LAKEPORT— In the modern day, mental health has become important. Whether it is dealing with stress, acknowledging issues, or being aware of resources, these factors are crucial for everyday life. For these reasons, May has served as Mental Health Awareness Month since 1949. To this end, Lakeport has taken a day to take part.
On Saturday, May 9, the 11th Mental Health Matter’s Day event was held in the Historic Courthouse Museum Courtyard at 255 North Main Street. This annual event saw a variety of resource providers and community-based organizations brought together to support local Lake County’s local health and wellbeing. The event was organized by Lake County Behavior Health Services (LCBHS)’s Outreach and Prevention Services team, and saw various local partners involved like Friday Night Live (FNL), SafeRx, Hilltop Recovery Services, Lake County Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH), and many more. Also, there was a raffle held every 30 minutes.
Mental Health Matters Day began with Megan Morgan, the Community Liaison, giving a speech that welcomed the various information vendors. The event’s theme was “More Good Days Together” and spoke to the importance of connections; not just the bonds that people have, but the ability to network and rely on resources in a crisis. It was something that Morgan hoped for regarding the event and all visitors to it.
“If somebody walks away from here and feels like they can actually acknowledge that it’s a bad day for them and recognize what a good day for them looks like and those differences, then I’d be really happy with that.” Morgan said. “I just want people to have that takeaway of if they’re struggling, they’re not alone.”
A longstanding aspect of the event has been connection. Related to how much the event has grown are the number of different booths involved. As stated by Kendra Boyce, the event’s coordinator, originally Mental Health Matters Day started with an initiative called “Each Mind Matters”. Even though the initiative changed to taking action for mental health, the intent to support mental health has remained. Thus, 11 years ago, the original Mental Health Matters Day was held.
“It started very small where it was just our clients with a couple booths and some sandwiches.” Boyce said. “And now we have 32 different booths that are here to provide resources and information for our community.”
The different informational booths comprising Mental Health Matters Day respectively expressed their support. From Deputy Caludia Acosta of the Probation Department, to Lynn Farmer and Vincent Taylor of Nation’s Finest Veteran Services, and Randall Cole of Solano Women in Medicine, the Coletrain Transformation Station, and many others like Lake County Behavioral Health’s Tina Ransburg. The shared viewpoint was to help others and to let everyone know that they aren’t alone.