STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Calls from Wood River Valley residents seeking mental health help have skyrocketed since the COVID pandemic swept across the valley, according to a licensed clinical social worker in the valley.

Laurie Strand told those attending the Wood River Women’s Foundation State of the Valley Health Forum last week that some valley residents regulated themselves with alcohol during the pandemic when they were confined to their homes, often dealing with their children’s schoolwork.

“Now we’re dealing with a lot of alcoholism,” she said.

In addition, more people are moving here who also need mental health support, she said: “It’s frustrating because we can’t keep up with demand.”

Mental health rose to the top of a list of concerns during the State of the Valley Health Forum, which was held at The Community Library.

Strand, who teaches resiliency skill-building through Resiliency Rising LLC, said that she and other  therapists have seen an influx of people who have never been to therapy before, including those 60 and older.

“Unfortunately, the stigma is not gone. We need to have people get the courage to say something when they see something worrisome in a friend. We need to have people get the courage to share their mental health challenges with others. Also, there’s a massive shortage of clinicians who are fluent in Spanish so we need to get creative,” she said.

Dr. Tom Archie, who moderated the panel discussion, said physicians were seeing more young people with alcohol problems in the emergency room.

And Almita Nunnelee, who heads up St. Luke’s Wood River, noted that the hospital has been trying to fill a position for a psychiatrist for 760 days. It is, she said, the longest a position has been open.

She added that figuring out ways to serve those with dementia or delirium is a huge challenge.

“We’re trying to figure out beds to keep them from having to go to another facility an hour and a half away,” she said.

Blaine County’s population increased 7 percent during 2020, the year the pandemic started, according to Sun Valley Economic Development statistics. That’s seven-fold the 1 percent annual growth it had experienced the previous 20 years.

That meant at least 1,300 new residents who were voting and driving—and more if you add in their children.

That has put a strain on medical providers—both people doctors and veterinarians, according to Archie.

Sun Valley Animal Center, for instance, has been bringing in a veterinarian from San Francisco to help meet the need here. And St. Luke’s Wood River is dealing with work force challenges that have continued past COVID, said Nunnelee.

Nunnelee said the hospital is trying be creative with its staffing. Surgical services staff, for instance, has been trained to work in the mother/baby unit.

“It’s made us closer knit. We have a new understanding what’s involved in the different departments” said Nunnelee, adding that the telemedicine and virtual visits that emerged during the pandemic has continued, allowing neurologists in Boise to diagnose stroke patients in Sun Valley over computer screens.

Alisa Barnes, a certified physician assistant at Family Health Services in Bellevue, said she’d moved here from Salt Lake City, which is also experiencing a huge population explosion: “We as providers see difficulty in access to specialists. We don’t have enough to help those who have been living here three years ago let alone the newcomers.

Nationwide, many nurses quit due to burnout during pandemic. In 2020 more than half of nurses in the United States were over 50 years of age and 44 percent of physicians were 55 or older so they will be looking at retiring soon, Archie warned.

Jovita Pina, executive director of The Senior Connection, said that more than half of the valley’s newcomers are over 60. That’s been a blessing in some ways as everyone who has moved here is looking for opportunities to jump in and volunteer, she said.

But recruiting home caregivers has been a challenge.

“We get very talented people coming in and then they hit the affordable housing wall,” she said.

Lack of caregivers means some people wanting home health care may be put on waitlist while others are seen just once a week instead of three, she added.

“Some of our caregivers are older adults themselves so they’re going to be retiring soon,” she said.

Pina noted the Senior Connection had recently obtained grants to increase pay for caregivers so their pay is comparable to what others in the profession are getting.

“We’ve grown from a $500,000 annual budget in 2016 to $1.6 million, but I don’t know how long we can keep up with the growth,” she said, noting that the senior population growth rate here is double that of the nation.

Despite concerns, providers had praise for the Wood River Valley.

Nunnelee noted that there were other communities where health care lost its luster during COVID.

“But support for providers never waned here. Thank you,” she said. “Our critical access hospital has state-of-the-art equipment because of St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation We just need more advocacy to get mental health support and housing.”

Barnes noted that Family Health Services provides medical care on a sliding fee scale to those who don’t have insurance.

“I’ve never seen a community that supplies so much money and access to community members,” she said. “I’ve never seen so many people out hiking and biking—everything people do to prevent disease. And we have some exciting new tools in our office, like cholesterol machines—to help them stay healthy.”

The forum was organized by the Wood River Women’s Foundation Education Committee comprised of Lilian Wu, Jeanne Cassell, Jenni Riley, Shanna Angel, Ellen Fastow, Susan Passovoy and Renee Spooner. Its purpose is to educate people about needs in the community so people can make informed choices about where to give their money.