LAC discusses uses of grant funds to increase mental health awareness

Hill County Behavioral Health Local Advisory Council members discussed plans for a $20,000 grant received by the county from the Addictive and Mental Disorders Division of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, and how it could be used.

LAC Chair Andi Daniel said she spoke with Hill County Public Health Director and Health Officer Kim Larson, who told her that the terms of the grant, which did not include many of the activities council members hoped to use the funds for, could be amended to include training and service increases as possible uses for the funds.

Daniel said in order to get the money the council would need to submit an invoice detailing their plans for the money.

Council members discussed uses for the funds, such as the creation of public service announcements, videos, billboards, and other ways of getting information and education about existing behavioral services into the public and increase access to them.

Council Member Curtis Smeby said he thinks the PSAs are an especially interesting possibility and could be set up to play in places around town like Walmart, Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods, or North 40.

Council members agreed to find out what such things would cost as quickly as possible to put together the invoice.

Daniel said the funds from this grant would need to be spent by the end of June, so time was of the essence.

Members of the council discussed the creation of a behavioral health resource guide in an effort to centralize information about local mental health services and adjacent organizations and how to advertise such a thing to people in the county.

Members also discussed using funds to encouraging use of the CONNECT Referral System, which is being set up throughout Montana, and offers organizations a way to send and receive referrals to help people approach their mental health issues more completely.

Hill County Youth Reporting Center Coordinator Matt Erdel said during last month’s council meeting that CONNECT is designed to facilitate the coordination of care between organizations medical and otherwise to address people’s health more holistically by streamlining referrals and expanding the network of organizations those referrals can be sent to and received by.

LAC Vice-Chair Amber Spring said advertising this system is especially important, since it requires a healthy number of organizations to participate in order to become viable and, so far, few organizations in the area are using it.

Smeby also talked about the possibility of using funds to help him advertise and run events like SafeTalk and ASSIST, which teach suicide awareness, alertness and intention.

LAC Treasurer Darlene Sellers suggested reaching out to the district courts to see if they could use the services of LAC, and the possibility of creating a health worker fair.

In addition to discussing use of the grant, council members also provided general updates on their activities in the past month.

National Alliance on Mental Illness Havre President Crystal Laufer said her organization is still functioning by appointment only.

She said they’re gearing up to run In Our Own Voice presentations Jan. 23 in their classroom at 6 p.m. and are holding their conferences today and Jan. 26.

“We’ve been busy up here,” Laufer said.

Spring said she hasn’t had a chance, since the last meeting, to get the ball rolling on reaching out to the agricultural community with offers for mental health education.

She said she thinks it might be a good idea to first run a campaign to increase awareness of the mental health issues relevant to the community before providing more direct education.

She said the Suicide Awareness Coalition will meet again and discuss the future of these efforts.

Spring said she’s also been running COVID-19 support groups for students at Montana State University Northern Monday nights, and they’re going well.

She said she’s looking at creating a grief support group as well but didn’t have specifics yet.

Daniel also said the potential reorganization of the larger service area authorities LAC is part of has stalled.

Smeby said he believes it was due to a legal issue and he’s not sure where things are going to go.

Daniel said Hill County was recently invited to join the Eastern SAA, which she said operates more efficiently than Central SAA that they are part of, but she is still waiting to hear back from them.

Sellers said in her report that the organization has a balance of just over $3,000.

Hill County’s newest commissioner, Jake Strissel, who had worked as a behavioral health specialist at Bullhook Community Health Center, was at the meeting and Daniel’s remarked that it was good to have someone on the commission with a behavioral health background.