YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
A multimodal approach to improve mental health and suicide mortality rates is at the root of a local collaboration formed last year.
The effort led by Burrell Behavioral Health and the Healthy Living Alliance of the Ozarks is entering year two of a three-year grant from Community Foundation of the Ozarks Inc. Burrell and HLA’s proposal was selected from among nearly a dozen applicants, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The grant is expected to fund as much as $600,000 split between Burrell and HLA over the three-year period, set to end in June 2026. Some of the work aims to reduce local suicide mortality rates, which a 2022 study notes are significantly higher than statewide and national totals.
Funds received by Burrell are for its Be Well self-care initiative and its Our Networks Engaged, or ONE program. ONE helps businesses or organizations train staff and implement in-house suicide prevention measures. Improving public health via early intervention for mental health care for youth and adults and encouraging those with suicidal ideation to seek help before a crisis are among the collaborative’s goals.
Some of HLA’s funding is for MentalHealth417.com, an online resource hub launched last year. Lauren Stockam, who serves on a communication group with HLA and is also a public health program representative with the local Health Department, said the site has had over 12,000 visits in the year since its May 2023 start.
“Really, we just launched it to be a comprehensive resource,” she said, noting HLA had no set goal number for first-year visits to the site. “But we were definitely happy with the number that we had in that first year.”
Stockam said the most popular page on the site is the treatment finder, which has a comprehensive list of treatments available in Greene County, such as psychiatry, support groups and counseling and therapy providers. The site also provides a mental health check-in through which visitors can answer multiple-choice questions about how they are feeling. Other resources include a self-care toolbox and an overview of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety disorders.
“Ultimately, we want people to be utilizing the treatment options that are available in our area. It was encouraging to us to see they were using that treatment finder,” she said.
Caring campaign
The website also serves as a promotional tool for the HLA’s mental health campaign targeting men, called “Hey Man, You Good?” The campaign, which launched in September 2023, calls on men in Greene County to check in on other men with the intent of being open and honest about how they are feeling. According to the HLA, men over 45 are the group most likely to die by suicide in the local community. It’s data officials say is supported by the 2022 Springfield Community Regional Health Assessment produced by the Ozarks Health Commission. Springfield’s suicide mortality rate of 22.2 deaths per 100,000 people is 60% higher than the national average of 13.8 deaths per 100,000 people. The local rate also is 21% higher than Missouri’s, which is 18.3 deaths per 100,000.
“The community feedback and reaction to ‘Hey Man, You Good?’ has been overwhelmingly positive,” Stockam said, noting the campaign includes several videos produced by Double Jump Media, along with promotional materials, such as stickers and pens she dubs “conversation starters.”
“We’ve been handing them out pretty much any time we’ve tabled at an event or when we meet with people,” she said of the Health Department. “The main thing we’re wanting men to do with this campaign is to talk to each other, like at a deeper level than they normally do.”
Additional content is planned for the next two years of the campaign, she said.
In April, Burrell hosted the first of what it plans to be a trio of Be Well summits. The free event was held at Hammons Field and featured open discussions about suicide prevention and events to encourage a relaxed dialogue around mental health. Jeanne Coburn, director of the Advancing Mental Wellness Grant program at Burrell, said aside from adult men, the organization also is targeting senior citizens 85 and older and the LGBTQIA+ community.
“As we’ve done this needs assessment, we’re understanding that there are more specialty needs and we really need to customize that subject matter expertise to certain populations,” said Dr. Brandan Gremminger, vice president of clinical operations at Burrell, noting 94% of adults in the U.S. see suicide as a preventable public health issue, according to a 2022 poll from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “What we found is a lot of people have hope, but they feel kind of helpless in terms of where they start.”
But one starting place, the U.S. suicide hotline that was revamped in 2022 to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, has shown a significant jump in activity, Burrell officials say. Burrell took 6,685 calls from the national line through 11 months of fiscal 2024, which ends in June. It’s a 100% increase over fiscal 2023’s total.
Other goals Burrell and HLA are targeting for grant funding include implementing Sources of Strength, a program designed to change the norms and behaviors surrounding suicide within a school community, into at least one Springfield area school district and partnering with up to seven businesses or organizations with the ONE initiative, according to past SBJ reporting.
Coburn, who also is a therapist for Burrell, said its portion of the grant targets Christian, Greene and Webster counties.
“We have met with the larger LGBTQIA+ community leaders to determine where the needs are so that we know best where to put our resources and time into that program,” she said of meetings regarding the ONE initiative.
The HLA is a collaborative of more than 40 health and community organizations, including the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, Community Partnership of the Ozarks, CoxHealth and Mercy.
On board
Coburn said the first organization to sign up for the ONE program is SeniorAge Area Agency on Aging.
The 501(c)(3) organization offers a variety of programs and services for the over-60 population in a 17-county area in the southwest region of the state.
Kevin Rusenstrom, customer service director for SeniorAge, said some of the agency’s leaders received suicide prevention training through Burrell in February. That resulted in the two organizations expanding the relationship in May, which Rusenstrom said will lead to roughly 30 more personnel receiving similar training – most likely via Zoom – in July.
Two panel discussions involving Burrell leaders and targeting ages 55 and older also are in the works for this year. The grant is covering all costs for participants.
“We’re just excited. It really meets with our goals because one thing coming down from the state Department of Health and Senior Services on strategic planning is to improve operational and senior focus preparedness for mental health and social isolation,” he said. “So that fits right within this partnership.”
Coburn said the Downtown Springfield Association also recently got on board with the ONE program, and discussions continue with United Way of the Ozarks, which has a civic engagement program called Give 5 that targets current or soon-to-be retirees in Greene County.
With ONE, Gremminger said the intent is to bring mental health training into spaces where people can apply them, whether that’s their workplace, home or neighborhoods.
“As we’re starting with one senior center with this training model, the hope is that it does become a model that then can be replicated across senior centers in our region,” he said.
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