Long before the pandemic, the Bronx had its share of mental health challenges and lacked sufficient resources to address those hurdles. Prior to COVID-19— which health experts told the Bronx Times ushered in long overdue conversations about mental health — the Bronx had the highest rate of psychiatric hospitalizations in the five boroughs and highest proportion of people in serious psychological distress.
Nearly one in five U.S. adults lives with a mental illness. However, fewer than half of those experiencing mental health challenges can access treatment, and those disparities often hinder communities of color.
The Northeast Bronx and Kingsbridge are among the city’s neighborhoods with the lowest connection to mental health access, with only 20% of those with mental health needs receiving treatment.
Since the pandemic, mental health nonprofit VNS Health (formerly Visiting Nurse Service of New York) which has a physical location in Morris Heights, has made efforts to individualize mental health care to each corner and community of the borough.
“Ultimately, I feel like since the pandemic, things have been exacerbated, and its not like these things didn’t exist before. It’s just that we kind of had like a Band-Aid on things I feel like in the city and when the pandemic happened it opened up the floodgates,” said Patricia Kissi, director of behavioral health at VNS Health. “It just opened up all these other issues that we didn’t address before that are now at the forefront.”
A major focus for these mental health experts has been tackling social anxiety and other mental health struggles afflicting children, after a pandemic that interrupted much of their socialization.
Through programs like Home Based Crisis Intervention (HBCI), which offers intensive, short-term in-home crisis care to children between 5 and 18 years old, mobile health crisis teams are making in-roads with communities and families, where mental health is still a taboo…
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