ACHAT Brings Awareness to Local Mental Health Resources
Mental health is a big topic that encompasses a variety of subcategories. While mental health is frequently (and currently) in the national spotlight, it is often harder to talk about closer to home. One Adams County group is hoping to change that, and open up the conversation locally.
The Adams County Health Action Team, or ACHAT, started almost three years ago, in April of 2022, through the vision and guidance of Southwest District Health. Tara Woodward, who is a Program Planning and Development Specialist for Southwest District Health, is the facilitator for ACHAT. While the majority of her job is spent coordinating a grant on youth substance prevention, around 15% of her time is spent supporting the Adams County Health Action Team. “Our Director really had a vision of supporting communities and the counties we service in ways that are important to them,” said Woodward about the goals behind the community health teams. “So our goal is really to just be that backbone facilitator to bring together key community members, and anyone who’s really interested in health in the community, … and be that backbone public health expert there to just like support and help and facilitate.”
Adams County was the last county in Southwest District Health’s area to start a Health Action Team. When Woodward was starting out, she reached out to different community members and organizations that she thought might be interested in being part of the conversation. They invited more people, and there were twelve people who showed up to the first meeting that really wanted to be involved. At that first meeting, Woodward went around the room and asked the community members what was important to them around health generally. Two main themes emerged: housing, and mental health. They voted on where to start and went with mental health, because they thought they had the necessary people in the room to start acting on it right away.
According to Southwest District Health Website, ACHAT has the vision of “vibrant communities in Adams County filled with positive perspectives, connected to relevant resources, and pursuing health opportunities.” They currently have two main goals: Decreasing stigma around accessing mental health resources, and increasing awareness of mental health resources.
So far, in pursuit of those goals, the group has been working on multiple circulars to help spread awareness, including cards with healthy coping skill aimed for children, a brochure about the 988 behavior health crisis line, a trifold for EMS personnel to hand out at calls, as well as magnets, stickers, and postcard sized invitations to come join the conversation with their logo and a QR code on them. The QR code, which the group developed, links to the Adams County Health Center’s Community Resource page. ACHC is a member of ACHAT and together they worked to update the page, making sure it highlighted all the resources that were already available in the community. So far, most of their circulars have been distributed at the Meadows Valley Library, where they hold their monthly meetings, but they are starting to get out into the community more, and have had representatives at farmers markets and the school jubilee as well.
Last spring, ACHAT hosted two ‘Question, Persuade, Refer’ or QPR trainings. QPR is a training to prepare people on how to talk to someone whom they are concerned about or whom they think may be having suicidal thoughts. “A common misconception around suicide is that if you ask someone you are going to plant an idea,” said ACHAT facilitator Woodward, “but in reality, asking someone might actually prevent them from doing it.” One talk was at the Meadows Valley Library and virtual. The other was hosted at the Meadows Valley School. Many school staff and community members attended, including personnel from Council School District. It was well received and is something they are considering doing again in the future.
Individual ACHAT members have also been getting involved in bringing resources to the community. Mesa resident, Jessica Rogers, got involved with ACHAT in April of 2024. Rogers spent six years in active duty for the Coast Guard where she also served as a victim advocate. During that time she became very interested in mental health. Later, she became involved with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and had a transformative experience when someone reached out to her personally. She has a passion for mental health, and immediately became active in the community after moving to Adams County. Locally, she is a board member of Adams County Health Center, and she helped organize a mental health seminar at her church, called Mind Fit. It was while promoting this event that she learned about ACHAT and wanted to get involved. As a veteran and ACHAT representative, Rogers attended a conference in Nampa called Courageous Survival, focused on the mental health and wellness of first responders. At the conference, they were giving out boxes of PTSD resources for first responders, called ‘We See You’ boxes. Rogers collected five of the boxes and personally handed them out to different local organizations, including the Sheriff’s Office, Payette National Forest, Council Valley Ambulance, Meadows Valley Emergency Services, and Indian Valley Rural Fire Department.
This action made ripples. Through the ‘We See You’ boxes, Rogers learned about a grant opportunity for first responders. She told Council EMT, Rianne Horsch, who found the information in the box and applied for the grant. Council Valley Ambulance was awarded the grant and received $2,000 to use for go bags for all the EMTs. Because of the rural nature of our community, many of the EMTs end up responding from home or from a personal vehicle, before the ambulance arrives, which makes these go bags of vital supplies for the EMTs to carry in their personal vehicles so valuable for the community. Additionally, Horsch was able to purchase small portable oxygen tanks for the EMTs to carry with them.
Also, while at the Courageous Survival conference, Jessica Rogers learned about a retreat for first responders and their spouses called Stronger Families. She thought that ACHAT would be able to send a local first responder and they agreed, so while delivering the ‘We See You’ boxes she told the different departments about the opportunity. One local, Robert Ray, who is a driver for Council Valley Ambulance and a volunteer firefighter for Indian Valley, jumped on the idea. He ended up being the only one who applied and when ACHAT voted on who to send they all agreed on Ray, who also helps the departments as a mental health advocate. “He is a powerhouse when it comes to mental health!” said Jessica Rogers, who was very excited about the opportunity to offer this to a local first responder and their spouse.
ACHAT is far from done with their work in the community. Next, they are looking at starting the conversation around social connection in older adults, and how to reach out to people who may also have transportation issues. They are also thinking about hosting a walk around mental health, perhaps on the Weiser River Trail, and having an event with vendors and resources. All these and more ideas will be discussed during their monthly meetings. ACHAT meets once a month, on the first Tuesday of the month, at the Meadows Valley Library, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. People can attend virtually or in person. Meetings are open to the public and everyone is invited to join! `Together, we can move towards the Mission of ACHAT, and help to “create and maintain healthy communities.”
