Creston adds 24/7 crisis hotline

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, more than one in five U.S. adults experience mental illness, and more than 1 in 20 experience serious mental illness. However, only about half receive treatment. Recent months have only worsened these issues.

“Just in the last few months, we’ve on average been seeing about four emergency appointments a week just in the clinical setting for suicidal ideation,” Crossroads Behavioral Health Services Executive Director Brittany Palmer said. “People in general, especially with the government shutdown, are just feeling at a real loss when it comes to their basic needs. When their basic needs aren’t being met, then you start to see some of that higher escalation in their mental health needs.”

As a way to offer support for their community, Crossroads has a free crisis line available 24/7 for those in mental health emergencies. That number, 515-705-2382, will connect the caller with someone to de-escalate the situation.

This is similar to 988, the national crisis line. However, the perk of a locally supported crisis line is the person on the other end of the phone has a better understanding for the caller’s day-to-day life in Southwest Iowa.

Palmer said that while Crossroads has always had an emergency after hours line, it was only this year it became available 24/7.

“It’s either, I’m with someone who’s feeling really escalated right now and this could turn into they might want to kill themselves or something like that,” Palmer said, “or they’re just feeling very, like they need to talk to someone right now because they have no one to talk to.”

Palmer said that if a person has a plan and the means to complete suicide, 911 should be called instead of the hotline.

“We’ve even seen an uptick in people who have some of those homicidal ideations, like aggression toward someone in the community or family members, those types of things,” Palmer said. “Those would be efforts to try and have them call our line to deescalate with them and talk about getting them into one of our emergency appointments and see if we can hopefully try and divert them from getting to the point where now they have the means and they’re going to carry it out.”

Once a person calls the crisis line, they are under no obligation to continue working with Crossroads. However, Palmer said the goal is to help the person in crisis get all the resources they need, which often includes therapy.

“They don’t have to give us any identifying information about them if they don’t want to,” Palmer said. “Would we like them to? Yes, so we can hopefully help them establish some long-term support and mechanisms, but they can call in and just talk to us.”

If a person does decide to follow up with Crossroads after a crisis, there are various opportunities to find help. While therapy can often be cost-prohibitive, Palmer said Crossroads offers various grants and financial assistance to help community members get the help they need.

“Crossroads is a community mental health center, so what that means is that we do get state funds currently for grants that can help people if they need some financial assistance. We don’t turn people away for the inability to pay, we always try to work with them up front,” Palmer said.

As veterans were celebrated throughout the world this week, an emphasis on their mental health is key.

“They can call here or they can call 988 and just say, ‘I need help.’ The VA is going to do anything they can to get them some help,” Union County Veterans Affairs Director Gary Gelhaye said. “You see things and do things [in the military] that most people just don’t do, and it’s not something a lot of people can brush off.”

The VA is able to connect veterans with therapists who specialize in military-specific situations and issues. VA mental health services are available to all veterans, even those not enrolled in VA health care.

While therapy may be the best route, Gelhaye said sometimes simply talking to another veteran can help make things better.

“Every Thursday veterans meet up at the Eagles for coffee and donuts at 10 a.m.,” Gelhaye said. “Just involve yourself with other veterans. You share something in common, no matter what service you were in. Don’t hold it inside, talk to somebody.”

Whether a veteran or civilian, if a person finds themselves or a loved one in a mental health crisis, there are a number of things that can be done. For a loved one, Palmer said that simply starting the conversation can be big.

“Sometimes, you’ll find a lot of people, if they’re really getting escalated and really feeling helpless, sometimes they just want somebody to listen to them,” Palmer said.

If it’s oneself a person is worried about, Palmer encourages them to seek help.

“If you really start to feel yourself having those consistent thoughts of feeling helpless, no one to talk to, you don’t want to burden anybody, those types of things, maybe it’s time to talk to a therapist,” Palmer said. “Learn about your systems management, coping skills and things like that. Maybe we put together a safety plan.”

Even if a person isn’t in immediate danger, Palmer said taking care of one’s mental health is important.

“Something that we really practice around here, even with our own staff, is just really take some time for yourself each day,” Palmer said. “Whether that means you take five minutes in the morning to make yourself a cup of coffee, stare out the window for a couple minutes, just bring your center back because you can’t pour from an empty cup.”