mental health

The conference, which will run from August 22-24 in Casper will offer police officers, firefighters, EMS personnel and dispatchers, workshops and training on proper sleep, mental health, recognizing symptoms when people start to struggle and intervention methods.

In the lead up to the 2022 primary, WyoFile and Wyoming Public Media teamed up to ask Wyomingites about their top concerns.

State-run psychiatric hospitals have dozens of people coming in and then leaving days, weeks or months later. Surprisingly, most of these facilities in the Mountain West reported having far fewer COVID outbreaks and deaths than other group facilities.

Mission Daybreak is a 10 year, $20 million initiative launched by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that seeks to build connections between the VA and outside providers through a comprehensive, public health approach that integrates researchers, clinicians, health innovators, veterans, and service members in local communities in an effort to reduce suicides.

The Governor's Challenge on Suicide Prevention is partnered with Wyoming State Parks and Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. The 'You Matter' campaign features pictures of state parks and has the number to the statewide hotline printed on it.

It's Mental Health Awareness Month and to discuss that we are joined by Dr. David Martorano who is the Director of Adult Psychiatric Services at the Wyoming Behavioral Institute in Casper. He's a specialist in addictions and he discusses some of the challenges facing mental health care in Wyoming

Thanks to American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and increased revenue, the Wyoming legislature took a crack at addressing a longtime problem in the state: the lack of mental health care services. Lawmakers voted to put millions of the federal dollars into the effort.

Wyoming has some of the highest juvenile incarceration rates in the country and some of the highest teen suicide rates as well. Such data has a lot of Wyomingites looking for outside-the-box solutions for helping kids before they face these hurdles. Jonathan Updike grew up in Wyoming and ended up at Stanford, working on an innovative program called Allcove, which gets kids designing their own intervention strategies. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards asked Updike about his own story of growing up in the state.

When the Wyoming Suicide hotline will be 24/7 is still to be determined, but Andi Summerville with the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse said the service is needed now more than ever as the COVID19 pandemic continues.

Park County is offering adults the opportunity to become certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid. While this training has been offered in years past, this one will include a faith-based mental health component.