Ind. state leaders & professionals take part in Mental Health Summit

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WFIE) - Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we took a trip to Indianapolis to attend the Indiana Roundtable on Mental Health Summit.

The event is being hosted by Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch and more than 650 leaders from across the state are there.

Governor Eric Holcomb made history by signing Senate Bill One, which will provide $100 million of funding for mental health resources. It will also help expand the 988 crisis response center.

The governor also signed House Bill 10-06, which connects Hoosiers suffering from mental health issues with the appropriate treatment.

Officials say one in four people experience some kind of mental health struggle at some point in their life.

“Your mental health is really just how you’re able to cope with challenges and stresses that come to you,” says Emily Reidford, Easterseals Community Outreach and Education. “And just like physical health we have good and bad mental health days.”

EVSC Director of Mental Health Sylvia Groves says that 25 percent of us at some point are going to have some sort of mental health struggles.

Not all struggles have to be diagnosed with health conditions. It’s important to be self-aware and realize if you are or are not getting better. If not, it might be time to reach out to a health professional.

“Mental health challenges have changed over time right? Social media, the access we have to news that might not be good news every single day has certainly changed,” says Reidford. “It does affect us. I think what’s more important is about how we talk about mental health and not just to report on it but to share, share stories and on how things are making us feel.”

Official say when we’re struggling, we have to take that step to get ourselves better. This project is just another outlet, another tool for people to use to help them.

“And the more regulated we are as adults, the better we’re going to be able to help children and adolescence process through these very troubling things that are going on in our world,” says Groves.

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