by Rebecca Grapevine
Georgia child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Sarah Vinson is featured in a new documentary by nationally acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns about youth mental health in America.
Called “Hidden in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness,” the two-part documentary features the voices of more than 20 young people from across America and all walks of life.
“We hope this film will save lives,” Burns said in a news release.
The young people featured in the documentary describe their struggles with addiction, depression, anxiety, trauma, racism, social media, and the pandemic.
Expert commentary, including Vinson’s, is interwoven throughout.
Vinson is one of 99 child and adolescent psychiatrists practicing in Georgia, according to the latest Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce’s data from 2019-2020.
She grew up in northwest Florida and studied medicine at the University of Florida, where she decided to study psychiatry.
“What I saw … is how critical mental health is, especially early on at these really important junctures for people, especially in terms of self-identity, educational, and career paths,” she said.
After training in psychiatry at Harvard University, Vinson returned to the South.
“The goal was always to come back and try to make things better down here,” said the triple board-certified doctor, who is now an associate professor at Morehouse School of Medicine.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Vinson in 2019 to Georgia’s Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission, a high-level committee that recommended changes to improve Georgia’s mental health outcomes.
Some of those recommendations were adopted in House Bill 1013, an overhaul of mental health-care delivery in Georgia the General Assembly passed in March.
The recent changes are just a start, though, said Vinson. Raising Medicaid payment rates for mental health providers is essential to building the mental health workforce, she said.
“When Medicaid rates aren’t competitive …. it can make it hard for hospital systems or group practices to be incentivized to take people who are publicly insured,” Vinson said.
Close to 40 percent of Georgia children are covered by state-sponsored insurance plans like Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“House Bill 1013 set the stage for increasing reimbursement rates though it did not increase them directly,” said Roland Behm, a board member of the Georgia Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Increasing the rates will be a top priority for mental health advocates during the next legislative session, Behm said.
In the documentary, Vinson and others explain how childhood trauma and instability contribute to long-term mental health problems.
“There’s a reason there’s so many cases in the first place,” Vinson said. “And it’s because [kids are] growing up with so much instability and uncertainty.
“We have to collectively decide that we want to provide them with an environment that’s more likely to [create] a mentally healthier outcome. Safe housing, food security, for kids, are huge.”
Expanding Medicaid would also help address youth mental health, Vinson said.
“We need Medicaid expansion in Georgia if we are serious about shoring up mental health services, especially for adults,” Vinson said. “If the adults that are responsible … can’t get the help they need, they can’t get their children what they themselves don’t have.”
Georgia governors Nathan Deal and Brian Kemp have chosen not to expand Medicaid, citing the costs.
Vinson also talked about how children are increasingly exposed to traumatic events like the recent shooting in Uvalde, Texas, via social media.
Vinson said that in today’s media-saturated landscape, parents should help their children cope with their feelings and not abandon them to the internet.
“It’s important for the parents to be the one to have those talks, to model those feelings and emotions that come with something this terrible, and that causes so much grief and sadness and maybe even anger,” Vinson said. “There is hope – we just have to make a decision as a state to be supportive.”
“Hidden in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness” will begin airing on PBS platforms, including on major streaming services, on June 27 and 28.
Georgians needing mental health assistance can call the Georgia Crisis and Access Line 24 hours a day at 1-800-715-4225.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.