Attending to the urgent needs of pandemic pressures

Perhaps not since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have Americans been so subsumed by fear and anxiety.

A volatile election season compounds the worries of a pandemic that underscores the precariousness of life and certainty of death. And talk of race continues to move disquietly from behind closed doors into the streets.

If all of this is troubling to adults, consider what it must be like for children who have had their lives disrupted and who watch fearfully as the adults they depend on worry about lost jobs and the ability to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.

For Black families, the effect of the coronavirus has been especially acute. The latest figures from the COVID Racial Data Tracker, a collaboration of the COVID Tracking Project and Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, show Black people in America are dying at 2.3 times the rate of whites.

And while disparities such as health care, chronic diseases, housing and jobs that don’t allow them to work safely at home put Blacks at greater risk for illness and death from the coronavirus, people of all races and ethnicities now mourn more than 200,000 family members and friends who have lost their lives to the disease. It’s a lot to handle.

This week, Pinellas Community Foundation announced that it was awarding $2.6 million in grants to help nine nonprofits add or enhance programs addressing mental health issues arising from the pandemic.

The foundation points to an alarming jump in crisis intervention and suicide-related calls in Pinellas County. Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 23 last year, 2-1-1 Tampa Bay Cares received 533 such calls. During the same period this year, there were 786 calls, a 47 percent increase. Directions for Living, a community mental health agency which is receiving $1.3 million in grant money, took more than 1,500 calls to its COVID-19 Emotional Support Line. 

Duggan Cooley, CEO of Pinellas Community Foundation is concerned about the surge in crisis calls, but says the ability to address mental issues gives him hope. “There are so many times in the nonprofit world where we live without resources….This is a time where there are a lot of resources that we can put to these challenges and meet the need. That, I would say, is what gives me hope.”

The Boys & Girls Club of the Suncoast is getting $249,627. Dr. LaDonna Butler, a licensed mental health counselor, will help children and their families cope with the current uncertainty.

“Our children are watching and they are witnessing the way we are responding to stress,” said Butler, founder of The Well For Life, an organization designed “specifically for people who have been impacted by social justice concerns, as well as systemic, historical and race-based trauma.”

Work with the Boys & Girls Club will be at the neighborhood level, where 79 percent of the children and young adults are Black or of color and 89 percent live at the federal poverty level.

“What we know as a community is that we are managing a public health crisis and in addition to COVID-19, we are navigating the stress that comes with racial tension in our community,” Butler said.

The grant will enable the organization to offer valuable, lifesaving mental health programs across Pinellas County, said Angela Wright, chair of the Boys & Girls Club board.

Directions for Living will use its $1.3 million for mental health first aid training to help people learn what to do when a person has a mental health crisis. Money from the grant will also be used to expand mental health unit partnerships with local law enforcement agencies, telehealth counseling and provide Wi-Fi and digital equipment so that those in need have the technology to access counselors.

The grants come from $30 million in CARES Act funds the foundation was asked to administer by Pinellas County. The funds are meant to be distributed to nonprofits that address needs in the areas of food, homelessness, behavioral health and legal aid for housing. 

The need for food continues to grow in Pinellas County and is being met in part by Feeding Tampa Bay, which launched one of its mega pantries at Tropicana Field early in the pandemic. Spokeswoman Shannon Hannon-Oliviero said the Saturday distribution serves about 1,200 adults each week.

The organization also teams up with partners to provide food at Tangerine Plaza, in the Perkins Elementary School neighborhood. It’s where St. Petersburg City Council member Gina Driscoll volunteers monthly. The lines are long, Driscoll said.

“Last month, when I was there, I noticed there was no meat and we had run out of food while there were still cars on line, which was heartbreaking,” she said.

But amid such despair, she sees sparks of light. An increasing number of individuals and organizations, including neighborhood groups, are offering to help.

“That’s encouraging,” Driscoll said. “Volunteering for me is rewarding. I feel if you can give your time, this is the time to do it.”