FAIRMONT May is mental health awareness month and Public Health and Human Services of Martin and Faribault Counties (FMCHS) is working to put out relevant ma
jsorensen@fairmontsentinel.com
FAIRMONT Martin County 4-H Ambassadors will be hosting a free virtual seminar for area teens from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. The seminar will focus on mental health and well-being.
Specifically, the 4-H Ambassadors will focus on helping their peers find healthy ways to cope with the stress, anxiety, and disappointment caused by the pandemic. To that end, they are teaming up with Martin County public health experts to provide the seminar. Ambassadors Jazlyn and Misty Geerdes explain.
“We came up with this idea because since COVID has hit, everyone has been locked down and not able to go places,” said Jazlyn. “We noticed that lots of kids, and even adults, are very stressed out lately. We were hoping that if kids participate in this they will take away the thought that even though there’s these tough times, they’re going to make it through and it’s going to be alright in the end and that we’re all in this together.”
Sentinel Correspondent
FAIRMONT Human Services of Faribault and Martin counties will be offering free mental health first aid courses in the first three months of the new year. The eight-hour course is being offered through the National Council for Behavioral Health.
Mental health first aid teaches you how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness and substance abuse disorders.
Caroline McCourt is the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership coordinator for FMCHS. She explained how the courses came to be offered.
“When the pandemic began, some of the ag producers and meat packaging plants were closing down, farmers were having a difficult time and some had to slaughter many of their animals. It all had a ripple effect in our community, along with everything else piling on. There was a lot of uncertainty,” McCourt explained.