CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As we welcome in the new month of May, we also kick off Mental Health Awareness Month. Something at 3News we especially try to highlight, year-round, through our segment "On Your Mind," which showcases the resources, centers and groups that are available locally.
How we address and take of our own mental health will look different on everyone, but for those without health insurance, access to that type of support and care is not always easy to come by.
Which is where places like Nueces County's MHID come in and can be so helpful - a place that Andrea Kovarik, licensed professional counselor and the mental health director for MHID, says she wishes more people knew about.
Kovarik says that too often, she sees that people are filling up ER's with things they could be going to MHID for instead, and be receiving direct help for much faster.
"One of the gaps that we started seeing is that there’s people that are going to the ERs and inundating the ERs when in reality if they were just able to get that quick care, that quick access to a physician along with the case management, it would deflect from having to do that," explained Kovarik.
"I think that’s where people are going to the ERs not realizing that there’s these services that are just as quick and available in the outpatient sector and which are probably more appropriate in some cases."
According to Kovarik, MHID serves around 10,000 Nueces County residents a year, but that they're there to serve more, reminding people that even if you're not sure what services you may need exactly, you can still call them to receive a free screening. From there, they'll help direct you where you need to go.
"I think there's a huge stigma placed on mental health and people are fearful of maybe how it might impact their employment or other things in their life or how people view them, when in reality, we’re all susceptible to mental illness," Kovarik said.
"There’s things that lie dormant, there’s things that we’re susceptible to depending on our family history and so it can be any event that triggers that."
We met with Kovarik at MHID's La Mariposa center, which opened in 2015. The center is open weekdays to those who receives services through MHID. That's where the group's peer-led programs operate out of, but it's also where individuals can drop by for a few basic needs and necessities such as laundry, using the kitchen or even working out.
In English, La Mariposa is the butterfly, which happens to symbolize transformation, freedom & hope: all the things the center aims to do for those who seek help and services through there.
"They come to a place where they’re understood. It’s a safe place for them. They know there’s gonna be people there who have gone through the same things they’ve been through, but they’re the people also teaching the skills."
A place where they can be vulnerable and allow healing to begin.
The conversations range from: social anxiety, overcoming addiction, surviving suicide attempts...and more. With each peer-led session, barriers are broken.
"The best thing about groups is that you get to hear individual experiences and when people hear their experiences and how they relate to other people who have the same experiences," Kovarik said.
"It helps to normalize everything, and so you don't feel like you’re the only one experiencing those things."
It was also at the La Mariposa center where we met Twyla Oliva: a mother of two who shared that she has bipolar disorder.
"The longer I live with it, the more difficult it is to describe in human words," said Oliva. "I think when you read the symptoms on the internet or in an article, it doesn’t accurately describe what we’re really going through."
Oliva explained that something like bipolar disorder, can too look different on each person.
"They fluctuate between depressive episodes and sometimes kinda normal periods and then manic episodes," explained Oliva.
"Everything is heightened. When we’re happy we’re happier than your regular person. When we’re in love, we love deeper. When we’re sad -- they say someone who’s bipolar - when they’re depressed they’re way more depressed than someone with major depressive disorder."
According to the American Psychiatric Association: bipolar disorder is described as a brain disorder that causes changes in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function. People with bipolar disorder experience intense emotional states that typically occur during distinct periods of days to weeks, called mood episodes. The disorder commonly runs in families: 80 to 90 percent of individuals with bipolar disorder have a relative with bipolar disorder or depression. The average age of onset is 25 years old. When treated, people with bipolar disorder can lead full and productive lives.
Twyla shared that she had been seeing psychiatrists in the private sector since she was 16, but as she got older, things took a turn to a point where she could no longer work, thus losing her health insurance.
That's when -- about a year and a half ago - she reached out to MHID, which she says has helped keep her out of the hospital.
"I always have support and it made my family so relieved when I came back from my intake and explained all that to them and wrote the crisis line number on the board in our living room."
MHID's 24-Hour Crisis Hotline: 888-767-4493
Oliva explained how for her, the intake process was easy once she made the call, sharing that the help she receives now is the same if not better than what she was able to attain through insurance.
"They can help you figure out what you need, and if MHID is not the right place for you, then they’ll refer you to what’s free in the community or easy to access what you need," said Oliva.
"I feel like I don't have to explain myself to people, and people understand me."
To learn more about MHID's services, click here.
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