With the holidays approaching, those on the front lines of mental health treatment in Silicon Valley paint a sobering picture: stressful lives in this fast-paced, high-achieving region have been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a critical shortage of mental health care workers.
Those wishing to help address the local mental health crisis can find a list of organizations providing vital support services in Silicon Valley at the end of this story.
In January 2022, The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors declared mental health and substance abuse a public health crisis. Among the facts cited in their declaration: The suicide rate in Santa Clara County, after declining from 2014 to 2017, increased in 2018 and 2019 to a 10-year high. Initial data indicates that it held steady in 2020. The county has seen fentanyl-related deaths almost triple in the past year.
“There is tremendous demand for mental health services now,” said Sara Larios Mitchell, CEO of StarVista, which offers mental health services in San Mateo County. StarVista’s Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Center saw a 40 percent spike in the number of calls it received during the pandemic. In July 2022, the group launched its new 988 crisis response line. Within the first month, StarVista saw a 34 percent increase in call volume. In the second month, StarVista saw a sixty percent increase in call volume compared to June 2022. Calls consisted of many new first-time callers, friends and family calling to inquire about support and resources for loved ones, and many people calling to test the lines as a preventative measure.
“People have been traumatized,” said Mitchell. “There’s high stress, anxiety and anger – the result of the intense stress and pressure of the pandemic, individuals losing their jobs and trying to manage childcare. It is a time when the communities here need a lot of kindness and support.”
This increased need is coupled with a shortage of workers to provide mental health care.
“From case managers all the way up to the MD psychiatrists, we have shortages in every direct service position,” said David Mineta, president and CEO of Momentum for Health, which serves Santa Clara County. “It’s not sustainable to keep working, working, working – we’re seeing this across all areas of healthcare. We have to keep our health care provider workforce well and also appreciate the Herculean effort that people have put out continually over the past three years.”
A crisis with many causes
Those working in the field identify several causes of the current situation:
“The pandemic was a pressure cooker for everybody,” Mitchell said.
When the pandemic shut down in-person services, Momentum for Health, like other providers, quickly moved its services online. But this created a difficult situation for clients who didn’t have phones or computers.
“One of the things community-based providers do very well for clients is building a sense of community – the feeling that you are not alone,” Mineta said. “The pandemic reinforced a sense of isolation.”
“It is unbelievably difficult to hire clinicians,” Mitchell said. “A lot of folks are moving out of the area. We are seeing people leaving the community because they can’t afford to live here.”
“The pandemic has really exposed health disparities across all health indicators, but it really has highlighted the behavioral health disparities,” Mineta said. “For folks that are low-income, for communities of color, it’s just gotten worse.”
“There’s this expectation that you should be happy, that you should be connected to a community, that you should have loved ones around – and a lot of folks don’t have that,” Mitchell said. “It can bring up a lot of pain and loss and sadness.”
Dedicated care providers
“We are very proud to be part of a 30+-agency network providing behavioral health care in Santa Clara County,” Mineta said.
Many groups are working to provide services to those who need mental health care, including these examples:
Momentum for Health. San Jose-based Momentum provides mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Its services include community-wide wellness training, outpatient programs, and a crisis stabilization unit and residential programs for adults.
Momentum is one of several groups working on alternatives to having law enforcement officers respond to mental health crises. Momentum’s TRUST Field Response Team – in partnership with HomeFirst Services and Pacific Clinics – responds to mental health calls with a team of people trained to help those with mental health and substance use conditions. The team works to resolve the immediate crisis, then refers the person to the appropriate services.
StarVista. StarVista started in 1966 as a suicide prevention hotline based in Burlingame. Since then, it has grown to include 30 different programs serving about 37,000 people each year in San Mateo County. They provide mental health and drug and alcohol treatment to both children, youth and adults.
StarVista is also running a pilot program aimed at improving the response to mental health crises. Their program, now in its second year, embeds a mental health professional within the police departments of four San Mateo County cities: San Mateo, Redwood City, South San Francisco and Daly City.
An important example of their life-saving work: a student at a local community college had a mental health crisis during a class that was happening over Zoom. The teacher called 911, leading a clinician to respond and save the student’s life.
One Mind. Brandon Staglin’s family founded One Mind in response to their shared experience with Staglin’s schizophrenia diagnosis and recovery in 1995. He joined the organization in 2005 as its communications director, inspired to help by the story of the son of one of their donors. The son nearly died after experiencing a relapse of his mental health condition. Staglin was outraged that the healthcare system couldn’t help him — “and by extension, there were millions of young people around the country who were in a similar terrible situation,” he said.
Staglin has been president of One Mind since 2018.
“I’ve learned that even after a serious mental illness diagnosis, life has amazing potential for beautiful discovery, beautiful accomplishment, and for love and meaning,” Staglin said.
One Mind has a three-pronged strategy for addressing mental health issues. Its media division is partnering with YouTube as a content provider on mental health. The science division focuses on improving the treatments, diagnostics and preventions for people with mental illness. And the business division gives companies tools to measure and improve how well they are supporting their employees’ mental health.
One Mind works with programs around the state that offer care for serious mental illness in young people — and they are hearing that these programs are overwhelmed by the demand for their services. They are also partnering with Kaiser Permanente to offer mental health supports for clinicians throughout California.
“We have changed the lives of thousands of young people through our programs,” Staglin said. “And we have reached millions of people around the country and beyond with hopeful and inspiring media.”
Looking to the future
There are no signs that the high demand for mental health services will decrease anytime soon — and the uncertain economic outlook may create additional stressors for a public that is already struggling.
Still, there are ways that the community can help.
“Government is working on improving mental health for people. But it doesn’t do enough,” Staglin said. “Philanthropy plays a key role in improving mental health across our society.”
The organizations providing mental health services can benefit from the additional resources philanthropy can provide.
“We need the support of community members in order to do our work – we cannot do it alone,” Mitchell said. “There are so many people who are hurting right now. If people want to make a local impact, this is the way to do it: Support your local organizations that are at the front lines, connecting with people when they’re at their most vulnerable.”
Thanks to the efforts of those on the front lines – and the donors who support them – many people with mental health diagnoses go on to live full, productive lives.
“There are people all around us that are living with behavioral health conditions, and they’re doing just fine,” Mineta said. “Recovery happens.”
In addition to Momentum for Health, StarVista and One Mind, below are other local organizations providing vital mental health support services in Silicon Valley: