Mainers face significant waitlists for mental health care, despite the state taking steps to improve access in recent years.

Lisa Harvey-McPherson of Northern Light Health says last year, more than 150 youth lived in the system’s emergency rooms while awaiting mental health services. She says there are currently 17 children at Acadia Hospital who have been waiting anywhere from three weeks up to nearly 10 months to be discharged to care in the community.

“They become so acute they enter at a very expensive high acuity access point, and they become stuck there,” she says.

Harvey-McPherson says building more capacity in the community would prevent hospitalizations and also ensure faster discharges.

She was among the panelists at a recent discussion about gaps in care hosted by mental health advocacy organization NAMI Maine.

Another panelist, Molly Feeney of midcoast-based homeless services organization Homeworthy, says another area that needs improvement is providing true wrap-around services. Feeney says too often, one service must end to access another.

“It’s not atypical that at the end of that service provision, because you have grown and healed and engaged in the necessary treatment, that you’re met with a new wait list,” she says.

Feeney says that can often lead to people sliding backward in their progress.

Northern Light Paramedic Oriana Blakely told fellow panelists that public safety workers who respond to mental health crises also need support.

“They are often the first ones there intervening with mental health crises,” says Blakely. “But on top of that, they are one of the highest risk populations for mental health issues themselves, including suicidal ideation and successful suicide attempts.”

Blakely says peer to peer support groups are a more effective intervention for public safety workers than typical mental health services. She says it’s important to fund support groups at each department.

Panelists also said it’s imperative for Maine to grow its mental health workforce.

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