It seems as though we move from one crisis to another in our society. From the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, to the opioid epidemic that has hit our rural communities particularly hard, to the climate crisis that has resulted in numerous natural disasters, including most recently the devastation across the southeastern US from Hurricane Helene in September 2024, crisis has become an unfortunate reality in our lives.1–3
One persistent and insidious issue that presents a challenge to the health and well-being of our state is the mental health crisis.4 This has been and continues to be difficult to define, difficult to prevent, and even more difficult to appropriately address. Each of the crises mentioned above have led to adverse mental health consequences themselves, creating greater challenges in addressing the emerging crisis itself. We know that mental health services have been woefully underfunded in North Carolina, made even worse by the other compounding challenges that have impacted our state in the past decade.5 Furthermore, it is not uncommon for there to be stigma associated with mental health conditions, creating additional barriers to overcome.6
We at the NCMJ recognize the importance of dedicating an issue of the journal to highlighting this important public health issue, acknowledging and applauding the tremendous frontline work being done across the state to ameliorate the mental health crisis. We invite you to spend time reading this issue of the journal, educating yourself on the difficulties we face in this battle to improve mental health outcomes and supporting the heroes addressing this crisis. If you are one of those heroes engaged in this challenge, we thank you for all your efforts and encourage you to continue the good work that you do.
Correspondence
Address correspondence to Dr. Ronny A. Bell, 301 Pharmacy Lane, 2211 Kerr Hall, Campus Box 7573, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 (bellr@unc.edu).