Mental health experts offer aid in tough times

Home foreclosures and rising unemployment have battered the local economy, and dealing with financial crisis has led more people to turn to professionals for help.

The ailing economy has increased traffic for behavioral-health businesses such as hospitals, outpatient clinics and therapists, as beleaguered consumers seek more help for depression and anxiety related to economic woes.

With Nevada leading the nation in home foreclosures and surpassing U.S. averages in unemployment, the number of people calling crisis hot lines for aid with financial troubles has jumped by a third in the past year, said Dr. James Davis, medical director of the 58-bed Seven Hills Behavioral Institute in Henderson. The hospital belongs to Massachusetts-based Pioneer Behavioral Health, which also operates three outpatient behavioral-health clinics in Southern Nevada. Counselors inside the outpatient clinics also reported recent gains in walk-in patients struggling with foreclosure, job loss or other economic travails.

"A lot of patients are calling frantically and talking about feeling how they're trapped like a rat in a corner by their inability to make their housing payment," Davis said. "They can't see any way to cover their bills. Most of them have maxed out their credit cards."

More unemployed locals experiencing acute behavioral problems also visit area emergency rooms these days, said Richard Failla, deputy administrator of the state's Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services. Failla said his agency doesn't track whether patients' emotional crises come from the economy, and the bureau's 234-bed hospital and five local outpatient clinics typically see a summertime jump in homeless clients. Population growth could also be behind the increase in jobless ER patients, Failla added.

But Dr. Lesley Dickson, president of the Nevada Psychiatric Association, said it's only natural to see a rise in behavioral-health illnesses when the business climate heads south.

"Bad economic times trickle down and people get depressed," Dickson said. "Relationships will be stressed. Doing things for fun will take a back burner to important expenses. Worrying about paying for expenses and housing are very stressful."

Losing home and job can wipe out two key assets that provide people with a sense of self, Davis said. The grief that results can destroy mental well-being.

You don't have to stare economic catastrophe in the face to feel hard times, though. Even small, daily budgetary aggravations take their toll.

"Gas prices are sky-high, the paycheck doesn't last long anymore and people run out of money before they run out of month," Davis said. "Those things have a big effect on everyone."

Plus, a faltering economy forces tough choices: With inflation carving out a bigger part of their budgets, more consumers must choose between medications and necessities such as food and fuel, Dickson said. And as people lose their jobs, they often lose their insurance. So patients experiencing hard times increasingly forgo treatment for behavioral illnesses such as bipolar disorder or clinical depression, and they often end up in crisis as a result.

Budget crunches can also generate vaguer anxieties, including concerns about long-term goals such as financing college for kids and affording retirement, Dickson said.

Stress isn't merely emotional. Constant stress, whether low-level or high-grade, creates physiological changes that decrease the brain's ability to absorb mood-lifting neurotransmitters. The potential results: deep sadness, increased feelings of panic, changes in sleeping patterns and a higher tendency toward addictive behaviors such as gambling and drinking.

Davis doesn't see an end in sight for his company's patient-volume increases, which he called "very significant and continuing."

He pointed to an Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll in April that found one in seven mortgage holders worried about being able to keep up on their housing payments in coming months. One in four respondents said they expect their home's value to drop over the next two years.

"We have a lot of people affected by the economy," Davis said. "Las Vegas has been hit harder than many other places. There's a tremendous amount of stress involved in that."

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.