Velis chairs committee on mental health, substance use

Date: 3/13/2023

WESTERN MASS. – Coming off his recent appointment as chair of the Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery Committee for the 2023-2024 legislative session, state Sen. John Velis sat down virtually with Holyoke Media to discuss his new role.

Velis was appointed in February, making it the second committee he will be chairing for the state. He is also the chair of the Veterans and Federal Affairs Committee. Velis had previously served as the vice chair of the Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery Committee in the 2021-2022 legislative session and helped usher the Mental Health ABC Act 2.0 in law.

Velis said through a statement in a press release on the announcement that he was looking forward to building upon the work done in this area by the state.

“In my mind, mental health and substance use are the biggest problems in the commonwealth that not enough people are talking about. And as someone who has had their own struggles in recovery, I know firsthand how these two issues can so often be co-occurring for people,” Velis said in the statement. “We know that we must do more to help those struggling, and I look forward to working with members of the committee to accomplish just that.”

In his interview with Holyoke Media, Velis echoed his belief that this area was underdiscussed and explained the committee further.

“It’s anything and everything that falls in those three very large buckets. So, if you really think about it every single one of them could have their own committee and be the busiest out there. The reason that they’re combined is that so many folks that suffer are going through one of the three,” Velis said.

Velis noted that co-occurring disorders can often take place for someone and noted he has his work cut out for him. He believes there is a “mental health crisis in this country that I think is probably unparalleled.”

While there are many factors that have played into rising mental health issues in the country, Velis is more focused on making sure people can get the help they need.

Velis cited a recent CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) report calling it “absolutely devastating,” as it spoke on mental health. One part of the report that stood out to Velis was the current state of mental health of adolescent girls. Through surveys with children, one of the report’s findings showed that adolescent girls in particular were experiencing unprecedented levels of unhappiness, depression and suicidal ideations.

He also noted that the data supports “in an irrefutable fashion” that if you want to help someone out with a mental health concern, you need to start that process as early as you can in relation to when these issues begin to manifest and symptoms are beginning.

Velis said with this information a big focus for his work as chair of this committee is establishing better school-based programs for mental health.

“A lot of times, teachers, paras, just folks in schools, friends in schools, are the people that are going to have the best ability to say, ‘Hey, something’s going on with John, we should talk to someone about him, or we should talk to him and ask him if everything is going okay,’” Velis said.

Velis noted one of the “many good things” that came from the Mental Health ABC Act was the state requiring insurance companies to pay for one mental health wellness checkup a year for their clients.

He added he felt a mental health checkup as important as a regular physical with the doctor. If a client were to be experiencing mental health issues, they would then be referred from the check in. This creates a better line of help for people to seek what is needed for their mental health.

Velis said he was “humbled” to be chair for the next legislative year and added he doesn’t think there is a bigger challenge in the state than mental health.

“We can talk about housing, we can talk about all these other things, of course, but from a sheer humanity standpoint, you’re going to be hard pressed to convince me that something is a larger challenge in Massachusetts and beyond right now than mental health,” Velis said.

Velis continued and talked about how workforce shortages out of the coronavirus pandemic created gaps in work as professionals were feeling burnt out. Velis said it was on him and colleagues in the state to get creative in addressing the need for workers in these professions.

He noted one way of doing this was finding financial assistance and incentives for people going to school in these fields.

“The current system is not sustainable. We’re in a crisis right now. You’re seeing suicide rates up, you’re seeing again the depression, the anxiety, really across the whole spectrum of mental health concerns that are out there, there’s an uptick in those numbers,” Velis said. “Not to be redundant, but so much of this is meeting people where they are.”

Velis noted through his work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), data from the organization shows 20 to 22 veterans are committing suicide each day in the U.S. He added that many of these people were not enrolled in the VA health system, leaving them with little to no resources for their mental health issues.

Velis added it was vital in solving mental health issues to meet people where they are, something he said people will get tired of hearing him say over his term as chair. It is also very important to take that same approach to the masses, according to Velis.

“The three most courageous words in my opinion, that a human being can say, is ‘I need help.’ It just very challenging to do. What’s ironic about it is that some people think that they’re demonstrating weakness when they say that when in actuality, they’re doing the most courageous thing in the world. Because what we know with absolute certainty with evidence is that more people need help right now than they did say 10 to 15 years ago. We just need to figure out who they are and how to get them and bring them into the process.”