(Spirit Lake)– A new entity has been formed to help raise awareness of mental health issues and resources that are available in the area. Katy Burke of Dickinson County Public Health tells KUOO news the Dickinson County Behavioral Health Coalition has been formed as the result of input from the recently conducted public health assessments…
“Together we’re meeting with partners across different sectors, so school districts, many different behavioral health providers, therapists, the hospital, so. We’re really excited to build these different outreach activities and get people connected to the support they need.”
She says the coalition launched their first major project this week, dubbed “Let’s Talk Dickinson”…
“We had 720 bags that were given out to all five farm grain elevators, directly handing out these goodie bags. We also had crisis support numbers in them to those farm workers, ag workers, to let them know we appreciate all the work they do for us and recognize that harvest is a stressful time, and so to really break the stigma of asking for help. We had the help of Rotary that donated and assembled bags, Rail Neighbors of America, they stickered the bags. Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart donated bottles of water that went in there. And then this money we have, we received a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act, so that helped fund some of those treats that went to farmers.”
Burke says they’re now planning their next event…
“We are meeting in early November so we’ll be working with the schools and looking at some youth initiatives, ways to support families, also recognizing the stress of the holidays. So more to come but we do have the Let’s Talk Dickinson-dot-org website up and running so. It’s brand new so we’ll be adding new resources and outreach events to that as well as our Facebook page.”
Burke says they’re grateful to the many donors and volunteers for their assistance.
