While Texans have had their eye on the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and care providers say there is another crisis taking a toll: worsening mental illness that is crippling some residents in Denton County and across the state.
County providers have seen a spike in the number of people experiencing severe depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicide attempts over the past few months, with mental health concerns exacerbated by pandemic stressors. Financial difficulties and increased mental anguish often go hand in hand, as an April white paper from the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, a nonpartisan organization that provides policy guidance on mental health in Texas, found. For every 5 percentage-point increase in the stateâs unemployment rate each year, another 300 Texans would be lost to suicide, the study estimated.