\u201cWe don\u2019t really know how we\u2019re doing,\u201d Amanda McKee \u2014 whose son, Asa Deslonde, is a senior at Apalachee \u2014 said two days after the shooting. \u201cIt\u2019s second by second. It\u2019s minute by minute. The last couple days have been unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When shootings of any magnitude occur, they often leave the survivors with invisible injuries that can create life-changing symptoms that sometimes<\/a> paralyze them<\/a>.But such problems can take time to emerge. Panic attacks and anxiety can spike across a community after a shooting and can be most intense when people return to the scene, said Howard Liu<\/a>, chair of the Council on Communications for the American Psychiatric Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n So health providers worry that in the coming days, months, and years the community will struggle to find help for their mental health needs. Barrow County, along a highway that connects Atlanta to the college town of Athens, is a community where agriculture is steadily giving way to development.<\/p>\n Prior to the shooting, the area had one stand-alone inpatient mental health facility, located in Gainesville, about 30 miles away from where the shooting occurred in Barrow County, that was \u201cconstantly overwhelmed,\u201d said Sean Couch, a spokesperson for Northeast Georgia Health System. And, the latest federal data shows, Barrow would need to add at least 13 full-time providers to no longer be considered a mental health workforce shortage area.<\/p>\n \u201cWe put a band-aid on a chronic situation and that band-aid isn\u2019t going to last,\u201d said Roland Behm, a co-founder of the Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership, an advocacy group that represents mental health organizations in the state. \u201cWhat happens three months from now?\u201d<\/p>\n The scarcity of mental health providers in Barrow County is emblematic of the state as a whole. Georgia ranks nearly last among states in access to mental health care resources, according to Mental Health America<\/a>, a nonprofit that advocates for increased mental health spending. More than 5 million Georgians<\/a> live in mental health care professional shortage areas like Barrow County.<\/p>\n Paying for mental health care to treat such trauma is difficult nationwide. But Georgia is one of the 10 states that have not fully expanded eligibility<\/a> for Medicaid, the nation\u2019s safety net insurance for those with low incomes and also the largest payer for mental health services. The state has an uninsured rate of 13.6%, which is 4.1 percentage points higher than the country as a whole, according to 2022 data<\/a> from the U.S Census Bureau.<\/p>\n Even people with private health plans have trouble finding affordable, in-network mental health care because of a lack of providers willing to accept low insurance reimbursement rates, Behm said.<\/p>\n Tamara Conlin, CEO of Advantage Behavioral Health Systems<\/a>, said the people who came to the initial counseling sessions that her group helped arrange in a county office showed a lot of sadness and anxiety.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of them are still in shock and trying to wrap their heads around what happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Even before the shooting, students at Apalachee High School reported significant mental health challenges.<\/p>\n Nearly 200 of 1,725 student respondents reported that they had seriously considered attempting suicide one or more times in the prior year, according to the latest Georgia Student Health Survey<\/a>. Top motivators included problems with peers, friends, or family. About half of the students from the school who answered said they felt sad, depressed, or withdrawn at least once in the prior 30 days.<\/p>\n County residents complained about having to travel for psychiatric care and said the \u201cshortage of psychologists and counseling services led to untreated high anxiety and depression rates,\u201d during a 2019 focus group<\/a> about health care access.<\/p>\n The lack of mental health care remained a top concern in the region during a follow-up assessment in 2022<\/a>. That year, the opioid overdose death rate in Barrow County was among the highest in Georgia, according to state data<\/a>, and the five-year suicide rate was above the state average<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Barrow County School System, which includes Apalachee High School, received a $1.8 million federal grant<\/a> to boost mental health resources in schools from 2023 through 2028.<\/p>\n But immediately following the shooting, mental health providers across the region still had to cobble together free resources for area residents. Three volunteers helped with last Wednesday\u2019s response at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Barrow. Advantage Behavioral Health Systems kept its Barrow clinic open on Sunday and is providing counselors to community events and local schools as they reopen.<\/p>\n William Smith, who heads the Atlanta Center for EMDR, is planning sessions using eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy to address PTSD \u2014 at least one for first responders and another for residents.<\/p>\n Over the weekend, Lutheran Church Charities<\/a> brought nine golden retrievers as \u201ccomfort dogs\u201d to help the grieving. The group\u2019s dogs have been deployed in the wake of other school shootings, including the Uvalde, Texas, massacre.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t fix what they\u2019re feeling,\u201d said volunteer Paul Soost, as people gathered around a campus flagpole where they delivered flowers and messages. \u201cWe can provide comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n Many health care providers expect the community\u2019s needs to spike when students return to Apalachee High School and as the national attention on the shooting recedes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when people start experiencing the trauma,\u201d said Conlin, with Advantage Behavioral Health Systems, who compared the current crisis to the surge of patients she saw after the immediate threat of the covid-19 pandemic passed.<\/p>\n Her clinic in Barrow County already had about 750 active clients before the shooting, with about 120 under the age of 18.<\/p>\n McKee said she knows healing will be a long process for her son, Asa. One of his football coaches, Richard Aspinwall<\/a>, was among the four killed. A key step came the day after the shooting, she said, when the school\u2019s head football coach convened the team to share how much he was hurting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coach validated that they were hurt, and encouraged them to embrace that they were injured,\u201d McKee said. \u201cThey\u2019re not the physical injuries that were incurred by the senseless act, but they are injuries nonetheless.\u201d<\/p>\n If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting \u201c988.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/aungthiha.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Apalachee_03-resized-scaled.jpg\")
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