WS Chronicle

The Mental Health Association in Forsyth County will hold its second public forum of the year on Wednesday, May 22 from 6:30–8:30 p.m. at The Enrichment Center, 1006 S. Marshall St. The event is free and open to the public.

“Mental Health as a Public Health Issue” is part of the agency’s effort to sway the public to view mental health as a public health issue, the way infectious diseases, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other major illnesses are viewed.

“It’s time – it is actually way past time – that we put mental health and substance use disorders on the same level as other major illnesses in our country,”said Andy Hagler, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Forsyth County.

Hagler

The discussion will focus on best practices in mental health and substance use services – both locally and nationally.

“We know that overall the mental health system in North Carolina is broken, fragmented, particularly the publicly-funded mental health system.  We have known this for years.  Rather than continuing to ‘point fingers’ at what is wrong with the system, let’s take a look from local and even national perspectives at mental health and substance use services that are considered as best practices, programs, services that have been shown to work effectively, produce successful outcomes and is supported to some degree by data sources, either subjectively and objectively,” Hagler said.

Panelists include Wayne W. Lindstrom, president and CEO of Mental Health America; Stephanie Daniel, executive director of the School Health Alliance; David Swann, COO of Partners Behavioral Healthcare, senior consultant for MTM Services and National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare; Jim Graham, executive director of the Northwest Community Care Network; and Lisa Menefee, Forsyth County District Court Judge.

For more information, call Andy Hagler at 336-768-3880.