RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — America is in a mental health crisis and it’s especially a crisis for our young people, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Within this larger issue, medical professionals are sharing their concerns about a lack of resources.
The CDC cites suicide is a leading cause of death, and information from 2023 shows this accounts for one death every eleven minutes.
It’s one of the reasons why health professionals believe access to care is so important.
Amy Brundle likes to spend her free time traveling with her husband. She’s a marketing and communications professional with NAMI North Carolina. The organization, an affiliate for National Alliance on Mental Illness, offers mental health help to people for free.
“There are definitely down days, but I feel like I’ve kind of established this foundation for a much healthier and more engaged life day-to-day,” Brundle told CBS 17 Investigates.
Those down days, she said, started as a kid.
“I probably had symptoms of mental illness starting in early adolescence, but at the time, you know, growing up in the nineties, this was not something that we talked about.”
Brundle said things changed when she was in a car accident in 2006. After that, she was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. During treatment, she said her provider told her that her symptoms she dealt with as a child, were possibly signs of anxiety and depressive disorder.
“So, I began being treated for all of that, and while the treatment significantly helped, I don’t have many of the symptoms of PTSD any longer.” Brundle certainly isn’t alone in her experiences.
“The demand for resources around mental health increases every year,” said Holly Doggett, Executive Director of NAMI North Carolina.
It’s a demand that’s reflected in data from the 988 Lifeline, which connects anyone needing help with someone offering support. As of July 2025, exactly three years since its since its launch in July 2022, there have been more than 16 million calls, texts or chats nationwide.
Data also shows a steady increase in people reaching out each year.
The data is from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, also known as SAMSHA, which primarily runs the lifeline. SAMHSA saw cuts to its staffing earlier this year, and faces possible funding cuts in 2026.
Doggett said NAMI North Carolina gets funding from different sources. “That funding originates at the federal level. So, in North Carolina, we’re sending tax dollars up to the federal government, and then some of those tax dollars come back to us through a variety of programs. So, any time that you have major shifts in those funding priorities, they are going to have a state and a local impact,” Doggett said.
CBS 17 Investigates asked those with NAMI North Carolina what resources are needed across the state.
“It’s kind of on a continuum on in terms of what we need. So inpatient treatment, that is always almost always an under-resourced area that more people need beds than what are currently available and that has such a negative impact,” said Doggett. “So, there are new beds coming online, which is which is great. But there’s also the fact that a large number of counties in North Carolina do not have a psychiatrist available.”
According to rural health information hub, citing data from the health resources and services administration in July, most counties in North Carolina were considered a “mental health professional shortage area.”
“There has been a growing rate of the number of children, both in middle school and high school, that are indicating feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks, which is quite concerning,” Bell told CBS 17 Investigates.
NAMI NC wants people to know about the resources that are available.
“The easiest way is to pick up the phone, call 988,” said Doggett. “The mental health landscape can be really daunting to try to figure out yourself, especially if you’re just getting started with your recovery journey,” said Brundle.
CBS 17’s Mary Smith is an Investigative Reporter focused on Digging Deeper and Getting Answers. If you have a story that needs investigating, send an email to Investigates@cbs17.com.
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