Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to learn more about, and appreciate, the free mental health services offered by Oasis Free Clinics to our patients.

Oasis’ team is comprised of volunteer doctors, nurse practitioners, physician associates, mental health providers, and our support staff. We offer high-quality, compassionate care at our Brunswick clinic to those who need it most, filling critical gaps and strengthening the health of our entire community.

When we provide care, we get a glimpse into the lives of patients, and the challenges they face. When people enroll to become new patients at Oasis, they can arrive with acute and immediate health concerns, but counseling is increasingly a primary request.

Patients who access Oasis Free Clinics services often have had mixed and challenging life experiences, often with no supportive interventions available to them. Their resilience is amazing, yet they tend to live with mental health symptoms as if they are just a part of what must be endured in life. For many of our patients, meeting with a counselor marks the beginning of significant positive changes in their lives. Our program offers pre-screened patients brief (up to 12 sessions), goal-oriented counseling.

Recently, referrals for mental health services far exceed our ability to meet the need. Most mental health patients are on extended waitlists for counseling services elsewhere. Finding a provider is increasingly difficult, even when one has health insurance and financial security. Additionally, some patients have mental health needs that are not serious enough for an outside referral to crisis intervention response services, but their situation is acute enough to need support much sooner than they are able to find a provider.

We strive to meet this growing need by working with community mental health providers who volunteer to offer pro bono services for our patients. Additionally, we have become a practicum site for graduate students enrolled in the University of Southern Maine’s master’s in counseling program, which has increased our capacity to provide mental health services.

We have received, and we welcome, donations to Oasis’ counseling program. Donations allow us to pay for the coordination of mental health services, and also to pay counselors directly to see patients when volunteers are not available. Since the program’s inception in 2020, patients, volunteers, and clinicians have expressed a high level of satisfaction with what we do and how it is integrated into a patient’s care alongside their primary care provider.

Increasingly, many of our patients are stressed out. They are tired. They are caregivers, taking care of children, parents, and pets. They are often working multiple jobs. It’s really hard to get to work or get to medical appointments when you do not have a reliable vehicle. There is the constant impact on one’s health when facing food and housing insecurity.

In addition, the majority of our patients have at least one mental health-related condition including depression, bipolar illness, and post-traumatic stress disorder. They can carry histories of trauma, and physical and sexual abuse.

Why is Oasis’ program important? Mental health efficacy research consistently shows that timely access to counseling services reduces symptoms, has more enduring effects than medication alone, and can reduce the likelihood of relapse, and meaningful improvements can be made without the side-effects associated with psychopharmacological treatments alone. Research shows that engagement in counseling, combined with medication, is the most effective treatment option for most patients. Providing counseling services affords patients the opportunity to address life-history issues and engage in healing that goes beyond treating the symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and bipolar illness. Access to counseling is a cost-effective addition to integrative health services, and can increase the efficacy of medical services for patients presenting with these health and well-being issues.

Another important question to consider is why have we made it so difficult to care for each other? Why has it become a question if healthcare is a human right? When mental health needs are not addressed, the consequences are real and tragic. Recent incidences of violence and domestic and child abuse that have been in the news in Maine have underscored how difficult getting access to mental health care has been.

It is not just our patients who are increasingly stressed out. Our stratified political culture, growing economic uncertainty, and constant news cycle all add to the growing sense many of us have of being overwhelmed and feeling untethered. There is a quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti that speaks to the moment we find ourselves in: “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Many of the ways people handle and respond to the unmanageable stresses in their lives are understandable in the moment, but better community responses are needed. When there are proper health resources in place, when counseling services like the ones Oasis offers are available to more and more people, we can provide the mental health support that all of us deserve to have during challenging times.

You can learn more about Oasis Free Clinics and what we do by visiting oasisfreeclinics.org or calling 207-721-9277.

Danny Muller is executive director of Oasis Free Clinics.