A STATE OF MIND: CONFRONTING OUR MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

The Cowboy Code

In the west, there is a stigma around mental health that can stop people from getting treatment. Some call it the ‘cowboy code’: that you are supposed to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, stuff it inside and move on. There are resources available and sometimes the bravest thing you can do is reach out for help.

Wyoming has the highest suicide rate in the nation. ABC News’ Trevor Ault travels to the state to find out why and how the new 988 mental health crisis line might change that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na9fma9PW7M

Happy summer! I hope all of you can take some time to unwind and relax this summer. Some days it still feels like we are swimming upstream, trying to get back to normal.

While trying to reach that synchronization, some of us may have developed unhealthy habits or coping mechanisms. Our children may be in this situation too. Helping them navigate choices that lead to a healthy future is imperative.

Over the past few weeks, Sheridan County Prevention, in collaboration with our school districts, mailed out Operation Parent handbooks, to every family, in all three school districts. This easy-to-read handbook is there to help you talk to your children about difficult topics. The goal is for the handbooks to be used to spark conversations in Sheridan County families. I know it is important to recognize that parents are their children’s first teachers, and we cannot underestimate the influence our family of origin has on our development.

Over the past few years, our kids have been exposed to more and more unhealthy habits and behaviors. Hopefully, this tool will be useful in rewiring those unhealthy patterns in our life and our children's lives. More information about operation parent handbooks can be found at operation parent.org.

Recently, five individuals from Sheridan County, including myself, attended an amazing four-day training in Littleton, CO in order to learn the ins and outs of a program called Sources of Strength. Sources of Strength (SOS) is an evidence-based, upstream suicide prevention program that is so much more. The SOS model is one of help, hope & strength, instead of sadness, shock & trauma. The model does this upstream prevention by looking at what protective factors a young person, family, organization, and community already have and builds upon them, utilizing those assets as the foundation from which to grow.

What is upstream prevention and why is it important? Here is an example:

Imagine seeing a young person in the river, screaming and flailing as they continue to be pulled closer to the waterfall. If you throw them a life preserver and help them to shore, you have prevented them from going over the waterfall. In each day that follows, you see another youth in the water, do the same thing and continue to pull young people from the water. Suddenly you wonder, why are young people going into the water in the first place? You go upstream to see what is causing the incident to occur, intent on helping (so young people don’t even have the opportunity to fall in the river), not just throwing out life preservers and helping them once they are already in the water. Both methods are prevention, SOS is the model that looks upstream, to help youth before they fall in the river.