{"id":308781,"date":"2025-11-23T10:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308781\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T10:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T10:46:14","slug":"hundreds-rally-in-idaho-falls-demanding-better-mental-health-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308781\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds rally in Idaho Falls demanding better mental health services"},"content":{"rendered":"

David George, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n

IDAHO FALLS \u2014 A protest on the Broadway Bridge in Idaho Falls on Saturday was organized in support of saving peer support behavioral health services from federal funding cuts. <\/p>\n

Several hundred community members gathered with signs and messages including \u201cSave Behavioral Health,\u201d \u201cYou Can\u2019t Say You Care But Cut Care,\u201d and \u201cCutting Mental Health Is Not The Option.\u201d Many participants also signed a petition started by advocate Stephanie Taylor Thompson entitled \u201cSave Behavioral Health In Idaho\u201d on the Change.org website. <\/a><\/p>\n

According to protest organizers Cecilia Buell and Lisa McCullar, the issue centers around federal funding cuts to peer support programs across Idaho. The loss of funding has severe consequences for both patients and mental health services providers across the region.<\/p>\n

PHOTO GALLERY | Rally in support of mental health services in Idaho<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPeer supporters are people who have walked through the mental health system themselves who get credentialed through a training and then they\u2019re able to go on to support other people that are still struggling with mental health issues, using their own lived experience,\u201d explained Buell, a credentialed peer support specialist works for Still Waters Counseling in Blackfoot. \u201c(Peer support) is different from clinical therapy because sometimes clinical providers aren\u2019t always able to utilize their own lived experience to help others. The service is really saying to patients, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve been there, and we can do this together.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\"IMGDavid George, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n

According to many mental health specialists at the protest, peer support is an evidence-based treatment program, proven and backed by statistics that show dramatically reduced hospitalization, relapse, incarceration, and suicide rates.<\/p>\n

Idaho has recently eliminated or reduced <\/a>nearly one-quarter of its total Medicaid mental health services in the past year.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Idaho\u2019s mental health services slashed, prompting march and fast-growing petition<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that (the federal funding cuts) is a purely financial decision, but I do not think that it helps the state financially in the long run,\u201d said Derek Emery with Full Spectrum Psychology. \u201cWhen I first started here in the state working doing mental health, a client could get up to 40 hours of mental health services, including peer support. In my experience, when we were doing that, it was very rare for us to have any hospitalizations. That\u2019s not the case now, or moving forward. The frequency of hospital stays has already tripled.\u201d <\/p>\n

Buell, McCullar, Perry, Thompson, and other mental health providers hope that the community will rally and voice opposition to defunding needed behavioral health programs across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what everyone in the community could all take away from this is if you really care about mental health and people that struggle with mental health, whether it\u2019s suicide, depression, anxiety, or other disorders, then you can\u2019t cut their care,\u201d McCullar with J&M Mental Health in Blackfoot. \u201cIf you care about them, you can\u2019t cut their care.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"IMGDavid George, EastIdahoNews.com<\/p>\n

Melanie Mason, a peer support worker with Human Dynamics and Diagnostics, mentioned how her peer support clients are alarmed at the sudden cuts in services. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I told one of my 80 year patients, he was literally in tears. He\u2019s just devastated. He doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s going to do without support,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Thompson initiated the petition in her role as an advocate, partly because her son receives peer support services through a local service provider. Juvenile programs have not been affected by the funding cuts. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll hear people receiving peer support services say that they get to go out and have fun, but what that really means is they get to go out in the community and connect and not be isolated anymore,\u201d Thompson said. Loneliness leads to suicide. When you take away people\u2019s support, they start isolating and they lose hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants hope community members will call on public officials to restore federal funding. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great community. Idaho is wonderful. This community is wonderful. We can do better, and we should be supporting the people who can\u2019t necessarily speak up right now,\u201d Thompson remarked. \u201cEverybody has a voice. We\u2019re just here to help elevate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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