Recognizing Behavioral Healthcare Workers

While many of us are at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, front-line workers are out in the field supporting Michigan’s most vulnerable residents.

We have seen the signs in the windows of homes and videos thanking health care workers. What doesn’t come to mind for many, though, is a critical and often overlooked group of frontline healthcare workers, the 100,000 mental health care professionals in the Michigan’s public mental health system — those serving persons with mental illnesses, emotional disturbances, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and/or substance use disorders.

Michiganders can be proud of the commitment of these professionals to continuing to serve during this pandemic. The state’s public community mental health organizations (CMHs), the public Medicaid behavioral health plans (known as PIHPs in Michigan), and the private provider organizations in the CMH and PIHP networks have remained steadfast in their commitment to service while also swiftly implementing new approaches to serving the over 300,000 Michiganders who rely upon this system every year.

These mental health care providers are serving vulnerable and resilient Michiganders through in-person and telehealth approaches, in spite of and in response to the barriers and isolation caused by the COVID pandemic.

For hundreds of thousands of Michiganders, their mental health supports and services must continue to be provided via in-person contact. One group of these supports and services — those essential for daily living — are provided in the client’s home, from several hours to 24 hours per day. The heroic and selfless work of these highly trained and dedicated staff, over long hours, is impressive, driven by their commitment to ensuring a degree of normalcy, respect, and dignity for those whom they serve.

For other Michiganders, their need for face-to-face services is caused by their mental health crisis for which in-person contact is the only and best way to address that crisis. The isolation and economic stresses caused by the pandemic is leading to an increase in the number of mental health crises across the state and the country, with Michigan’s public mental health system as the crisis safety net upon which Michiganders have come to rely.

For some Michiganders, their needs do not require face-to-face contact and are now being met through the innovative use of telehealth approaches. These approaches allow psychotherapy, care coordination, psychiatry, and a range of other clinical services to be provided via live video and audio connections to the client in his or her home. With state and federal support, the public mental health system has been able to dramatically expand its use of telehealth methods, allow for the provision of mental health services by trained clinicians, to Michiganders who, due to the social/physical distancing, would not be receiving these needed mental health services otherwise.

We, as Michiganders, should continue to express our gratitude for all essential and frontline workers for their selfless commitment to their community members, and when we do, include the state’s mental healthcare workers in that recognition. The work of these frontline professionals — to meet the state’s mental health needs and as they increase due to the COVID-caused isolation and economic distress — is needed now more than ever before.

While the landscape is everchanging, one thing is certain — our community would not be able to serve and support vulnerable and resilient populations without our frontline workers including the state’s diverse and selfless mental health professionals.

Robert Sheehan is the CEO of the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan