Tag: Betsy Fogle

House budget proposal aims to help people when they want help with addictions

      The budget proposal that the House will consider this week includes $4.5-million for a drug treatment network that targets people with addiction issues at a most crucial time:  when they are seeking help, and before they get discouraged and fall away.

      “This is [Federally Qualified Health Care Centers] money to address our, not just our opioid, [but] our addiction crises,” said Marshfield representative John Black (R), the sponsor of this funding item.  “The key language in the description,” he said, “is the [words] ‘prevention network.’”

      Black told his colleagues on the House Budget Committee that professionals in Missouri know there are many good treatment options available in the state for those who are dealing with substance abuse disorders, but those options aren’t always well connected.  It is the gaps between resources through which people seeking treatment often fall.

“A person who presents for treatment, by that I mean comes into a doctor’s office or a clinic’s office and says, ‘I’ve got a problem, I need help,’ may not be able at that time to see a psychiatrist or a physician and may need to come back for an appointment like everybody else, but people with those kinds of problems don’t do well sometimes with coming back.  There needs to be, if possible, someone who can work with them almost immediately to keep them in the network to try to get them back to the medical providers when it’s time to do that, by encouraging them, coaching them, helping them understand the process.”

      That’s where, Black said, the network supported by this budget item would come in. 

“There would be some professional – counselor, caseworker – that would be available.  That would be their purpose, to help people stay in a mentality to be able to take the next step.”

“This is an approach … to try to do something that we haven’t effectively done yet to deal with addiction problems … a comprehensive approach to try to develop networks to help these folks,” said Black.

The proposal was added to the budget on a unanimous voice vote.  Springfield Democrat Betsy Fogle encouraged other budget committee members to support it.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations about the substance abuse crisis our country’s facing and this is a great step,” said Fogle.  “Something I really like about this proposal is I think it addresses patients that don’t have insurance, patients who have Medicaid, patients who have private insurance; all Missourians for all walks of life.  We know there’s a shortage of providers for each and every one of those groups of people.”

      The proposed item includes a combination of state and federal money, half of which will go through a network in the Springfield area, with the other half available for any similar program elsewhere in the state that is ready to do the same work. 

      That spending proposal is part of the committee’s budget plan that will be debated by the full House this week, and from there could be advanced to the Senate for its consideration.  It is found in House Bill 11.

‘The Art of Being Me’ tackles mental health stigmas in the Missouri Capitol

      Those visiting the Capitol this week will see photos and stories from nearly 30 people living with mental health conditions.  Participants in The Art of Being Me hope to inspire others to share their stories, to seek help, and to reduce stigmas surrounding mental health issues.

The Art of Being Me on display in the Missouri Capitol (Photo: Mike Lear, Missouri House Communications)

      The exhibit, mostly found in the Capitol’s third floor Rotunda, features large portraits of each participant next to the text of a portion of their experience.  There is also a video that features 3-5 minutes of each participant. 

The project is a collaboration between the Burrell Foundation and artist Randy Bacon.  Burrell Foundation Executive Director Gabrielle Martin said it began with 22 volunteers and is now up to 27, talking about, “their very raw, very real experiences with mental health, substance use, sometimes suicide; it kind of runs the gamut.” 

“I think our youngest is 9 years old and it goes all the way up to a gentleman named Joe who’s in his mid-70s.  Every mental health diagnosis, every ethnicity; we wanted it so that anyone who comes in to experience the exhibit will be able to identify with someone or an experience with someone.  Maybe it’s not their own mental health journey but someone that they’re supporting or someone that they know.”

      The exhibit includes stories like those of Alia, a friend of Martin.  She shares not only her own story which began in her youth, but that of supporting her college-age son.

The Art of Being Me on display in the Missouri Capitol (Photo: Mike Lear, Missouri House Communications)

      “Her video is really powerful because she actually brought her son with her to it and so you see her sharing all of this really difficult content, and her struggles, and her coping mechanisms through it, with him, and he’s right there with her,” said Martin.  “We have some very great youths in there as well.  Lincoln and Eli, two boys that share their experience with anxiety, and I believe that one of them does have autism, and we have a young lady, Kate, who shares about her struggle with eating disorders and she is on the recovery side of that … and her video is so powerful.”

Eli, one of the subjects of The Art of Being Me, on display now in the Missouri Capitol (Photo: Mike Lear, Missouri House Communications)

      The Art of Being Me came to the Capitol after several legislators and other elected officials saw it last year at Bacon’s studio in Springfield.  After seeing it, some of them requested that it come to the Capitol.  

That included Representative John Black (R-Marshfield), who chairs the House’s budget subcommittee on Health, Mental Health, and Social Services.  He called the exhibit, “powerful.”

      “It’s encouraging, too.  Inspirational, actually.   A lot of those people have powerful testimonies, how they’ve overcome mental illness to lead productive lives.  The fact is, and it’s becoming more and more apparent to everyone, that mental illness is a root cause of many of our societal problems, specifically drug abuse and homelessness.  If we can address the mental illness issues then we have a lot better chance of helping people return to [being] productive and happy.”

      Another of those legislators is Representative Betsy Fogle (D-Springfield), who said a large part of addressing mental health issues in state policy is removing stigmas surrounding them, and she hopes having that display in the Capitol will help do just that.

The Art of Being Me on display in the Missouri Capitol (Photo: Mike Lear, Missouri House Communications)

      “It was beautiful.  You had children up to people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s that shared their struggle,” Fogle said of the exhibit.  I don’t know a single family in the world that hasn’t been impacted by mental health or substance abuse disorder and it’s about time we start talking about it and doing something in this building to make sure that future families don’t have the same struggles.”

      Those featured in The Art of Being Me are at varying points in their own mental health journeys, but Martin said the fact that they were willing to share their own stories is empowering for them as well.

      “These individuals were brave and vulnerable enough to share and to talk about their struggles and maybe it is a triumph, maybe it is a continued struggle, maybe it’s talking about their experience with finding therapy and finding ways to cope with maybe a situation that they will live with forever.”

The Art of Being Me on display in the Missouri Capitol (Photo: Mike Lear, Missouri House Communications)

      “These photos are not touched up.  You can see every pore, every hair, every tear, and we did that intentionally, and the size is intentional, so that when you’re there you’re truly feeling like you are looking through the eyes of these individuals and feeling what they’re feeling.”

      Martin adds, “We’re so excited that it’s going to be [in the Capitol] through the 10th, and we hope that it inspires others and we hope that people want to come forward and share their stories and continue the conversations that we so desperately need to continue sharing and seeking help for.”