For many of us, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. For others – be it family, friends or neighbors – holiday celebrations like Christmas are anything but joyous.
My close friend Kara Rowland, a recent visitor to the Flathead Valley, is vice president of communications for Mental Health America, a Washington, DC-based national nonprofit devoted to mental health awareness, education and prevention.
She knows all too well about the competing beauty and pain that one experiences in Montana, not the least being we lead the nation in suicide mortality.
There are now other eye-opening (read grim) statistics Rowland passes along to me, culled from her organization’s newly published 2024 “State of Mental Health in America” report.
Among the key findings: about one in four American adults (23 percent) have experienced a “mental health illness” in the past year, while one in five youth had at least one “major depressive episode” (MDE).
Montana unfortunately ranks 49th when it comes to its state of mental health, just short of being the worst in the nation.
Indicators for the unenviable ranking are Montana “adults with any mental illness” (a whopping 27-plus percent of our state’s population, ranking 46th nationally), Montana “adults with serious thoughts of suicide” (6-plus percent, or 48th), and Montana “youth with serious thoughts of suicide” (15 percent, ranking 48th).
As a result of those indicators, Montana ranks 50th in the nation when it comes to issues surrounding “adult mental health,” 42nd for our “youth.”
And when you combine the two age groups for the category of “prevalence of mental illness,” Montana is dealt another blow, ranking 48th in the country.
Upwards of 10,000 Montana “children” ages 12-17, meanwhile, suffer from “depression.” Sadly, more than half of the one in five youth who have experienced a major MDE in the past twelve months received zero treatment.
Of the 163,000 Montana “adults” currently suffering from mental health issues, 47,000 have gone without “needed” mental health care.
A frequently heard complaint over the years has been a lack of access to mental health care in Montana, especially in vast rural areas (Montana currently ranks 30th with access to such care, so it could be worse). Still, thanks to several local Flathead leaders in particular, significant improvements are on the horizon.
This past September, the Montana Legislature’s nine-member Behavioral Health System for Future Generations Commission –chaired by Republican Rep. Bob Keenan of Bigfork, and joined locally by Democratic Rep. (and soon to be senator) Dave Fern of Whitefish and Flathead Industries CEO Patrick Maddison – issued its much-anticipated final report, as required under House Bill 872 signed into law in May 2023 by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte.
Earmarked $300 million (and counting perhaps, or so it was reported by news outlets last week), the commission’s 22 recommendations and 11 near-term initiatives include building a comprehensive statewide mental health crisis system, investing in clinically appropriate state-run health care settings, expanding the capacity of adult and children’s behavioral health service delivery systems, and enhancing family and caretaker supports.
“These priorities were our ‘North Star’ and are strategically woven throughout the recommendations of our final report,” Keenan and fellow members wrote in their 75-page report.
Montana’s Office of the Governor, it should be noted, continues to offer residents a “Mental Health Ombudsman,” which provides quick links to the state’s public mental health services (visit mhombudsman.mt.gov).
“Mental Health America of Montana,” at the same time, the in-state affiliate of my friend Kara’s national organization, helps coordinate a network of mental health facilities and resources across Montana, including here in the Flathead (visit mhaofmt.org or call its “Montana Warmline” day or night at 877-688-3377).
Here’s to wishing the tens of thousands of Montanans suffering this holiday season and beyond the merriest of Christmases possible, filled with the love and support of family, friends and neighbors
Especially during this season I make the effort to abide by the powerful lyrics of the late John Prine, one of my favorite singer-songwriters taken too soon by covid:
So if you’re walkin’ down the street sometime
And spot some hollow, ancient eyes
Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare
As if you didn’t care
Say, ‘Hello in there, hello’
John McCaslin is a longtime journalist and author who lives in Bigfork.