LE MARS, Iowa (KTIV) – Mental health providers in Plymouth County, Iowa held their first Mental Health Awareness Walk and vendor fair on Friday as Mental Health Awareness Month comes to a close.
Senior Life Solutions of Floyd Valley Healthcare and the Le Mars YMCA partnered to organize the event. Twenty-four booths were set up to represent mental health resources and break the stigma surrounding mental health.
Plains Area Mental Health Center distributes rubber ducks throughout the community at events like this to spark conversations about mental health for all ages.
“It’s definitely an icebreaker, so it’s awesome to be able to use that as a tool to get the conversation started,” said Teresa Berg, chief program officer of community services at Plains Area Mental Health Center. “We just thought it would be fun to hand out at schools and different events because a lot of times some of the stuff that gets handed out aren’t specific to kids.”
Mental health is a year-round conversation
Rosanna Kertels, program director for Senior Life Solutions at Floyd Valley Healthcare, said mental health awareness should not be limited to one month. “Yeah, of the month, of the year, of the season because mental health isn’t a one-time a year thing,” Kertels said.
Jacque Perez, CEO of Le Mars YMCA, said she talks to her children about mental health regularly.
“I just talked about my kids about it yesterday that we only not need to take care of our physical body, but we need to take care of our mental body. So explaining that to an eight-year-old was fun. But I think just continuing to have those conversations and putting equal importance on how we’re physically feeling, but how is our brain feeling too,” Perez said.
Kertels said she wants people to feel comfortable discussing mental health.
“I just want people to feel like they can get out and talk about things and not feel like that stigma keeps them from enjoying life and happiness in their lives, and to just open people’s eyes that it’s okay to not be okay,” Kertels said.
Conversation tools available to the public
Providers are distributing tools to keep the conversation going all year.
“We have a deck of cards we’re handing out, and each card has open-ended questions that you can ask kids or adults because sometimes it’s hard to initiate those conversations, and sometimes you just need to play a card game, and on the card. Here is these questions, here’s something to ask, and it just opens up conversation,” Perez said.
Kertels said mental health has traditionally been kept private.
“It’s always been kind of shut behind closed doors. We want to open those doors and give people the opportunity to talk about what they’re feeling and what is affected in their life so that they can reach out for help,” Kertels said.
The rubber ducks are available at Plains Area Mental Health Center locations, and the conversation deck of cards is available for free at the Le Mars YMCA.
Providers that are available to help are:
- American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
- Le Mars YMCA
- Catholic Charities
- AmeriCorps Services
- Inclusive Connections
- WestCare
- Parent Partners
- Molina Healthcare
- Community Health Partners
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Northwest Iowa
- Hope Haven
- Rosecrance Jackson Centers
- Heart and Solutions
- Plains Area Mental Health Center
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