Dusk-to-Dawn Bereavement Services is planning a community-wide breakfast meeting to discuss mental health issues and how to improve services and the lives of those who suffer.
The meeting is planned for 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Youth Service Bureau Community Room, 808 W. Pike St., Crawfordsville.
The focus on mental health and its many related issues that plague society has recently begun to generate attention on the local, state and national levels, said Cheryl Fuhrmann, Dusk-to-Dawn executive director.
“It is now understood that adverse childhood experiences have far-reaching implications on the future lives of children,” she said. “These ACEs may include parental divorce, parental incarceration, a parent that struggles with mental illness, a parent with substance abuse issues, living in poverty, experiencing food insecurity, homelessness, lack of quality healthcare, lack of emotional support or exposure to violence and/or physical, sexual, mental, or emotional abuse. To make matters worse, far too many of the children with high ACE scores come from families that are uninsured or underinsured and as a result go without access to the necessary mental health services that can help minimize the effects of the ACEs.”
Over time, ACEs often affect a child’s academic performance, lessening their chances of graduating from high school, acquiring secondary higher education, and their ability to get and keep a job. ACEs will also increase their chances of developing mental illness, as well as their risk of involvement with substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, self-mutilation, suicidal ideation, becoming incarcerated and living in poverty.
“In short, the cycle perpetuates itself generation after generation, and ultimately becomes the epidemic we are witnessing in today’s society,” Fuhrmann said.
The picture becomes even more dismal if there is a lack of access to quality and affordable mental health services. Currently, the national ratio of residents to mental health providers is 310 to 1. In Montgomery County, that ratio is more than triple the national average at 1,010 residents to every 1 provider.
“The extent of the problem has exploded so quickly in such a short time, we are overwhelmed,” Fuhrmann said. “With the help of grants locally, statewide and nationally, many service providers have started looking deeper into these many issues and how we can provide the best care, address the multiplicity of issues that feed the problem, and work on reversing the direction of this national epidemic.”
For more information or to register in advance email ckfdusk2dawn@gmail.com.
