LAC hears presentation on its importance, function

The Hill County Behavioral Health Local Advisory Council heard a presentation by Bob Mullen of the Central Service Area Authority at their bi-monthly meeting Monday, where its members also discussed upcoming events and possible strategic planning.

Mullen, a former long-time Lewis and Clark County commissioner, said he wanted to talk to council members as a representative of the CSAA, which Hill County’s LAC is a part of, for a number of reasons.

He said CSAA has gone through some leadership changes including the departure of its chair, a position that is being filled temporarily by National Alliance on Mental Illness Havre President Crystal Laufer, who is also acting vice-chair of the organization, so he wanted to make sure all the LACs have an idea of where things are at there.

He said he also wanted to talk about the congress coming up in September, where CSAA members will come together to discuss and work on the organizations most important issues.

But more than that, Mullen said, he wants to deliver a personal thank you to the LACs that are part of the CSAA for doing everything they can on the ground level to improve their communities’ health, especially as the nation’s ongoing mental health crisis continues.

He said people seriously contemplating suicide is increasing dramatically in the U.S., especially among young women and girls, and he believes people like Hill County’s LAC members are the only ones who can truly curb that trend, by addressing the root causes of the problem instead of the chasing only the effects like so many others do.

“No one is going to come in and do it for us,” he said. “ ... It’s up to us.”

He said LACs tend to be made up of people like him, survivors of suicide who know what it is like to go trough that and don’t want anyone else to ever have to.

Mullen said the primary functions of LACs are to advocate for the mentally ill, create resource guides and websites to help people find what they need, but most of all to educate the community on mental and behavioral health.

He said LACs should continue attempting to partner with every local organization they can to spread awareness and education, but the sustained effort to do all of these things is hardly easy, and organizations like theirs should be receiving financial support from county governments as well as from the state.

He said that, this year, state contributions to CSAA have tripled, which is great, but in the end it is still not enough to address the massive problems they seek to remedy and more is needed.

Mullen said CSAA is always willing to lend support to Hill County’s LAC on things like mini grants and facilitating strategic planning.

He also talked about some problems LACs have been facing, including in his home county.

He said attendance is sometimes an issue so some have tried brigning speakers to give short presentation on various mental and behavioral health topics each month to keep people engaged.

Mullen also said LACs often struggle drawing members from all the groups they want, including law enforcement, education and government.

“We can only be as effective as the influence we have,” he said.

LAC Vice Chair Amber Spring said she thinks governmental engagement is one area in which Hill County’s LAC is definitely behind, as they rarely get much participation from elected officials or people in that sphere.

Spring said the LAC used to have someone brief them on legislative news relevant to their work at their meetings but that ended some time ago and the members of the LAC have almost no time to keep up with the Legislature on their own these days.

The LAC members provided updates on their various activities and upcoming events.

Laufer said that, this Saturday, NAMI will be educating children on mental health from 1 to 3 p.m. and In Our Own Voice will be held in their office from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. May 24.

She said classes will be starting back up in September, but the office will be closed May 17-20 due to some training going on.

Spring talked about an event she’s setting up, tentatively scheduled for May 25, including talks about mental health issues among children and discussions of opioid addiction and the dangers of fentanyl, including talks about some harmful myths surrounding drug addiction treatments and harm reduction.

She said she also wants to set up a panel discussion of Narcan, a drug used to tread narcotic overdoses, one that people outside the medical profession are increasingly being trained to use.

A presentation on anxiety, recognizing its symptoms and when to seek professional help for it, is also something she wants to include.

Spring said people can attend the event via Zoom, but she hopes people will come in person and the Zoom recording will just be for people who couldn’t make it.

The event is free but people are asked to register, she said.