BROWNSTOWN — On Feb. 8, 2023, the first Jackson County Mental Health Summit was held at Camp Pyoca & Retreat Center in Brownstown.
At that time, Healthy Jackson County’s mental health and substance abuse workgroup had just been formed.
“One of the first things we identified when we started having meetings was that there were a lot of people whose voices had not been heard across the county,” said Lindsay Sarver, who is a leader of that workgroup and a community health improvement strategist with Schneck Medical Center in Seymour.
“Because Jackson County is the fifth largest geographic county in the state, there is a lot of ground to cover physically, literally and culturally,” she said. “How do we even measure what we need and then how do we identify and then collaborate enough to take what we have to move forward because we are a rural community?”
During that first summit, Douglas Huntsinger with Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office spoke about the statewide impact of substance abuse and mental health issues.
“And then we talked about what we were trying to do and what we needed and asked the community what they wanted and what they wanted to do to bring it all together,” Sarver said.
After the summit, Healthy Jackson County received more than $2.1 million in grant funding for projects related to nutrition, physical activity, substance use prevention, mental health and perinatal navigation, but more came out of that summit than funding for programming.
“It started some really intense and intentional collaborations among a lot of organizations to reach groups that hadn’t been heard or whose voices hadn’t been properly represented,” Sarver said.
On Feb. 8, the second Jackson County Mental Health Summit was held at Camp Pyoca.
“Today is about celebrating all the different things that are here now that weren’t here a year ago,” Sarver said amidst activities that included reports and breakout sessions to receive feedback about local solutions to challenges.
She also said anyone who thinks they have not been touched by mental health issues is either not paying attention or not telling the truth.
“I think half of all adults are going to have a mental illness at one point in their lifetime, even if it is not chronic, because depression and anxiety is for everybody,” said Sarver, who is a mother of four girls. “I joke sometimes that I don’t struggle with anxiety. It comes very naturally. There’s plenty to be anxious about in this world.”
Sarver said the summit is about realizing that when we are in the community, we are all in this same space.
“… but also that we are not stuck in this space,” Sarver said. “We are not stranded with these conditions. We have the opportunity to make a real difference. So today is a chance to have so many people who are already making a difference not feel so alone in the push we are doing but also to see how we can do a better job. This time last year, we didn’t have half of the relationships we have (now).”
After Schneck President and CEO Dr. Eric Fish gave some welcoming remarks, Meghan Warren with the Healthy Jackson County coalition spoke about the work of the organization. She’s also director of community health and equity at Schneck.
Warren said Healthy Jackson County has a membership of nearly 300 with more than 60 different organizations involved.
“Our goal is really to be able to create and sustain more of a healthy environment and create positive outcomes,” Warren said.
That goal is achieved by the organization’s workgroup. Besides the mental health and substance use group, other groups focus on nutritional and physical activity, feeding the community and Hispanic health.
Kristy Day, director of the emergency department at Schneck, talked about the success of a warm-handoff program for patients experiencing an overdose.
Day said community health workers and peer recovery coaches Gleeda Lasher and Sara Bowling deserve credit for a lot of the program’s success.
“Without Sara and Gleeda, this wouldn’t be possible,” Day said. “They went above and beyond for all our patients. We have seen an over 50% reduction in overdoses. They work countless hours. I know they go out and see these patients. They’re working at times when they aren’t even scheduled to work. They have done a tremendous job for the department. I think I owe everything to them.”
Indiana Health Centers CEO Ann Lundy then spoke about work the organization’s center in Seymour has been able to carry out through medication-assisted treatment and medications for opioid use disorder provided to its clients over the past year. Schneck has provided technical assistance and grant support for those treatments.
“What a difference a year can make,” Lundy said. “I know last year at this time, most of us were here. At this time last year, Indiana Health Centers, we were not doing any treatment for substance use. We stood here and committed to all of you that was going to change, and I’m really pleased to tell you that it has.”
Indiana Health Centers, which was established 40 years ago, operates 10 offices around the state, including one in Seymour.
Lundy said over the past year, the health center in Seymour has seen 72 patients complete follow-up visits for substance use and medication.
“… and we’ve had 13 other patients for initial visits,” she said. “I am extremely proud of the team for embracing this. We also had to look at ourselves. We also had to face the stigma, and we had to educate ourselves. It’s not a one and done. It’s really getting weaved into the fabric of who we are.
“This is our community. These are our patients. These are our family members, and there’s no discrimination here. It touches across all ages and all demographics, and to really be able to increase access and really be able to address and offer these services is such an incredible honor for us.”
Medora Community Schools Principal Kara Hunt talked about the school corporation’s efforts to identify and address mental health services for students, staff and community since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Hunt said anyone who has worked with children and families in the past few years knows mental health is really becoming an issue for them.
“We saw that there was that need, especially following COVID,” Hunt said. “We knew there was a big need in our school community for mental health services.”
She said that includes the students, their parents (or guardians that can often be grandparents) and the educational staff.
Hunt said thanks in part to a grant, the school corporation now has a mental health counselor on staff for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and that person also is providing free medical health counseling services for all staff and their families.
That counselor also will be available for about 10 days in the summer to work with the kids, she said.
There also is a weekly teen substance abuse group meeting and one-on-one counseling for services for those struggling with substance abuse.
A back-to-school event with community resources, including Jackson County United Way, provides free school supplies, shoes and haircuts, and there also is a monthly food pantry, Hunt said.
The school corporation also has a couple of community partnerships in place, including one that allows Medora Town Marshal Josh LePage to be on campus every day as a school resource officer for students and parents.