SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Three years after the pandemic started, and mental health cases are still piling up. The impact is not just on patients but mental health care workers trying to handle it all.

What You Need To Know

  • Therapists at Rocking Horse Community Health Center say there were about 600 on the waiting list for services at the height of the pandemic, now there are still more than 250 

  • Therapists say most of their patients are coming in suffering from things like depression and anxiety from the pandemic 

  • The clinic itself switched to four-day work weeks for therapists so they can manage their own mental health and handle all the cases 

Diana Marshall said her work schedule is always full.

“There are some days and I don't have time to drink some water because we're constantly talking and talking and talking,” said Marshall. 

Marshall is a behavior health therapist at Rocking Horse Community Health Center in Springfield.

She started in 2020, during the pandemic, and she said she's never stopped working. She said her list of patients has only grown because of the virus.

"The major thing is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). A lot of people have PTSD from COVID because they lost a lot of family members through it and also because they become like paranoid. They don't want to go out, they're traumatized because they're afraid if they go out, they might catch it and they die,” said Marshall. 

The problem is there aren’t enough mental health care workers to handle all the cases coming in.

At Rocking Horse, they estimate about 600 people were on the waiting list in 2020. Now, three years later, they estimate more than 250 are on the list, and about half of those are children who need mental health services.

“I see a lot of kids with anxiety around school now,” said Behavioral Therapist Kelly Fischer, 

Fischer also handles pediatric cases. She said because of that long waitlist, they have to take the most severe cases first.

“It is hard because often somebody is getting in when they need help and if we can get you in for four months, the problem might have passed or maybe you're too nervous now to come and you were ready in that moment, but now you're not," said Fischer. 

That’s why she said she started doing group therapy for those still waiting. Sometimes, though, she said they have to take their own advice.

“We can only see so many people without burning out,” said Fischer. 

The health clinic has switched to four-day work weeks because of the cases and to give therapists trying to get to them all a mental health break, too.

For resources on mental health services, click here.