{"id":354916,"date":"2025-07-09T21:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/?p=354916"},"modified":"2025-07-09T11:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:30:06","slug":"op-ed-access-to-mental-health-care-more-crucial-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenvillejournal.com\/op-ed\/op-ed-access-to-mental-health-care-more-crucial-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: Access to mental health care more crucial than ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The need for increased access to mental health care has never been greater in the Upstate.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a retired physician and nurse, we have witnessed firsthand the realities of untreated mental illness and the impact on whole families and communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As community members, we have felt the overwhelming grief of losing family members and friends to suicide and have asked ourselves if the outcome would have been different with access to the right treatment at the right time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As trustees of the Sargent Foundation, we have focused for many years on supporting mental health and have sought to reemphasize its importance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This professional, personal and philanthropic passion for expanding access to mental health care served as the catalyst behind our recent $1 million gift to the Prisma Health-Upstate Foundation\u2019s Hope Forward Campaign, which supports the new Prisma Behavioral Health Hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n

The hospital is a public-private partnership with the state of South Carolina, Prisma Health and the Upstate community. This state-of-the-art facility \u2014 under construction at 4906 Old Easley Bridge Road near Easley \u2014 will build on the legacy of inpatient behavioral health care at Marshall I. Pickens Hospital, while nearly doubling the total amount of beds and quadrupling the number of beds for children and adolescents. More patients will be able to receive the care they need close to family and friends, whose support can be so crucial to recovery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We were particularly encouraged to see elements of normalcy, play and education woven into the new hospital, which inspired us to make our gift to name the Sargent-Wilson Wellness Center. The center will provide recreational, educational and supportive space for patients and family members with team members, as well as serve as a hub for community groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

We chose to make our gift public to shine a light on an often underserved area of health care and to inspire others to give, knowing that mental health impacts all of us. Each gift to this campaign will move us closer to opening the doors of our hospital in early 2027, with opportunities to recognize and honor loved ones throughout the campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

We hope you\u2019ll join us in this once-in-our-lifetime opportunity to unite in giving for our children, for our families, for our neighbors, for our friends and for our future.<\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more about the Hope Forward campaign, visit <\/span>prismahealthupstatefoundation.org\/hopeforward<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Teresa Wilson and Bob Wilson, MD, are trustees of the Sargent Foundation, which was founded 1953 by Eleanor and Earle Sargent. The Sargent Foundation focuses on supporting health care, education and community needs, primarily in South Carolina.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"

The need for increased access to mental health care has never been greater in the Upstate. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":355284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,9072],"tags":[],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"ppma_author":[23968],"class_list":["post-354916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-op-ed","cat-2-id","cat-9072-id"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","yoast_head":"\nOp-Ed: Access to mental health care more crucial than ever - GREENVILLE JOURNAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The need for increased access to mental health care has never been greater in the Upstate. 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