, director of pediatric emergency medicine at Stamford Health. "I do think we've had a problem in this country for a lot longer than that, and this has sort of made things more visible."

Machen said children are coming into the emergency Department because they're in a very acute situation and might be suicidal, or they've done harm to themselves. In other cases, there's simply no place for them to go.

"Even if you are able to find a provider who is accepting new patients, which is becoming increasingly difficult, often it's just not achievable for financial reasons," Machen added.

Stamford Health has even worked with hospitals all over the state to help move children around to available beds.

A recent New York Times article outlined the rise in emergency department boarding among teens.

Stamford Hospital is seeing young teens, and even children as young as 8 years old, come in with mental health issues.

Machen said along with the pandemic, social media has played a role in exacerbating mental health crises.

"We know that it's putting up unrealistic images and goals for kids to obtain. It's putting up all kinds of crazy challenges. It's making it so that it used to be if someone wrote something nasty on the bathroom wall, it was taken down with a coat of paint," Machen said. "Now kids are being bombarded 24/7."

Along with providing care at an acute level, Stamford Health is hoping community partners can get patients struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues the help they need.

On the adult side, Liberation Programs has been vital in helping patients with substance abuse issues. Stamford Health has leased office space to Liberation Programs, so that primary care physicians can immediately make a referral for a patient to follow up with a behavioral health specialist. The program has been so successful, Stamford Health is looking to find more space.

The Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) has also been a vital tool for Stamford Health.

"What this has allowed us to work with them on is if a patient shows up in our emergency department, and they actually come to us because they're in crisis or they've had an overdose or they're needing medical attention, they can voluntarily afford themselves a coach that we can call from the ED to come and we partner them up, and they actually start the conversation with the individual about getting them into recovery and rehab," Komar said, noting that there have been about 100 patients a year in this program.

The Optimus Clinic allows adult patients who are either under insured or not insured at all to get mental health follow up appointments, Komar said.

Stamford Health also has complex care managers who can help bridge patients from the emergency department to resources that help with the challenges around getting housing or battling substance abuse.

For adolescents, Greenwich-based Kids In Crisis provides emergency shelter, crisis counseling, and community education programs for children of all ages and families facing crisis. Stamford Health can call Kids In Crisis from the emergency room when a patient comes in.

"These community resources are invaluable to us. We can do what we can do in the acute phase and we can keep them safe and protected when the're in our emergency room and do the proper evaluations and whatever treatment we need, but really the critical piece of this is ensuring they have adequate follow up and resources for not only the patient, but the family or significant other," Komar said.

Komar noted that funding for these services is paramount because mental health issues are not going to magically disappear. She said Stamford Health remains at the ready to help with behavioral health patients.

Machen urged people to seek help and not delay care, especially for young children.

"There needs to not be a stigma to seeking help. Unfortunately we still see in some populations that they just don't want to admit their child needs mental health care because it is seen as a negative," Machen said. "Mental health and physical health are both part of health. There's no stigma for getting help for your child with asthma. There shouldn't be any stigma with getting help for your child with emotional issues."

For more information on Stamford Health and available resources, click here.