Texas Health adds mental health programs to respond to growing need in Tarrant County
When Joel Salas, 16, began to struggle with depression, he didn’t know how to talk to his mom, his dad, or any of his friends about his pain.
“I don’t know why,” Joel said. “I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. Maybe I was scared, but I don’t know how I could have said it at the time.”
After months of feeling isolated, Joel decided to call 911 in August and ask for help.
“I remember saying I needed help, because at the time I was just scared,” Joel said. As soon as he called, he said, he felt a sense of relief.
Officers came to his dad’s home in Rowlett, and took him to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. The next morning, Joel’s mom Cecilia Mora came to the hospital to see her son. Mora, a registered nurse and supervisor at Texas Health Behavioral Health Center Arlington, knew she wanted to take him for treatment at the health center where she worked.
At the behavioral health center, Joel enrolled in a partial hospitalization program, where he met with a therapist and other teenagers struggling with depression and other psychiatric disorders. The experience, he said, completely shifted his outlook, in large part thanks to the therapist he worked with there.
“It was amazing talking to (my therapist), because she actually listened and she knew what to do,” Joel said.
During the previous school year, when Joel had slept through most of his classes, he felt like his teachers didn’t notice or didn’t know how to help. His therapist seemed to know exactly what to do and say, he said.
Joel is one of thousands of local teenagers struggling with depression and other mental illnesses. The number of teenagers and young adults suffering from mental illness has been rising steadily for years, but appears to have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, when teenagers experience disruption and uncertainty during school closures, as loved ones got sick or suffered job losses, and as the world attempt to navigate an uncertain future while dealing with a new pathogen.
In response to the rapid increase in teenagers and adults seeking mental health treatment, Texas Health Behavioral Health Center Arlington is adding six new programs to increase treatment for people suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. Initially, the Arlington hospital offered only two outpatient mental health programs, said Aliza Hirani, director of clinical services. By March, the hospital will be operating eight programs in response to the increased need from people suffering from mental illness and substance use disorder. Hirani said the need for services has increased steadily over the past five years, and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the new programs are a women’s program, and a program for adolescents like Joel, and a program for adults who suffer from both mental illness and substance use disorders.
During his treatment, Joel finally felt able to talk to his mom with the help of his therapist. Joel had been struggling when he moved from his mom’s home in Tarrant Count to live with his dad during middle school. Staying at home in the early days of the pandemic had made him isolated and when he returned to school he felt listless, he said.
Joel didn’t tell his family how much pain he was in, and he even isolated from his friends, his mom said.
“I think a lot of it was embarrassment, because he felt like it wasn’t normal,” Mora said. “How are they going to look at me? I’m telling them that I’m not feeling like I want to stay here and be alive.”
Now, more than five months after his crisis and treatment, Joel is socializing with his friends, has started a new school, and has built his schedule around going to the gym multiple days a week and cooking meals for himself at home. He even feels more comfortable talking about his own mental health now, with his family, friends and others.
Joel’s experience, Hirani said, exemplifies a core tenet of mental heath treatment: That parents shouldn’t be afraid to talk about suicide or mental illness with their children.
“People don’t want to talk about suicide because they think talking about it will make it worse,” Hirani said. “But it’s really important to make sure we’re engaging in authentic connections, no matter how difficult, because that is what is going to normalize it, make people feel less alone, and give us a chance at getting through this.”
How to get help
- If you are or a loved one is experiencing a crisis or suicidal thoughts, there is help available. You can dial or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. If you are calling from a local area code, your call will likely be routed to a call center in Fort Worth operated by My Health My Resources of Tarrant County. If you have an area code from out of town, and want to reach MHMR, you can contact them directly by calling or texting 800-866-2465. Calling this number directly will ensure you reach MHMR of Tarrant County. You can also text 741741 or reach the online chat at suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat.
- Texas Health Behavioral Health is hosting an open house starting at 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 16. Visitors can tour the facility and meet with program staff. The health center is located at 800 W. Randol Mill Road in Arlington.
