Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing

Published: 2020
By Jane Wolery

Mental health was one of the top three concerns identified in Teton County’s 2017 Community Health Needs Assessment and Improvement Plan. Depression, anxiety, and stress rated the top mental health issues. Montana ranks high among states on mental health disorder prevalence, low on access to mental health care, and has the highest suicide rate in the nation. MSU Extension is meeting needs in Teton County through a variety of efforts. The Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) program reaches approximately 80 students per year and is offered to every ninth-grade student in public school in Teton County. The program includes five sessions about mental health, coping skills, depression, suicide and when/how to seek professional help. The program teaches students to recognize signs of mental health challenges in themselves and others and provides practice approaching someone about whose wellbeing they are concerned. Three months after participating in YAM, students report an increase in general mental health knowledge, significant decrease in depressive symptoms and a trending decrease in anxiety symptoms. Nearly half of students reported they would seek help from school staff for assistance with feelings of suicide and 79% said they would seek help for depression. Wolery also teaches the “Question, Persuade and Refer” suicide prevention program to school faculty. During the first weeks of the pandemic, Wolery focused media outreach on mental health resources, such as Thrive for Montana, an online cognitive behavior therapy, and the Montana Ag Producer Stress Resource website. Wolery, who has training in counseling, was an early statewide collaborator curating resources specifically for rural Montanans that became the impetus for the stress management clearinghouse.