Mental Healthcare Matters Most

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There is no health without mental health. To a large degree, the health of our population determines the health of our state and region. Last year, nearly 30% of adults in New Hampshire reported symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorder. These kinds of psychiatric illnesses are impacting us and the people we care about in painful, disabling, and, too often, deadly ways. As the incidence of psychiatric illness continues to escalate, there is a widening gap between the need for mental healthcare and the supply.

Recently, Dartmouth Health conducted a comprehensive community needs assessment. Regional respondents were asked to select the top 5 most pressing health needs or issues in the community from a list of 27 potential topics. For the people of New Hampshire and Vermont, access to mental health is their number one concern. For this reason, we must continue to pursue innovative, urgent approaches to intervention, treatment, and access.

Putting Mental Healthcare on the Map

With access to mental healthcare being such a huge concern for people throughout the region, Dartmouth Health is actively exploring opportunities to provide more to more people in more places. As we strive to meet this growing demand, we are leveraging our state-of-the-art academic medical science resources through a network of large and small, exceptionally qualified regional hospitals, clinics, and home health and hospice services—all deeply grounded in their respective communities. This evolving network of interconnected mental healthcare facilities and initiatives is increasingly well-positioned to address a broad spectrum of patients with diverse treatment needs.

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Nobody questions getting treatment for a broken leg, and yet, when someone gets treatment for depression, the reaction is not the same. We will know we have broken through the stigma of mental healthcare when we people react the same for someone taking time off work for a mental health issue as they would for surgery or cancer treatments.”

John T. Broderick, Jr.
Senior Director External Affairs,
Dartmouth Health

States of Despair: More Mental Healthcare Needed to Meet Growing Demand

104,000 adults in Vermont have a mental health condition. That's more than 2x the population of Burlington. In Vermont, 27,000 adults have a serious mental illness. 221,000 adults in New Hampshire have a mental health condition. That's more than 5x the population of Concord. 92510 people in New Hampshire live in a community that does not have enough mental health professionals

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), “Mental Health in Vermont,” 2021 
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), “Mental Health in New Hampshire,” 2021

  1. Located on the DHMC campus, MHMH provides comprehensive psychiatry services in a clinical setting for adults and children. Our clinic sites are dedicated to training the next generation of clinicians while building knowledge through active research. Department of Psychiatry | DHMC and Clinics (dartmouth-hitchcock.org)
  2. TelePsychiatry, a service of our Connected Care, can improve access to Board Certified psychiatrists who provide prompt 24/7/365 psychiatric consultations in the acute care setting. In the Emergency Dept or inpatient unit, TelePsychiatry enables psychiatrist assessment and triage to hospitals that do not have in-person physician coverage. TelePsychiatry | Connected Care | DHMC and Clinics (dartmouth-hitchcock.org)
  3. From Southwest Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vermont, we are providing in-patient child psychiatric services to better serve our regional communities. Home (svmc.org)
  1. Our most recent expansion of services involves our new staffing commitment at Hampstead Hospital & Residential Treatment Facility | New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (nh.gov). This 71-bed specialty hospital specializes in acute psychiatric and substance-related disorders and is uniquely focused on children, adolescents, and young adults.
  2. As the premier acute psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire, New Hampshire Hospital | New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (nh.gov)  is a 184-bed facility dedicated to adults with acute mental illness.
  3. Valley Regional in Claremont, New Hampshire, is yet another example of Dartmouth Health’s commitment to enhancing access to mental healthcare. Quality Healthcare Specialists | Valley Regional Hospital (vrh.org)
  4. To meet the needs of older adults struggling with developmental disabilities and/or mental illness, The Glencliff Home is in Glencliff, NH Glencliff Home | New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (nh.gov) provides long-term medical care in a supervised, safe, therapeutic environment.