Mental wellness and access to healthy food are areas with ample room for improvement in the St. Louis region — that’s according to community members who participated in a recent survey and series of community listening sessions led by SSM Health. Karen Bradshaw, regional director of community health at SSM, said many people brought up the coronavirus pandemic during the sessions.
“That very acute social isolation during COVID has carried over, and people are still struggling. [Coping with] the stress of life right now, the anxiety, the resulting bullying that happens for children really came up as a need,” she said, “the need for building resilience skills, the need for just acknowledging everyone's mental health and well-being.”
The surveys were conducted by SSM Health in partnership with BJC HealthCare, Mercy, St. Luke's Hospital and Shriners Children's St. Louis. The nonprofit health care providers are required to conduct the survey every three years in compliance with the Affordable Care Act.
For Dr. Alex Garza, SSM Health chief community health officer, it’s a chance for institutions to explore ways to promote better health outcomes outside the doctor’s office.
“What's challenging when you're talking about mental and behavioral health is how wide-ranging the issues are that really contribute to the behavioral mental health of our population,” he said.
Garza added that socioeconomic factors are a powerful determinant of one’s mental and physical well-being. “One of the things that we've recently done was to enter into an agreement with the St. Louis [Community] Credit Union to offer lower-interest loans to people that wouldn't necessarily have the means to do businesses, buy cars, things like that.”
Dr. Erick Messias, SSM Health’s chief medical officer for behavioral health in the St. Louis region, said the new SSM Health behavioral health urgent care clinic on South Grand Boulevard is also working to help meet the mental health needs of the region’s residents.
“About a quarter of patients seen in the emergency departments today are seen for behavioral health needs. We need to relieve that pressure,” he said. “In the emergency room, you're going to be triaged. You may wait a couple of hours to be seen by somebody. In our urgent care, we can see people within one hour. We can give them the option to go inpatient, to follow up back to their providers or to chase treatment options.”
Dr. Erick Messias, Dr. Alex Garza and Karen Bradshaw joined St. Louis on the Air to discuss mental health care access and other needs in the St. Louis region — including public safety, maternal and infant health, and food and nutrition security. Listen to the full discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
