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Spencer City Council Hears Update On Project To Streamline Mental Health Services In Clay County

June 20, 2023 Steve Schwaller

(Spencer)– The Spencer City Council Monday evening heard an update on efforts to coordinate mental health services in Clay county. Jill Barr, Outreach Navigator with Spencer Hospital, is heading up the project which got its start about eight months ago. She says her group has had a series of meetings during that time with service providers and others, including transportation, behavioral health and addiction recovery. Barr says a session planned for July will cover physical wellness and dental, with another one later on that will include aging, food and education. She says additional sessions are planned next year.

Barr says a key priority right now is to get a website up and running…

“I envision that as kind of the go to, so people can go to that, they can find specifically for behavioral health or social determinance of health, hopefully be able to drill down and do a search and find the contact information forms and such for the people, the agencies that they’re looking for; calendar of events for the food pantries; different outreach opportunities there; and also bite-size content pieces if you’re looking for quick steps on dos and don’ts of suicide prevention and things like that. I know there’s a million resource websites, it seems like, but this one is really customized to Clay county and we think it will be a good resource to those who need it.”

Spencer Hospital, Clay County Public Health, the schools and law enforcement agencies are also involved in the coordination effort.

Jill Barr, Outreach Navigator for Spencer Hospital, addressed the Spencer City Council at their meeting Monday evening.