Addressing Mental Health

Wyoming faces a difficult challenge when it comes to improving mental health care and lowering it's suicide rate which is the highest in the nation. 
One contributing factor is a lack of resources. Wyoming's small population spread out over hundreds of miles makes it difficult to provide any kind of service. It can be hard for providers to make it work financially without some kind of external support. 
Another factor is the perception that mental health care are for those who are really sick and need a lot of help. Many in Wyoming believe they can just will themselves out of poor mental health care. Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps or man up are popular phrases. 
It is also true that good mental health is not just a matter of addressing our mind or emotions, but also the various societal issues that often impact us negatively. 
How do we do that?
The Wyoming Governor and Wyoming Legislature are asking those questions and are putting task forces together. But that will never be enough. A solution from the top down never lasts.

Solutions require the majority of the people impacted to agree on a common plan and then work towards achieving it. Community Action seeks to bring community members together to create such plans. WYO HELP can be a tool or a resource communities use to achieve good work, but our true success will come about when community level plans are created using community resources as the solution. This is one of those really big and overwhelming issues that is bigger than one small town can solve all on their own, but each community can help to guide and determine what solutions look like in their community while engaging with their county, state, and federal leaders. Keep your eyes open. If you see an opportunity to be a part of the solution, we encourage you to take it. When we work together to support the health of everyone in our communities we support our own health in the process.