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With each mile, bike ride to raise funds for kids' mental health

Omaha World-Herald - 8/3/2017

Gov. Pete Ricketts and several area mental health professionals embarked on a 150-mile bike ride Saturday morning, raising awareness of and hoping to end the stigma surrounding children's mental health.

The ride was the kickoff event for Break the Cycle, during which supporters will bike 5,000 miles from Seattle to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness and funds for child and adolescent mental health initiatives. As of Saturday morning, $130,000 had been raised. The ride will begin Aug. 17 and last 62 days.

Dr. Andres Martin, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Yale Child Study Center, came up with the idea and will lead the ride through 21 states. Martin himself has dealt with depression, and he said that experience has influenced who he is today.

"Child mental health issues are real, and they're very common," Martin said during a Saturday press conference. "These are not rare conditions. The good part is that they're very treatable and preventable."

One in five children is diagnosed with a mental or behavioral disorder, he said. When conditions aren't treated, children are affected at home and in school, and they also face life-threatening consequences such as eating disorders and suicide.

Lack of access to care for children in more rural states including Nebraska is a hurdle to prevention, he and other experts said.

In 2015 there were only 42 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists in the state, spread across seven counties, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Doctors are experimenting with telehealth initiatives to deliver virtual treatment to underserved areas, said Dr. Jamie Snyder, a psychiatrist with CHI Health. The state also launched a crisis response program for children and families in May, offering immediate mental health counseling across the state.

"If a child is suffering from depression, it's really no different from if they broke their arm or had chicken pox," Ricketts said. "It's just another aspect of their health care."

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