Can Houston Fix Texas' Mental Health Care Problem?

Hey everyone, it's Reheel. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and while we have access to a lot of tools to help with mental health here in Houston, there's still a shortage of professionals in the field. Can a new school of behavioral health sciences help change that, and also address where the city falls short for mental health help for Houstonians? Joining me today is Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Dr. Jayir Suárez. It's Monday, May 8. I'm Reheel Ron Snoly, and here's what Houston's talking about. Dr. Suárez, welcome in the Citycast Houston. How are you? I'm Duno Elle. Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Excited to chat with you. It's Mental Health Awareness Month. Are you celebrating with something special, or is every month Mental Health Awareness Month for you? Yeah, every day should be a mental health awareness day. Those problems are everywhere, and they need more attention. It is very nice to have a month where we specifically celebrate that, increase the awareness, and help our communities understand more what it is that these things are about, and how we can detect them, and what is it that we can do to best help folks who are struggling with such issues. Yeah, absolutely. That's such an important thing. And one of the new things that could be coming to Houston here pretty soon is a new Mental Health Behavioral Training School. Correct? Tell me about that. That is the new UT Health Houston School Behavioral Health Sciences. This is going to be school number seven under the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Umbrella. We have very excited about that, because it will bring together in a very interdisciplinary fashion, all the different constituencies and professionals that we need to have represented to best understand these problems and treat patients that suffer from these problems, advocate for more resources with the community. You know, a big focus here will be to train more professionals across these several disciplines, and pretty much wherever you look, we don't have enough professionals, you know, properly trained with expertise to help the many patients who suffer from these issues, and they are families. So we need to step up the effort, and the plan to put this at UT Health Houston makes a lot of sense, because we have a very large clinical operation already built in. We operate two large academic psychiatric hospitals with a total of 538 beds. They are located side by side. The two combined as a complex actually comprise the largest academic psychiatric, you know, inpatient facility in our country. So those are great routes to train people. We are also at more than 30 community locations, you know, community clinics that we staff under University of Texas physicians with our providers. So we really have the clinical settings that would be, you know, really optimal to train folks in an environment that is also research strong. So correct me if I'm wrong, because from the outside looking in, right, and just me being just a normal person, right, I'm watching TV and I see ads for mental health apps. I always feel like we're having more of a conversation about mental health, and it's so much easier to get access, but we're still in a shortage right now for professionals who are trained, right? Totally, whatever you look. It's very acute here in Texas, but you know, pretty much everywhere else in our nation where you look. I mean, we need more psychiatrists, child psychiatrists in particular, we don't have nearly enough psychologists. Psychologists are in very high demand. It's counselors and all masters, level social workers. We really need to step up there. We were already shortage of specialists before the pandemic, and the pandemic made this need it's more acute because, you know, more folks were diagnosed with these issues through the stress of the pandemic, folks who had them before, you know, suddenly weren't doing all that well through the isolation and all this stress, you know, things are gradually coming back, you know, more to a normal now, but the years of the pandemic certainly made the mental health needs of our communities more acute. So when the new school is up and running, how long is that going to be and how long before the first graduates of that school can help out the Houston community? It's a major endeavor to launch a new school like this. So the next two years we've evolved a lot of diligent but yet, well, quote unquote, silent work to actually get these different degree programs approved by, you know, the proper bodies in our case here in Texas is the Texas coordinating board for higher education. So our faculty at UT Health Houston, we are already very involved in this endeavor, identifying the specific leads across the different areas and disciplines and to go through the steps needed for approval of the specific degree programs. The school as an entity was already approved by the Board of Regents of the University of Texas as well as the Texas coordinating board for higher education. And now we need to fill the specific boxes in this larger box, which is the newest school. It's going to be a lot of fun, but it is a major undertaking that will take a very committed team like ours as well as investment from our state and philanthrop. You know, those two have to come together, our state representatives and community representatives coming behind this idea, helping us successfully advocate for funds from our state to ramp it up. And also continuing to draw onto this enterprise here, we've advanced quite a bit in oncology over the past 30, 40 years and those improvements have really transformed the outcomes we have. So many better ways to treat and a better understanding as to how we have to diagnose early. The field of mental health is still lagging behind. If you take an effort similar to what we've seen in the field of oncology over the past three decades where philanthropists will come to help states, federal government, you know, we understand the importance and step up investment. We are seeing that already and it's very reassuring and rewarding. So how is that going right now specifically for the school because nothing in life is free and I know state funding is going to be big. You mentioned the philanthropy and private funding as well, but specifically for the school, how is that going? Well, it's always a game of doing the best that we can to advocate for that and bring into the table, you know, all the friends that UT Health has and UT Health behavioral sciences has. But the outcome is uncertain. It's, you know, we're only going to know once this is wrapped up. And obviously like anything else, people have many more good ideas and needs and things they want to do then there is actually money to do that. So it will involve a process of, I guess, our state prioritizing, you know, this project over others where they could invest in. And it takes a village, it takes a lot of advocacy. We have a very strong team here with our leadership and we are doing the best that we can to advocate for that. And we've been really well received by, you know, many of our state representatives and, you know, I mean, people are passionate about this, they're excited about it. We will have to see, you know, if that will get us through the finish line for this particular cycle. You may or may not know this, but the Texas legislature meets over two years. And then people will be, you know, advocating for a variety of different things. And honestly, they are probably all good things. I don't think there is any anything that is, you know, that is not worthy there. But I always got to be able to draw, you know, more passionate, more excitement where they would pick this idea over others. And that would allow us to really get this done a lot faster than if in a situation where the investment is more modest. So that's the part, you know, that this state, the support that we need from this state, being a state institution. The other part is also philanthropy, you know. Usually one strong philanthropist that has a vision and a passion comes to the table. And that makes it more likely that the next one will come. And folks often we reach out to their circle of friends and, you know, people, like-minded people that also may have the means to help. So that's the process there. It takes a lot of work and advocacy. We are really well positioned. The proof will be in the pudding. We will see, you know, you ask me again in two months and we will see where, how far we've gone, we're not going to give up. I mean, this is going to get done and it will be very special. The pace will be dictated by our success with the state resources to fully launch it and the philanthropic resources that need to come to supplement the effort. Do you think the shortage and the lack of mental health professionals would be as wide if there was more of a passion and more of a caring aspect from the state level and even on the city level? Like, will we be in this position? Well, I think those folks have been great. You know, our state, our representatives, you know, our Go for Nor and our fellow leadership, they've stepped up in a major way the past several years now to invest in behavioral health in our state. A proof is the hospital. We built a brand new hospital in Houston, attending to a major need that our community had. And it costs $125 million. They stayed invested there. They are also investing in either renovating or building new facilities in other parts of this state. The state has also invested in what's called the Texas childhood mental health consortium where, you know, it's a substantial investment that allows several academic institutions across this state to come together and do a few things. I mean, one is to provide a consultation line to pediatricians. See these problems all the time and they may lack the confidence and the training to deal with them. So them having the ability to consult a child psychiatrist who can then guide them and, you know, participate in the care as a consultant. That's really important. Then going to the schools, the various school systems work with the teachers, the counselors, to train them on how to best recognize these issues. And then once we do set screening that needs to be done, link the kids that need help with telehealth services, which is really kind of like the most viable way to do this now, you know, considering that there is a shortage and the shortage is more acute in farther away parts of the state, you know, larger metropolitan areas like Dallas. It's easier than it is in rural parts of the state. But we can bring services to telehealth as an equalizer, you know, to well, even if any, many of my patients once they tried to telehealth through the pandemic years, you know, they like. So unless they're having a true crisis, they may like the convenience of doing a well check or a visit from their home. So that has given us some, you know, really new apples. It's one of the many benefits of having UT held down here and so many good resources for mental health and with the new school. What would that specifically mean for the city of Houston when the school does open up in a couple of years? Great question. The school will, you know, on due time, we can't do this all from day one, but on due time you're going to have the broadest menu you will find anywhere for graduate and post graduate offerings. Some will be master's programs and doctoral programs across various disciplines that we were talking about, you know, social works, psychology, nursing. But there will also be certificate programs, you know, not fully degree programs, so coordination with our local community colleges, you know, to provide those kinds of alternatives in training for, you know, students who may have an associate's degree or work towards an associate's degree that would improve their work prospects, you know, to work in these different jobs available in behavioral health. One, one of such is what's called a psychiatry technician and it does not require a bachelor's degree. And, but requires the proper training, you know, to work collaboratively with the nurses and the psychologists and the psychiatrists to help us best take care of individuals with a major mental illness. So this will have an impact, a big impact for the city and just by preparing better, you know, the workforce across different levels. And that workforce, we work at different points, you know, through this delivery of care system. Some, for example, may end up, you know, working our jails day because many folks with mental health needs end up there. So there needs to be a component that, you know, provides the care that those folks need. And so many of these individuals that will train, will work there. Others will work through this state mental health system. So the new school will really, you know, train more people currently, you know, the latest numbers that I saw, one third of the state, of the beds in the state mental health facilities aren't really functional because there's no staff, you know, and the vast majority of the counties in Texas, you know, don't have, I mean, they are way short on child psychiatrists, they are way short. So the numbers are staggering and it is more acute in the more rural areas or farther away from the larger metropolitan regions. But in school like this can be a nice equalizer, you know, just by training people across the board, who will then, you know, go back to fill existing gaps. All right, Dr. Suarez, this sounds amazing. So one last question for you. In the city of Houston right now, where do we currently lack when it comes to mental health programs for those with the most in need or for those with the most need? It's pretty much whatever you look, we've gotten a major reinforcement with the new hospital that added 264 new beds, you know, to not only to our county, but to the entire region. So that's big reinforcement there. You know, if you go talk to folks at the VA, if you go talk to folks like the legacy, which you know, it's a non-profit that does very good work in this particular area, pretty much any entity, any partner that is, that has a presence in behavioral health, they will tell you that the lines are way longer than they need to be because the demand is way over what the capacity is, you know. So we need to do better and become, well, first is to train more people, become more collaborative, but also better and, you know, triaging and directing the most acute folks, the most urgent folks. There is an entity in our region, our local mental health authority, he is called the Harris Center for Mental Health and Interactive Disability. Those guys, you know, play a major role. They serve the most underserved, just like we do at the Harris Curricicatric Center. They are our main partner, therefore, the Continuum of Care. You ask them, you know, it's better, but we still, you know, the lines are way longer than they need to be just a supply and demand type of issue. Here's hoping that those lines do get cut a little bit shorter and more care is provided here in the near future. Dr. Suarez, thank you so much for joining us and telling us about the new school. That was Dr. Jair Suarez. You can learn more about the proposed school with the link in our show notes. Before we go, we could see a rise in new businesses here in Houston. According to a new survey by Crosswind Media and PR, Americans see H-Town as the best city in Texas to start a new business. Dallas came in second and Austin was third, and overall two-thirds of those who were surveyed said Texas is a good state to start a new business. Love that positive news for our economy. That will do it for today. I'm Riel Romsnolli and I hope you learned something new. I don't want to misspeak and get in trouble.