Mental Health

Like most mid-west communities, Story County has an insufficient supply of psychiatric and substance abuse services to support people in recovery from those illnesses. Almost 20% of Story County residents reported having had two or more years in their lives when they felt depressed or sad on most days. Almost 9% reported they had been diagnosed with major depression by a physician at some point in their lives.

United Way of Story County is collaborating with local mental health professionals to address the growing needs. The Story County Mental Health Criminal Justice Task Force, composed of individuals from across mental health, law enforcement and other community organizations, is working to improve the system-wide response to mentally ill individuals.

The task force’s vision is to bring about increased awareness and recognition of the mentally ill to ensure people get the services they need, to provide better transitions and to ensure compliance with case plans.

Efforts to improve the mental health services in Story County have included:

Supporting The Richmond Center’s efforts to overcome a financial crisis and continue to offer professional psychiatric services to children and adults.
Educating the community, in partnership with NAMI and Mary Greeley Medical Center, to provide Mental Health First Aid Training that helps the public better identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness, thus improving outcomes for individuals experiencing these illnesses.
Exploring the possibility of establishing a Wellness Center where people with mental illness could go for socialization, educational programs and activities. Through United Way of Story County Endowment funds, a pilot program will begin in August 2011.
Partnering with law enforcement, the medical community and mental health providers to create a unified system that provides 24/7 on-call mental health care crisis services. An application to the US Department of Justice has been submitted to help explore the possibility of creating a crisis center.