Governor Gordon Recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month as Part of Work to Improve Mental Health Care in Wyoming

As part of his ongoing efforts to address Wyoming’s mental health crisis, Governor Mark Gordon is recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month in May. In conjunction, the Governor’s office is offering a series of mental health webinars as part of its ongoing educational initiative.

In January the Governor launched an initiative to address Wyoming’s ongoing mental health crisis, following a series of mental health Town Hall meetings hosted in communities across the state. The weekly webinars address in detail the five pillars identified in the Governor’s “Mental Health Roadmap” that are critical to improving outcomes for those who are battling mental health issues. They include:

• Access to Care— Ensuring residents have access to the continuum of behavioral health services.
• Affordability of Care– Ensuring cost is not a barrier to accessing services in Wyoming.
• Quality of Care– Delivering the highest quality of service based on best practices and evidence-based research.
• Innovation–Constantly thinking of ways to improve our system based on new research and information. 
• Suicide Prevention and Destigmatization

Among the priority strategies identified in the roadmap that were included in the Governor’s budget proposal that was passed by the legislature in March were full funding for the Wyoming 988 suicide prevention hotline, along with the addition of text and chat services.

Additional details of the weekly webinars and other events connected to Mental Health Awareness Month can be found on the Governor’s Mental Health website.