South Dakota's mental health access struggles have been ongoing for years
Editor's note: The story below mentions mental health issues. If you need help or know someone who does, please call 988, the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available for 24/7, free and confidential support. This is also the fourth of five pieces exploring how years-long gaps in mental health services have now rippled down to some of the youngest South Dakotans.
The Argus Leader has been reporting for years on the challenges South Dakota has faced in addressing mental health issues across the state, especially when it comes to those stuck in a state of limbo as they wait to move through the justice system.
A year-long investigation has revealed some of those same trends at adult facilities are now trickling down to youth.
That's a problem that's compounded by the slow growth in the number of mental health specialists throughout South Dakota.
Below is a timeline of some of the stories that we've written about those efforts:
November 2015: The Argus Leader reports on a pattern of state courts keeping mentally-ill defendants behind bars for extended terms due to a backlog of mental health exams.
November 2015: South Dakota Supreme Court Justice David Gilbertson calls for a task force to address the delays, citing the Argus Leader's reporting. Gov. Dennis Daugaard says he supports the move.
March 2016: Daugaard signs Senate Bill 79, intended to address the backlog by broadening the criteria for who can perform mental health exams.
May 2016: An Argus Leader investigation finds an increase in violence toward employees of the Human Services Center, the state's primary mental health hospital.
June 2016: Data shows Human Services Center employees make less money than the national average, and less than others doing similar work in other states
July 2016: The Argus Leader reports that the Human Services Center is operating without accreditation from a widely-used review organization.
September 2016: Gilbertson requests funding to pilot a mental health court.
May 2017: The mental health court project stalls after its funding is left out of the state's budget.
June 2017: Barely a year after taking the position, Troy Jones resigns as head of the Human Services Center.
July 2017: The Human Services Center stops performing court-ordered mental health screenings.
April 2018: The Human Services Center announces Ken Cole as its new administrator.
February 2019: Pennington County opens the state's first mental health court.
February 2019: The Argus Leader reports on South Dakota's use of involuntary mental health holds, a practice that national groups say is ineffective and jail officials say isn't what their facilities are made for.
March 2019: A Minnehaha County Jail inmate sues the Human Services Center in an attempt to be accepted for treatment.
September 2019: Cole steps down as the administrator of the Human Services Center.
January 2020: An Argus Leader review shows that justice reforms have significantly lowered the amount of juveniles being locked up in South Dakota.
January 2020: Minnehaha County's mental health court sees its first participants.
June 2021: The Link opens in downtown Sioux Falls, intended as a way to help people struggling with addiction or a mental health crisis that doesn't involve sending them to a jail cell or an emergency room.
October 2021: Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead tells state legislators that workforce shortages are worsening the state's struggles with mental health issues.
February 2022: Minnehaha County's Juvenile Detention Center reports a record 39 mental health holds, and anticipates that number to grow.
March 2022: A South Dakota 12-year-old waited nine weeks for mental health support. Instead, he was sent home.
March 2022: Avera Behavioral Health Hospital opens a new four-story wing of the building, which includes a 24/7 behavioral health urgent care service.
April 2022: South Dakota Department of Social Services says its using millions in federal funding to help establish five “behavioral health regions” of need for South Dakota and help with crisis response.
June 2022: The Link announces they've served 1,426 different people across 4,001 visits over their first year of operation, although there isn't yet hard data on how effectively they've taken pressure off jails and hospitals.
July 2022: The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline goes live across the country, staffed in Sioux Falls by the Helpline Center.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: How mental health issues have been handled in South Dakota since 2015
