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Ravalli County

Mental Illness Community Discussions

Published: 2019
By Katelyn Andersen
Partnerships are the key to creating community change through collaboration. This last year, MSU Extension partnered with Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) to offer an educational speaker series focusing on mental health, coined M.I.K.A., which stands for Mental Illness Knowledge and Awareness. RML is a part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institutes of Health. The mission of NIAID and RML is to do research to understand, treat, and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. RML can assist community stakeholders in accessing resources through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). NIMH is the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders. This past year, RML invited expert speakers to talk about research in mental illness and related topics, which aligned with their role of educating the community about science and public health. The following presentations were offered to the public by researchers from NIMH: Changing the stigma: understanding and living with mental illness by Dr. Maryland Pao; Is this normal? Navigating the lifetime changes from puberty through menopause, by Dr. Pedro Martinez; After surviving trauma, can you get to thriving? Recovery and PTSD (and everything between), by Dr. Susan Borja. Mental health and illness potentially impacts every facet of a community. The attendance at the speaker series spurred MSU Extension and RML to offer community discussions surrounding mental illness. Together, community members, agencies and organizations have generated a prioritized list of action items to create community impact related to mental health. MSU Extension now sends a monthly update with the efforts of the community discussions, upcoming trainings and educational articles focusing on mental health to over 400 individuals in Ravalli County and throughout the nation.
Dr. Marilyn Pao, researcher at National Institute of Mental Health, was the first presenter in the speaker series, winter 2019. Photo by Rocky Mountain Laboratories