Area experts address mental health crisis

SANDPOINT — In 2018, 61 people in North Idaho took their own lives, with 42 of those in Kootenai County, said Claudia Miewald, director of behavioral health services at Kootenai Health.

“We are over twice the national average,” Miewald said of Idaho’s Region 1 suicide rate.

Miewald was one of several area experts who spoke about the mental health crisis and services available on Monday during the Service Provider Information Network meeting, hosted by the Sandpoint Community Resource Center. The SPIN meetings are held on a quarterly basis, with an overarching goal of bringing together the area’s service providers to better serve those in need in the community. Each meeting has a focus or topic that is relevant locally, so this quarter was all about mental health.

While there are a number of ongoing efforts to help with mental health issues locally, as emphasized by each of the speakers, a lack of resources was also a common theme throughout the meeting.

Catherine Perusse, with NAMI Far North, said because of the lack of resources in the area, North Idaho Crisis Services was formed. Through a partnership between NAMI and NICS, an after hours crisis hotline was implemented in 2016. The purpose, she said, is to “try and work upstream” by connecting the person with resources before there is no other option but to call law enforcement. The clinicians are informed on all of the resources in the area that can help with anything from firewood to a mental health crisis. They always follow up with the person as well to make sure their problem is resolved.

Perusse said with NICS, her dream is to eventually set up a small crisis center, with a few beds and 24-hour staff.

“I am not willing to give up the fight to have something here in our county that works for our county, because wonderful as the crisis center is, it’s a long ways away,” Perusse said, referring to Kootenai Behavioral Health, formerly the North Idaho Crisis Center in Coeur d’Alene. “To have something here, close, would be much more ideal.”

Miewald said there are 26 beds at KBH, and they are all full.

“We just don’t have enough beds in the state,” she said. “If you look at national stats, we are just really challenged there. We should have 40 to 50 beds per 100,000.”

In Bonner County physicians at Bonner General Health are state certified designated examiners, who go through specialized training to determine if a patient is an immediate danger to themselves or others, said emergency room nurse Lori Garza. Getting people to an inpatient facility in Coeur d’Alene or even further south in Lewiston is “not an easy thing to do,” she said. For that reason, patients often spend 12 to 24 hours in the emergency department, which she said is not ideal.

“We do the best we can with what we have,” she said.

There is also a behavioral health outpatient clinic at BGH, so the group also heard from Joe Wassif, a clinical psychologist at BGH. Other speakers included Leah Moeller from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Children’s Mental Health and Jeff Lindsay with Bonner County EMS among others.

Moeller detailed YES — Youth Empowerment Services — which is a Medicaid program for qualifying class members, specifically children, which means a child has a “severe emotional disturbance” and a functional impairment, she said. For youth who meet the qualifications, families under 300 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for YES Medicaid.

“And that is full Medicaid services — medical, dental, mental health treatment,” Moeller said. “So that really opens the door for these kiddos that wouldn’t previously be able to access that.”

Lindsay, interim director for Bonner County EMS, explained to the group how they respond to calls regarding mental health. In many cases, he said, when a call comes through it is answered by law enforcement, an ambulance and a fire crew.

“When you are standing there, having a mental crisis, the last thing you want to see is six or eight guys trying to help you,” he said.

Lindsay said there is a program, Community Health EMS, used in Boundary County where the paramedics receive the education and training to deal with such a crisis. With three community paramedics in Boundary County, one is on at all times of the day and night. Lindsay is a community paramedic as well, and said Bonner County is in the process of putting the program in place.

“Hopefully, at some point, the system will change to where a single person will show up on a mental health crisis ... they will have the ability to access a resource versus throwing somebody in an ambulance and taking them to the hospital, which is not solving any problems,” he said.

Clark Richman, who, among a long list of qualifications, is a suicide prevention responder, vice president of NAMI in Coeur d’Alene, and director of Trinity Group Homes, also spoke about his own experiences and challenges with mental health. One of the most pertinent questions to ask someone, he said, is how well they are sleeping. That has been a prominent issues for him, Richman said.

“A lot of my growth has been to just have a routine — going to bed pretty early, getting up, hydrating ... getting some morning exercise, ideally, and then just facing the day,” he said.

Anyone in need of resources or information can contact SCRC at 208-920-1840, or visit the website at sandpointcommunityresource.com. To reach the after hours hotline through North Idaho Crisis Services, call 208-946-5595, or visit northidahocrisis.org for information.

Both organizations serve Bonner and Boundary counties.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.