This year’s Mental Health Awareness Festival on Saturday, May 9, had about 60 vendors set up in the rain to connect locals to various mental health and community resources — from outpatient mental health organizations to wellness activities like animal cuddling.
Kasey Felty, who works in the Lebanon County MH/ID/EI program and is part of the festival’s committee, said she sees a large amount of need throughout the county.
“We’re all seeing individuals struggle more just with being regulated,” she said. “Things feel very uneasy right now, so I think as a whole, there’s a lot of individuals that need some additional support. Life is hard right now, and this is an opportunity for everyone within the community to know that there is help out there for you, whatever that may look like.”
Tables had wellness activities like coloring, painting, and journaling. (Katie Knol)
Organizations offering different forms of therapy, like music therapy, had tables to reach out to the community. (Katie Knol)
Felty said not every support will work for everybody, but the event has a wide variety in one place.
“From what we see, it’s really difficult to find a place that houses all these resources, and houses all the resources so that they’re up-to-date,” she said. “I think having the community event allows a space for us all to come together and know what’s available, and individuals can go and actually talk to that agency and really find out if it’s something that would benefit them.”
The festival had stands for various counseling services that could address what an individual was going through. Various calming coping skills were also on display. There was a table for music therapy and several stands that featured crafts, coloring, or journals.
For people who feel better by interacting with animals, there was baby goat and baby kangaroo cuddling.
Baby goat and baby kangaroo cuddling was new to the festival this year. (Katie Knol)
Skyler Deitrick, program director for Community Services Group’s psychiatric rehabilitation program and part of the festival committee, said the event has almost doubled in size throughout its four years. Now, it has all but reached its limit for the current location at Poplar Commons.
“The more that we do it, it’s kind of become a staple for our mental health community,” Deitrick said.
It started as the committee reaching out to county resources to get them involved, he said, but now, people are reaching out to the committee because they want to have a space.
People stop by the Lebanon County Christian Ministries table. (Katie Knol)
Deitrick said there is no pressure for people to commit to anything during the festival — guests can just be exposed to what is available.
“We’ve seen that services have seen an increase in getting referrals from this event,” Felty added. “Also, the providers who have come consistently feel they are getting something from it. They tell us how excited they are about this event.”
She said they’re always trying to keep the event fresh. That can mean reaching out to new resources that move into the county or having new activities for visitors to try.
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