APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A mental health care clinic in Appleton is highlighting one of its programs that is making a difference for those in need.
Us 2 Behavioral Health Care offered a tour of its facility Monday as part of Mental Health Awareness Month.
It focused on its Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT) program which not only helps those with borderline personality disorder but also those with severe emotional instability, self-harming activities, and suicidal behaviors, as well.
Officials say borderline personality disorder affects 5.7% of the population, which is 20% of all mental health patients. These individuals have a suicide rate 50 times that of the general population.
Program leader and psychotherapist, McKenna Garvey, says the need for mental health services and particularly DBT programs, has skyrocketed since the pandemic.
“There’s really only a couple DBT programs in the whole state of Wisconsin, most of those waiting lists are at least a year, if not more, so we have people getting chronically worse, even as [COVID] restrictions are dropping, we still see the impact, right, because in a way, COVID was a trauma for a lot of people,” she said.
During the tour, Outagamie County executive, Tom Nelson, announced the facility received a grant funded through the American Rescue plan to increase the training and capacity of the DBT program.
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