(WSIL)---Mental health is a broad term.
It refers to one's psychological and emotional well being.
If not taken care of properly, it can lead to a downward spiral of many other issues.
"Mental health affects not only the patient, but also their personal lives. It affects their families, it affects their job, it can affect their livelihood, and in the extreme it could get to the point where they get more debilitated and of course there is the risk of self harm behavior," said Dr. Naeem Qureshi, a psychiatrist and the Medical Director of Behavioral Health at Southern Illinois Healthcare.
In the past two years, he saw an increase in certain symptoms in patients.
"During the pandemic, we all were isolated. So I saw an increase in anxiety, depression and isolation, self isolation," he said.Ìý
The 2021 SIH Community Health Needs Assessment found 32.7% to 45.8% of adults reported that their mental health was not good at least one day in the last month.
But getting help is not always as easy as it sounds.
One of the biggest problems is stigma.
"Stigma makes it difficult for people to come out and get help. It creates shame, difficulty accepting help, so they don't reach out," said Qureshi.
Past stigma--there is another hurdle for patients to maneuver.
"The other thing is a lack of providers. Nationwide, there is shortage, especially during the pandemic," Qureshi added.Ìý
Julie Bailey is a clinical manager at Centerstone, a healthcare company that provides mental health services throughout Illinois.
Since COVID, Bailey said the number of patients has steadily increased, causing new problems for clinicians.
"Much like the medical professionals were overwhelmed in the beginning of COVID, with having difficulty being able to meet those needs, the mental health wave has come a little bit later and we are the middle of our mental health crisis wave right now," she said.Ìý"We're currently averaging about 900 new clients per month."
Bailey said they have dramatically increased their staff, but said it's still not enough, and Centerstone has run out of applicants.
"We're even to the point now that we've had to implement a waitlist, which just breaks my heart and weighs on my conscience every single day, so we're trying to hire as quickly as we can," said Bailey.Ìý
Bailey added that they are desperately in need of help. The link to apply can be found Ìý
