RICHMOND — As World Mental Health Day approaches, many Americans face increasing mental health concerns as a result of economic stressors and political turmoil.
Friday, Oct. 10 is World Mental Health Day, which aims to raise awareness for mental health challenges as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. The National Alliance on Mental Illness advocated for the creation of this week, and the first was established by Congress in 1990.
The theme for the Oct. 5-11 Mental Health Awareness Week is “Building Community: Supporting Mental Well-being Together.” Hannah Wesolowski, NAMI chief advocacy officer, said the goal of the campaigns is to normalize talking about mental health.
“For so long mental illness was something people didn’t want to share, did not want to make other people aware of what they might be experiencing,” Wesolowski said. “Having these days that highlight that and get more people talking about mental health really contributes to the overall goal of maybe making people feel connected and supported and hopefully to seek the help that they may need and benefit from.”
Wesolowski said mental illness is a bipartisan issue and policymakers don’t generally shy away from the topic or efforts to address it, but they have many topics on their plate.
The U.S. surgeon general issued a warning in 2021 that youth faced a mental health crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wesolowski noted that NAMI’s helpline, which connects people with resources and someone to talk to in times of crisis, has seen record call levels this year, even higher than during the pandemic.
“We’ve seen demand jump over 50% this year alone and kind of a record number of people reaching out to us for help, support, resources,” Wesolowski said. “Whether it’s ‘I’ve lost my job, I don’t know what to do, I’m really struggling, I’m worried about losing my housing, or just everything that’s happening in the world is making me feel really anxious.’”
The calls come from people “across the board.” Wesolowski said no one is immune to what’s happening in the world regardless of age, gender, political or religious affiliations.
Over half of adults with mental health conditions did not receive treatment in 2024. Wesolowski attributed this to a lack of services and accessibility, whether it’s due to a lack of providers or inability to find care within insurance networks.
“Would we be satisfied with numbers like that for cancer or for heart attacks? We would not be,” Wesolowski said.
Federal funding for mental health services remains steady at the moment but pending Medicaid cuts will impact many people with mental illnesses, because these conditions aren’t consistent over time and require different approaches to treatment, according to Wesolowski.
Bela Sood, professor for child and mental health policy at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the availability of mental health services in Virginia has steadily progressed over recent years to help address and reform systems of care.
Programs like the Virginia Mental Health Access Program aim to address these issues by allowing primary care physicians to connect with mental health professionals on-call, educating primary care physicians and backfilling training that they did not get during their residency, according to Sood.
But, access to trained mental health care professionals for adults in Virginia is scarce compared to other states, according to Mental Health Virginia.
People in rural areas are often below the poverty line, or don’t have resources to access mental health services despite the improvements that were made to the system, Sood said. Now, defunding certain areas of medical coverage has led federal health care centers to decrease staff or close.
Economic and financial struggles impact mental health and wellbeing.
“There are families, where putting food on the table is really a major issue and when you don’t have that and you have to fend for yourself, it has a big impact,” Sood said. “If you have depression it’s going to multiply the effects of it and people feel very bereft and unmoved and they don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, so it’s very bleak in some days.”
Rita Utz, acting executive director for Mental Health Virginia, said Medicare and Medicaid program cuts could cause roughly 350,000 Virginians to lose health care access, which creates an additional stressor.
Utz said much of these cuts will fall on the elderly, youth and marginalized communities, whether it’s lower socioeconomic groups, racial and ethnic minorities, or the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s really the compounding of concerns based on the stigma that exists for all of us but is even deeper in some communities for a various number of reasons,” Utz said. “This socioeconomic aspect of those pieces, they’re all sort of compounding on top of one another.”
World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to talk about a crisis that exists “day over day.”
“These opportunities are important to continue the daily conversations in even wider audiences as we’re working to make sure that all members of our community are getting the help that they need and living full lives,” Utz said.
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Communication. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.
