Brockton Neighborhood Health Center managing rise in immigrant mental health patients
BROCKTON - Tireless providers at the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center are managing the health and mental health of dozens of new immigrants every week.
Some of them have complex mental health issues.
"Certainly patients who have come through the southern border have had a lot of trauma. There is violence. Some kids are abused," lead pediatrician Dr. Janemarie Dolan told WBZ-TV. "The number of patients has expanded astronomically. We see about 20-to-25 new patients a day."
Dolan said every single patient is evaluated by the center's behavioral health team.
"Some kids have anxiety. Some kids have post-traumatic stress disorder and do need counseling and therapy. So, we screen all our patients for these disorders," she said.
That's how Haitian immigrant Emmanuela learned that her toddler Elsie was autistic.
"The first concern that I had was my little daughter, my 2-year-old daughter, because I thought that she might have some development issues," she told WBZ. "The doctor and the center is very supportive."
These health care professionals are now meeting the needs of two vulnerable groups - the influx of immigrant patients and the kids who lived in Brockton through the pandemic who have their own trauma.
"The kids were home for over a year. They were not in school so there was a really high rate of depression and anxiety and we're still dealing with that now," said Dr. Dolan.
According to a 2020 survey of Brockton Public School guidance counselors, 39 percent indicated they were aware of a child intentionally hurting themselves and 36 percent were aware of a child who contemplated suicide in the 12 months prior.
But even as they are bursting at the seams, the health center is not backing down from a challenge. A brand new health clinic will open next to Brockton High School next year.
"We're going to have a behavioral health clinician and a community health worker. So, kids who haven't been connected with care can come over and have physicals done, get vaccinated, be seen for acute problems and also for behavioral health problems," said Dr. Dolan.