HEALTH CARE

Mental health crisis spurs action

Local organizations are stepping up to meet an ever-growing demand for individuals experiencing ongoing struggles with mental health.

Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services planned to hire 200 people to address the increased need for services.

“Just to give you a sense, if you want to see a psychiatrist, you’re going to wait two to four months, if you want to see a social worker, you’re going to wait two to four months … and it’s all because demand is just skyrocketing,” said Bob Nykamp, vice president and COO of Pine Rest. “And we describe it as the epidemic following the pandemic. We’ve seen a significant increase in behavioral health; outpatient demand, inpatient demand, all of our services.”

Currently, Pine Rest has 300 outpatient clinicians on staff, and Nykamp said they are looking to double that amount through multiple hiring phases and facility expansions to provide West Michigan with the care it needs. A majority of Pine Rest’s new hires will be brought on to eliminate the increased wait times patients are experiencing.

The organization has continued to use services such as telehealth care, which Nykamp said has been incredibly beneficial in fueling its growth. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Pine Rest has since moved many of its outpatient clinicians to providing care from their home offices.

Employee Assistance Program figures at Pine Rest also have shown a drastic year-over-year increase comparing FY 2019-20 numbers to FY 2020-21, noting the program was well-used even prior to the pandemic. Comparisons show an increase in counseling appointments by 104%, as well as the number of clients increasing by 17%. The organization also provided on-site or virtual critical incident response services following workplace tragedies at a rate of more than once per week. In addition, mental health and wellness training presentations increased by 25%, and financial consultations grew by 39%. Through its EAP program, the organization currently serves 379 organizations, covering over 60,000 individuals and their families. Industry standards multiply the individual care numbers by 2.5 to account for their families. Using this formula, Pine Rest is serving approximately 150,000 individuals through its EAP program alone.

“I think any employer who doesn’t have an employee assistance program, and it doesn’t need to be through Pine Rest, but they should be looking at including that in their benefits. It does give their employees 24/7 counseling services if they need them,” Nykamp said.

Holland Hospital also is addressing the issue.

The hospital recently launched its Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) to bridge the gap between inpatient and outpatient care. The PHP program serves patients who need more intensive treatment than outpatient therapy and can be safe at home between PHP sessions. Patients attend six hours per day, five days per week and receive treatment from a team of service providers including a psychiatrist, behavioral health therapists, nurses, occupational therapists and a chaplain. In its first year, the organization’s PHP program served over 200 patients and reported showing significant improvements after care. Now, Holland Hospital also plans to double its care capacity.

“Routinely there are patients that are boarded in emergency departments because inpatient psychiatric beds are not readily available,” said Mikaela Andrea, director of behavioral health for Holland Hospital. “There are long waits for outpatient treatment, and that was happening even before the pandemic. And now, with the pandemic … almost two years we’ve been living in this, we’ve noticed an increase in demand, and that’s through all levels of care.”

Both Holland Hospital and Pine Rest noted common stressors including job loss or job reduction, which eventually led to a sharp contrast of employee shortages and a difficult recruitment environment, translating into more employees working longer hours, doing tasks they’re not used to, increased work volume, burnout and compounding at-home stressors including child care needs and social isolation. Patients also faced financial strains, grief due to loss related to COVID-19, and myriad other contributing factors leading to an increase in anxiety and depression.

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