How to Improve Mental Health Access in Minnesota

How do you make it easier for people with mental illness to get much needed help?

That’s the question Minnesota Senator Al Franken asked law enforcement, social workers and educators in Moorhead.

Those involved with mental health prevention say there simply aren’t enough resources to keep everyone safe.

The problem is so bad, that for some people suffering mental illness, the safest place for them is jail.

The consensus of these experts is that the mental health system in Minnesota can best help people when they’re in jail, where inmates have easier access to care.

“Quite a condemnation of it,” says Senator Al Franken.

The goal is to get to people before that point. Before they’re saddled with a criminal history.

“I think you’re gonna find we stigmatize people by making them de–facto criminals,” says Moorhead Police Chief David Ebinber. “By putting them in jail as the only source of treatment for them. These are not bad people who need to get good. These are sick people who need to get well.”

The solution? More resources, and reaching people before their mental health deteriorates.

Franken says mental health isn’t taught enough in medical school.

“Definitely need more mental health providers”, Franken adds. “So we need to do that in medical school. We need to do that in nursing school.”

Leaders say it’s a slow path to de-stigmatizing mental illness and providing more treatment, but it’s a path they say they’re committed to following.

“Well I think that’s an ongoing challenge,” adds Rory Beil with the group Rethink Mental Health, “and we certainly have a lot of work to do.”

One suggestion is to bring mental health to light in early education.

Teachers in North Dakota are required to get eight hours of mental health training a year.

That’s not the case in Minnesota.

Beil explains, “Early experiences have a profound impact on brain development. They lay the foundation for our children.”

Another solution is increase options for adults.

Franken says patients are constantly turned away because there’s simply no space.

“We need more beds,” he says. “We need more places for treatment.”

But these experts say attitudes toward mental illness are shifting, slowly.

They hope when more people accept that mental illness is a serious issue, it can help open doors and help people suffering to heal.

The Cass County Jail mental health program is growing in popularity, but the jail doesn’t have follow–up services, which means people are on their own once they’re back in society.