Credit where credit is due

Heading into this year’s legislative session, there were nearly a dozen bills that dealt with improving access to mental health care, increasing mental health offerings in public K-12 schools and access to crisis suicide prevention.

Sadly, that Wyoming is experiencing an epidemic of mental health issues is not news and Wyoming remains at the top of some rather unfortunate categories. The suicide rate in Wyoming is perennially one of the highest in the nation. While the rest of the country saw a decline in suicide rate last year, Wyoming saw an increase. A new report from the organization Mental Health America ranked states by mental health access and metrics for prevalence of mental health issues. The rankings assessed both the mental health of the state’s youth and the availability of mental health care. The report ranked Wyoming No. 43 for youth mental health. Adults in the state fared worse, according to the report, which ranked Wyoming as No. 50 for adult mental health.

In addition to a stigma surrounding treatment for mental health, our community and indeed the entire state of Wyoming suffers from a critical shortage of mental health care providers.

Some of the solutions offered up this session would have seemed like no-brainers, but with the current political climate, even the most basic legislation that could help Wyoming folks can become fertile ground for political grandstanding.

Mental health providers and health care advocates helped craft a bill this session that they said would increase the pool of providers in the state. Senate File 26 will allow Wyoming to join more than 30 states in PSYPACT, an interstate compact that allows psychologists to practice across state lines with a single license from their home state.

After passing through both chambers, the act will now go to the governor’s desk. We hope Gov. Mark Gordon will sign this legislation. It is a giant step toward granting greater access to quality mental health services in our state, which we already desperately need.

This piece of legislation is easy to implement, and perhaps most importantly, could dramatically increase the pool of practitioners very quickly.

We are similarly hopeful that the Senate will recognize the magnitude of Wyoming’s suicide rate and pass HB 65 to permanently establish the 988 suicide hotline in Wyoming.

-Buffalo Bulletin