{"id":52785,"date":"2020-07-09T01:52:48","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T07:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mental-health-services-hearing-more-concerns-over-economic-fallout\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:01:14","slug":"mental-health-services-hearing-more-concerns-over-economic-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mental-health-services-hearing-more-concerns-over-economic-fallout\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health services hearing more concerns over economic fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Courtesy of Adobe Stock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 Since the coronavirus-induced state closures in early March, practitioners in San Juan County \u2013 already working to expand mental health services \u2013 have seen an uptick in anxiety and depression related to economic worries.<\/p>\n

Susan Hodgman, behavioral health services director for San Juan County, said all of the community, statewide and national indicators show mental health is going to suffer. She said there has already been heightened reports of anxiety, sadness, grief and depression related to the coronavirus and the economic downturn.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are struggling, there\u2019s a higher incidence of substance abuse relapse, increase in suicides and suicide ideation,\u201d she said. \u201cBehavioral health providers are really hustling to meet those needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the San Juan County Mental Health Taskforce<\/a> has partnered with local practitioners to talk about suicide support, anxiety, grief and depression in five-minute informative videos posted to its Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Jolene Schneider, executive director of Four Winds Recovery Center<\/a> in Farmington, said the need for treatment hasn\u2019t lessened, and if anything, the need has increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for all of us, it\u2019s a very stressful time and a good amount of anxiety,\u201d she said. \u201cIf most of us are going through that, it\u2019s even more difficult for people going through the early stages of recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recovery center, which offers one of the only inpatient services in the city, has implemented additional safety precautions. Proof of a negative COVID-19 test is required before intake, and clients are met outside for a health screening. Everyone must wear a mask, and the facility does an additional coronavirus test during intake. The management also decided to suspend the field trips outside the facility and instead increase recreation activities available inside the center.<\/p>\n

Schneider said one of the struggles in the early days of the pandemic was being able to find enough supplies for everyone living in the facility. The center continues to receive personal protective equipment from San Juan County Emergency Management Office, but she said sometimes finding bleach and other cleaning supplies locally has been an issue.<\/p>\n

Schneider said the inpatient population is close to average, with a three- to four-week wait list to be admitted, but with inpatient services shifted to virtual, there has been a drop-off in participation. The recovery center was able to implement online groups fairly early in the pandemic, but it caused a few clients to drop away because they did not have reliable internet access.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some people that live on or near the reservation and just don\u2019t have reliable internet service,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s also two or three who have struggled with their emotions going on and returned to using. We haven\u2019t heard from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadie Smith-McDaniel with Angel Peak Counseling<\/a> in Bloomfield said her counseling business saw a similar drop off in patients during the first three weeks of the lockdown because people were unsure about doing telehealth. But after the first month, it picked up and went back to normal, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re running about 25 clients a week and three to five new intakes a week so we\u2019ve definitely seen an increase,\u201d Smith-McDaniel said. She is the sole practitioner at Angel Peak Counseling.<\/p>\n

Smith-McDaniel, who has been in private practice for the last three years, said she has seen a lot of increased depression, anxiety and conflict within households centered around the economic downturn.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they haven\u2019t currently lost a position, a lot of people are concerned about what could happen in the near future around employment,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of the concerns have not revolved around COVID itself but around the economic impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider said she has seen an increase in economic-centered worries in the in-patient center\u2019s clients, too. While several of them, by the time they reach residential treatment, might not have a job, there\u2019s a growing concern for family members who might be struggling while that individual is in treatment, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone loses their job, or there\u2019s concern the family doesn\u2019t have enough to eat, those kind of thoughts preoccupy a number of people,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n

While counselors and therapists are now allowed to hold in-person sessions, telehealth was the predominant form of therapy early in the pandemic and statewide closures. Smith-McDaniel said it was an \u201covernight transition\u201d for providers and clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Juan County in general lacks so many resources for mental health that prior to the quarantine and the pandemic, we already were overwhelmed,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve managed it pretty well. The community of professionals have really worked together to fill any of the gaps that have been there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hodgman also said there have been gaps in mental health services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lack of providers here in the area,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen gas and oil went down, they took a lot of people with them. We\u2019re still struggling to build our providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she added those agency directors and mental health providers in the area have been doing a strong job to provide those necessary services.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s real important for people to recognize that we all have needs and to take care of those,\u201d Hodgman said.<\/p>\n

lweber@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

already working to expand services before virus hit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88151,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52785\/revisions\/88151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52785"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}