Alcombright, Local Providers Focus on Mental Health Issues
 Mayor Richard Alcombright discusses mental health awareness at City Hall on Friday afternoon. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Some 67,000 children in Massachusetts suffer from a serious mental health condition; nearly half of all mental health problems begin by age 14.
Local service providers are hoping to raise awareness of the issue and let local families know there are places to turn for help.
A roundtable including Mayor Richard Alcombright and representatives from the Brien Center, Northern Berkshire Community Coalition and North Adams Regional Hospital stressed at City Hall on Friday the importance of recognizing mental health illnesses in children, and finding treatment.
"In Northern Berkshires, we have lots of ways to create healthy families.," said Kathy Quinn, a family support worker at the Family Place and a National Alliance on Mental Illness volunteer. "And I am very proud of us for that, for prioritizing that, and that's why we want to be involved in this Mental Health Awareness Week for children because we want to have healthy parents so they can raise healthy children and have resources to tap into."
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, with Children's Mental Health Awareness Week kicking off Monday, May 6, and running until May 12.
The mayor is a strong advocate for mental health awareness, and read a proclamation at the April 23 City Council meeting valuing the importance of addressing these issues.
"You talk about lost, and I think of the word alone, it goes really well with lost," said Alcombright. "I often said mental illness is the loneliest illness ... There are causes to these problems, but there's also fixes."
Bear McHugh, a youth suicide prevention coordinator at Berkshire Area Health Education Center, said Berkshire County had the highest rate of youth suicides in the state between 2004 and 2008 .
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"The answers cannot lie in service providers, they can't lie in agencies, they do amazing work no one is doubting that, but at the end of the day they can't be the ones to make someone feel like they're a part of the community," Rodgers said. "These families have huge issues with isolation ... ."
But there are ways for families to get involved with the community and get help. On Friday, May 17, at 2 p.m. there will be an awareness meeting at Child Care of the Berkshires, located at the Haskins Center on State Street. These meetings are monthly, usually from 1 to 2:30 (this month being an exception).
There's also clinical support options at the Brien Center, located on American Legion Drive, and families can call and have assessment of the situation in their own home, since said Carrie Crews, family support and training program director at the center, it's tough to get a distressed 15-year-old in the car.
In recognition of the month, the Berkshire County National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter will have its annual Minds Matter Walk on May 16, as part of Pittsfield's 3rd Thursday celebration.
NAMI offers monthly support groups and free education classes throughout the year. Call the office at 413-443-1666 for more info.
Tags: mental health, NARH, NBCC,
