State leaders are confronting an unprecedented Mental Health crisis that's playing out through Rising rates of depression anxiety substance abuse and suicide an issue that's hit every corner of New Jersey governor Murphy today joined a group of Behavioral Health experts in Middlesex County for a panel to talk about how to reinforce and support services that are available as those working on the front lines point out the existing shortage of mental health professionals that only continues to grow senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports this past year two days before school began we learned that one of our students died by Suicide Middlesex County magnet school superintendent Jorge Diaz described the tragedy to a round table of experts looking for solutions to treat soaring mental and behavioral health problems he said the young victim's family asked for school photos as they were looking for pictures to display at the funeral age simply couldn't find any pictures where he was smiling so the signs were there and nobody picked up on them we have realized that there are so many students that need help and we simply do not have the number of Staff or the the clinicians available people are hurting especially young people Governor Murphy told the group of Middlesex County stakeholders that New Jersey is establishing a new program called nj4s it'll focus on prevention and offer tools to support kids in crisis with 15 Regional hubs located around the state he said it's not meant to replace in-school Services the so-called Hub and spoke model is meant to supplement not replace but supplement the hard work that many of you already do with a Statewide Network that connects every school to supports already in place in the community what we need are clinical teams housed in all of our schools to deal immediately with problems that emerge in the classrooms and and we really need to wake up to that fact superintendent Mark Finkelstein noted New Jersey schools have 450 students per counselor and that outside clinicians have four-month waiting periods with so many kids needing help families feel overwhelmed there is a physician and psychiatrist shortage child psychiatrists are rarer than hen's teeth and it's very important to be able to find ways to utilize other professional advanced practice nurses social workers psychologists every panelist mentioned funding they need financial support to launch new programs expand treatment facilities and grow the mental health Workforce mental health challenges I think ask any officer in this room will tell you are the most challenging calls we experience they're the calls that are most likely to result in a use of force New Jersey's attorney general promoted the new arrive together program operating in half of Jersey's counties that pairs a plainclothed police officer with a mental health professional who respond to emotional crisis calls together in an unmarked car Brookings institution just did a study that found that arrived together has the potential in their words to transform policing they found that it eliminated effectively use of force it eliminated arrests effectively and it also importantly eliminated racial disparities the programs earmarked for 10 million dollars in the governor's upcoming budget the Murphy Administration is also studying how best to improve addiction treatments with a billion dollar Court settlement at one from opioid producers this is a once in a generation opportunity for communities and local governing bodies to make targeted and meaningful Investments to prevent and treat the disease of addiction elected officials here acknowledged they're struggling to cope especially post covid the pandemic made it so much worse everyone has a Breaking Point and so many in our society have reached or seemed to be approaching theirs in New Brunswick I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News