City of Ames, IA COVID-19, 7 May 2021

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From YouTube: Ames Responds to Covid-19 | Episode 38

Description

On this episode of Ames Responds to COvid-19 we speak with Ames Police Department's Interim Police Chief, Geoff Huff about opportunities to learn more about and get help for mental health crisis situations in the Ames area.

Do you have a Covid-19 related question? Email us at covid19@CityofAmes.org and we will work your question into a future episode. Thanks for watching!

A

Hi welcome to ames responds to covet 19 a question and answer program where ames area organizations answer your covid19 questions. I'm susan griez of public relations officer with the city of ames on today's show my guest is interim police chief jeff hop jeff. Welcome to the show.

B

Thanks for having me.

A

So one question that has come in recently: this has been a difficult year for people of all ages. As things start, looking better I'm getting more and more concerned about the mental health of my friends and family, is there anything out there that I can do to get more information.

B

You bet that's a great question and you're right. We have jeff, definitely seen an uptick in our mental health calls at the police department.

B

People are struggling a little bit right now and, as things get back to normal, we actually expect that we- we may see more of this as we talk with our partners in prevention and in counseling and they're expecting that to happen. So one of the things uh first off that may is mental health awareness month.

B

So this is a really good time to talk about this and we're going to be holding a forum on may 20th in the ames city auditorium to talk about this very thing, so our mayor, john hala, will uh be opening things up at 6, 30 p.m. On that may 20th again uh and the the concept here is much what we did with the opioid crisis um before we were seeing a large uptick in opioid overdoses.

B

Here in ames, we got a group together to talk about how we were going to combat that and get ahead of it before it really hit us hard, and so that's what we're going to try and do here with mental health as well. So we want to get information out to people, so this will be very informational.

B

uh We'll tell you kind of what the what we're seeing, what the providers are seeing, what the counselors are seeing, we'll give you some resources so where you can go to get help. If you know somebody that's struggling who you may be able to contact a lot of you already know. We have a mental health advocate here at the ames police department.

B

Her name is julie, saxton and she does take a lot of those questions and she knows who all the providers and what the resources are, and so she can point you in the right direction a lot of those times, but on the 2 on the 20th there will be a keynote speaker, jason heglund, and so he's going to talk a little bit about uh the crisis and what's been going on and then a lot of the providers will be there as well, but we want.

B

We didn't really want to stop there, it's good to get that information out there, but that this is a starting point, and so the next phase of this will be mental health. First aid training for anybody in the public. That wants to do that. So we haven't set the dates yet, but we hope to have that soon. As we run into may 20th and our mental health advocate julie, saxton, along with kinsey phillips from iowa state university she's.

B

Their mental health advocate so they'll provide that mental health, first aid training and that's a little bit about self-care, and it's also a little about about what to look for in others that might be struggling with um with a crisis or in some cases, just long-term uh depression, anxiety and those kind of issues, and we're going to do that same thing with juveniles a little bit later in the summer.

B

So we have brian carrico that we're going to work with who works for the ames community school district and he will provide that same kind of training but geared more towards juveniles and then we'll wrap. This series up in september, with the mental health expo and september, happens to be suicide prevention month. So good. Another timely um uh expo to have at that point, and so that will kind of tie things up, but it won't end things.

B

We still want to make sure that we're getting information out about resources and where people can go and what they can do.

A

So great looks like that first opportunity is thursday, may 20th from 6 30 to 8 30 at the ames city auditorium. If you don't want to come to the auditorium, can you access this information in another way.

B

Yeah we'll have uh the recording will be on facebook or the city of ames facebook, page and it'll, be on the website. So you can go back later and view it if you can't actually attend that night, which is good, and I also want to throw out there. We do have a mobile crisis line that you can call, and so I'm going to give that number. It's.

B

One and that's crisis, and so, if someone's having an acute crisis, you can call that number and you can have a mental health professional show up um at the door and try and work on what. uh What may make that a safer situation. And that may not include law enforcement, which is fine as well.

A

Well, thanks jeff, some really good information. I think it's important people realize they're, not alone. Others are experiencing the same feelings that they may be feeling of sadness or despair, and it may be connected to the pandemic and even though things are getting better, people may feel that those um that sadness continues. So please don't be afraid to seek help.

B

Thanks for having me today,.

A

Thanks jeff: is there something that you're curious about? Is it related to cobin 19? Please let us know we can put together another program soon with your questions. Email us at cobid19 city of ames.org, remember, the city of ames has cobid 19 information on our website. Cityofames.Org covid19, thanks for.

A

A