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Greater State of Mind: Addressing Mental Health in Central Minnesota is a collaborative project for Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties and the Leech Lake Band and Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Tribal Nations.
From June to September 2021, we invited leaders in local government, tribes, schools, community organizations, and mental health care providers in our central-Minnesota region to participate in a mental health needs assessment to understand the state of child and adult mental health in our region—availability, accessibility, accommodation, affordability, and awareness.
This is a mental health needs assessment; a region-wide health assessment that uses data collection and analysis to identify key mental health needs, issues, and community resources.
Each county receives a report that summarizes its unique findings, plus recommendations with proposed action plans for improving access to mental health resources. It is our hope that the findings will drive strategic planning and collaboration in addressing regional mental health.
We coordinated this assessment project with guidance from a cross-functional Advisory Group. The Center for Behavioral Health Integration, LLC (C4BHI), is facilitating data collection and analysis. The project is supported and funded by Sourcewell, our regional service cooperative, with participation from local leaders and direct-services staff in our region who provide mental health care or work at a key community organization.
You might know someone on our Advisory Group. This group helps us plan and will help share the findings. These people represent the key stakeholders in the mental health service community and can represent the needs of the towns and counties in which they work.
The best way to learn more is to ask good questions. Here are some we’ve heard and answered so far.
A mental health needs assessment refers to a state, tribal, or local health assessment that identifies key mental health needs, issues, and community resources available using data collection and analysis. A mental health needs assessment can benefit the community in many ways. It reveals the strengths, gaps, and opportunities for resources. The findings drive strategic planning, collaboration, and addressing regional mental health.
C4BHI used a mixed-method mental health needs assessment approach with surveys, qualitative interviews, and focus groups. In addition, they’ll use secondary data from local, state, and national data sources.
Your privacy and the privacy of your consumers is important to us.
All surveys will be collected using a secure platform that complies with the federal law restricting release of medical information (HIPAA). Provider and leadership surveys will be de-identified and reported in aggregate. Consumer surveys will be anonymous, with no identifying information collected.
For focus groups and interviews, we will not use names or identities in any of our reports. Only combined results from everyone we talk to will be presented.
We want to ensure we give credit to your company or organization for participating in this project. We will use company or organization names (not individuals’ names) only. If you prefer that we do not acknowledge your company’s or organization’s participation, please let us know.
The data will be used in aggregate. All data will be analyzed to identify the mental health needs and challenges of the consumers. The data will inform the strengths and weaknesses of mental health services. An action plan to address the needs identified will be prepared and presented to the community.
The reports and action plans developed for this work will focus on recommended improvements for the mental health system overall, not for any individual provider, program, or service. Your contributions will help us determine the needs and gaps in services so the more information we can gather from you the more specific and actionable our recommendations will be.
This project has been a wish list item for us for many years. Our region’s county health and human services directors have also wanted a formal mental health needs assessment for quite some time and have attempted to review gaps in our mental health services for several years with varying degrees of success. We want to understand the current state of our region to help drive strategic planning.
The questions will assess current services and identify areas of need to best serve community members.
We pulled together a team of mental health experts within our region and across different counties to assist us in guiding the work the Center of Behavioral Health Integration will do. The members are social services supervisors, probation personnel, regional ombudsman, law enforcement, mental health providers, and Sourcewell regional staff.
*May 19, 2023
Regional Mental Health Coordinator introduction
We are thrilled to share an update with you about next steps in our work together to address priorities identified in the Greater State of Mind study. Please welcome Nancy Euteneuer, rural mental health advocate and our recently hired Regional Mental Health Coordinator!
Nancy brings to the role 20 years of experience in mental health, with a deep knowledge of services across the full mental health continuum of care for both children and adults. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from The College of Saint Benedict and an associate degree in nursing from Northwest Technical College. Her background includes adult foster care, respite services, mobile mental health crisis response services, and children’s mental health residential services.
Skilled at working collaboratively on shared solutions, she has partnered with county social services and public health entities, the Minnesota Department of Human Services, adult mental health initiatives, local advisory councils for mental health, and numerous mental health providers.
Outside of work, Nancy enjoys taking advantage of Minnesota’s warmer months by camping, boating, and hiking. She also serves her community as a school board member at Parkers Prairie Public Schools.
As Nancy settles into her position, she’ll be working across the region to coordinate stakeholder meetings to dig into the Greater State of Mind report, review priority areas, and prioritize for the path ahead.
We are grateful for your willingness to come alongside us in this important work. If you have questions, please email Region V+ AMHI Program Coordinator, Danielle Wadsworth. Take a moment to review the below Greater State of Mind results and recommendations.
Download the Results & Recommendations Presentation (PDF) >
Watch a Recording of the Results & Recommendations Presentations (video)
CALL 911 IF YOU ARE IN IMMEDIATE DANGER. 911 is to be used only for emergencies (police, fire or medical) where an immediate response is required – when there is an emergency and lives are in danger, immediate action is required or there is a crime in progress.
CALL THE CRISIS LINE if you are thinking of taking your life, need to talk to a mental health professional in your area. Call 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
CALL THE WARM LINE if you need someone to talk with, are feeling isolated, depressed, or anxious: 1-844-739-6369, 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. every night.
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 219
Staples, MN 56479
Crisis Line
