Courtesy ECS Psychological Services
By Christine Graf
Local mental health practitioners are struggling to meet the tremendous demand for services that has been triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The need encompasses all age groups, and pediatric health experts have labeled the mental health crisis among children as a national emergency.
According to Dr. Erin Christopher-Sisk, Ph.D., founder and clinical director of ECS Psychological Services in Saratoga Springs, the need has never been greater.
“In my almost 20 years of being in practice, I have never seen the volume of need that we see and have seen over the past year-and-a-half. Every provider I know is booked solid. Our mission has always been to keep up with needs of community, so we just continued to try to hire therapists and expand staff. We were at seven or eight full-time staff members before the pandemic, and we are now at 20.”
Licensed psychologist Dr. Debra Pietrangelo, founder of True North in Glens Falls, has been practicing for more than thirty-five years and describes the current need for mental health services as “unbelievable.”
“We are turning people away every day,” she said. “Sometimes 20 to 30 a day. We’ve always had to turn people away, but it’s worse than ever before. I have ten clinicians, and wish I had space for more. There are not enough practitioners out there to meet the need.”
The need is so great that Dr. Catherine Ushchak opened a private practice in Saratoga Springs in August. Although new to private practice, she has been practicing as a general psychiatrist and child and adolescent psychiatrist for 25 years. Many of her school-aged patients have had difficulty returning to in-person learning.
“What I’m seeing in my practice across age the spectrum is that those kids who have had some anxiety are finding it hard to transition back into school,” she said. “The longer you aren’t in school, the harder it is to get back. So there’s an urgency for parents to get kids back in school as soon as possible.”
Pietrangelo believes that the surge in demand for mental health services is fueled by several factors.
“We’re seeing so much anxiety from the pandemic and also from the political divide in the country. It has created schisms in families and friendships, and I think people are depressed about that,” she said. “Anxiety and depression often go hand in hand.”
Many individuals who were able to manage their anxiety and depression before the pandemic experienced a dramatic increase in symptoms.
“Maybe they had some manageable anxiety or low levels symptoms of depression prior to the pandemic, but they were able to manage. The stress of the pandemic—the isolation—it just tipped the scale,” said Sisk. “Even people who didn’t have any significant anxiety or depression are experiencing it because of the isolation and the fear of being around people.”
Although working from home was a blessing for many, it added to the sense of isolation that many experienced.
“There is a value to just being around another human being that you don’t get on the screen or on the phone. You don’t get the full value of exchanging that positive energy and that social connection,” said Sisk.
She encourages her patients who are working remotely to maintain their pre-pandemic routines.
“Even though you don’t have to get dressed for work, do it anyway. Make sure you take a shower. These are the basics that help us hang onto the routine that we had before all this happened,” she said.
The pandemic has been extremely difficult for many of Ushchak’s elderly patients, especially those who live alone.
“I’m seeing a lot of a sense of isolation and a struggle with ‘Where am I safe, and when will I be safe to go out?’” she said, noting that patients of all ages are asking these same questions. “One of the difficulties is that no one has the answer. I try to help people figure out what is going to work for them because it’s different for each person.”
Pietrangelo takes a similar approach with her clients who are asking the same questions.
“I’m trying to help them find a balance between the level of safety that they need in order to be comfortable and resuming activities that bring them joy and pleasure. There’s a middle ground someplace, and I help them to find that middle ground,” she said. “And one of the big things I recommend for people is creativity. Finding the beauty in the world and using your hands somehow to create art or music or poetry or to sew or to wood carve or whatever it is that you enjoy doing.”
The equine-assisted therapy component of Sisk’s practice has been especially beneficial during the pandemic. ECS Psychological partners with Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga to provide Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) services to clients of all ages. Sisk and her husband, Jim, are racehorse owners who founded the nonprofit in 2018 with their own retired racehorses.
“Equine therapy has been a blessing during all of this because it allowed us an outside avenue for treatment, and it has allowed people to be active and outside,” she said. “It works in almost any treatment situation. What we do is get people to come in and have a conversation first about what they want to improve in their life, and that helps us figure out how we can use the horses to accomplish that.”
In recent years, all three practitioners have observed a reduction in the level of stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment. They agree that it is helpful when public figures including Simone Biles speak publicly about their own struggles.
“There was a lot of shame surrounding seeking mental health support,” said Sisk. “The more that public figures share their own stories, it really helps break down those barriers.”
“I have seen over the years that more people who may have been resistant or reluctant have opened up to it because they know other people who are getting therapy,” said Pietrangelo.” Some people have a really hard time facing their own emotions and their own shadows. That’s just really difficult for them. But I do think that the more that public people talk about it and bring it into our awareness, it helps everybody.”
Ushchak encourages anyone who is struggling with mental health issues to reach out for help.
“There are certainly people with lots of different training who are there to help,” she said. “It takes everyone working together supporting each other caring about each other. It takes a village.”