Mental Health: Making her Pointe Public + Private
words by Amber Wielkins; photography by Stevye Murray
Curious about the area’s largest public and private mental health care arms, we caught up with Dr. Sandra Parker to learn how they’re vital to all of us, the scope of services we should know about (and be proud of), and more. Why? It adds up to a whole lot more than tax dollars and makes perfect sense. Plus, mental health issues don’t discriminate or care about one’s bank balance or family ties, so knowing what’s available locally canmake the difference between life and death. Stacking our community with options, here’s what you need to know now.
“Mental health isn’t focused exclusively on controlling the symptoms of mental illness or reducing or eliminating mental illnesses. It includes actively prom oting well-being in people. I wish more people knew the importance of developing positive psychosocial factors like resilience and optimism as adults and teaching them to their children. Also, we need each other— social engagement can and does help people feel better.””
In regards to the national conversation [around mental health], Dr. Parker shares, “There’s a growing national awareness that mental illness and substance abuse are real and must be addressed.It’s becoming increasingly understood by politicians, the media, as well as the general public that things like depression and addiction are valid diseases just like other physical diseases, and that they’re worthy of treatment. This is in the best interests of our society, both in terms of wellness and economics, because left untreated, it doesn’t just affect the individual—it affects their entire family. Think about parents’ ability to provide for their children and an individual’s ability to be a good citizen and productive member of society.” She further asserts,“If we can help someone feel better, chances are they’ll be a better caregiver, keep a job, afford rent,and become a productivemember of society. The ripple effects are enormous. The more money we invest toward improving mental healthcare in this country, the bigger the profit will be to our overall economy.”
In our own community, it wasn’t until 1957 that local authorities established Mobile County Community Mental Health, starting out as a five-member team,with a budget of $36,500 and operating from a house on Springhill Avenue. In 1963, Congress passed legislation providing federal funding for the development of community-based mental health services. Dr. Parker claims, “That shift towards community-based services culminated in the 2012 closure of Searcy State Hospital.
Fast-forward to today, and the 1957 mental healthcare team of five has grown into AltaPointe Health, with services provided by hundreds of clinical professionals. Operating in dozens of locations across seven counties with a $117 million budget, Dr. Parker knows there’s a need for more growth. “Mental healthcare has certainly come a long way in the past 70 years, but we’re nowhere near the end of our journey. Psychiatric healthcare is inaccessible to many people living in rural or impoverished areas. AltaPointe is expanding services to people who need them. We’ve been hugely successful utilizing telehealth to reach out to those who wouldn’t have access to our services otherwise,” she says. In addition, it’s through AltaPointe that every public school in Mobile County now has a therapist on staff.
Many of us aren’t aware of the mental health services AltaPointe Health provides for our community, and Dr. Parker is eager to explain,“AltaPointeHealth is an extensive healthcare system providing primary and behavioral healthcare. Each year, we provide more than one million services to 45,000 patients across Alabama,” she says. A national leader in behavioral health for more than 60 years, AltaPointe expanded its service array in 2018 to include primary care, focusing on the whole health of the patient.
Rounding out the continuum, AltaPointe operates two psychiatric hospitals serving children and adults (both the only ones in our area), one behavioral health crisis center, 20 outpatient behavioral healthcare clinics, and BayView Professional Associates, its private practice arm. Pressing on, she adds, “BayView is the private practice division of AltaPointe Health, serving patients in Mobile and Baldwin Counties experiencing depression, anxiety, substance use issues, and more.”
Early in the pandemic, BayView's clinical team recognized that fear of illness, economic stress, and the uncertainty of its duration had encouraged people to seek mental health support who never needed it before. “BayView's team enhanced its best-practices model to better protect the health of its patients and staff. Telehealth, which allows patients to see a provider from anywhere at any timewas expanded,” says Dr. Parker, noting new technologies such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive procedure using magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression, commonly used when other depression treatments have not been effective. BayView also offers Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Dr. Parker notes, “EMDR is considered a best-practices therapy for trauma and has a high success rate with the bonus that it’s noninvasive.”
Finally, yet no less importantly, we talk about the needless shame stopping so many people from seeking help for themselves or loved ones. Dr. Parker is emphatic on this point, saying, “Virtually everyonehas struggled with either mental health or substance abuse issues at one point or are close to someone who has. When people understand that mental illness is equivalent to other types of physical illness —depression and anxiety are no more shameful than heart disease and diabetes —they start to lose their negative or shameful views on asking for treatment.” Lucky for us, Dr. Parker and the teams at AltaPointe and Bayview stand ready to help.
5750-A Southland Drive, Mobile
251.450.2211
This post has been modified for the length on the web. Read the original article in full in the November 2021 issue of ACCESS Magazine.
