“All too often the things that people need most urgently are not available.”
I am a Howard Center board member, a person in long-term recovery, and an emergency department recovery coach at UVM Medical Center, and I am deeply alarmed by our community’s mental health crisis and the lag in supporting those tasked with treatment.
Daily, I witness individuals with substance use disorder in the ED, most self-medicating to cope with lifelong trauma, indicative of severe mental health challenges. Most are unhoused, struggling to care for themselves or seek employment, let alone address their families’ needs or even able to consider a job. In the ED they arrive stigmatized, intoxicated, freezing, tired, hungry, disoriented, suicidal, or in need of overdose intervention.
My role involves connecting these individuals with essential resources like detox, medications for opioid use disorder services, treatment facilities, mental health services, sober living, and recovery centers and meetings. However, all too often the things that people need most urgently are not available. Vermont’s insufficient resources – lack of housing, mental health beds, and rehab facilities – compound their suffering.
It’s crucial to empower designated agencies such as the Howard Center with the funding and tools to address mental health access and treatment effectively. To that end, I have respectfully advocated for state increases in Medicaid rates for Designated and Specialized Service Agencies, and for the State to enforce the statute requiring the Administration to establish and propose funding for scheduled rate increases in alignment with increases given to state employees. I am grateful for the support our system of care receives and know Vermont has many competing demands for limited funding—but the people I encounter in the ED and the systems we’ve built to help them require our support. The lives of Vermonters depend on it.