The Mental Health Matters coalition, based in Eau Claire and Chippewa Counties, is helping to launch an online tool that includes strategies to tackle mental and behavioral health concerns in Wisconsin.

The set of strategies – compiled via a tool called the Behavioral Health Strategy Guide – includes detailed guides created by the 10 Wisconsin coalitions, which highlight the following:

● School-based strategies, like mindfulness training, school-based mental health
counseling, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) workshops.

● Community-based strategies, like Mental Health First Aid training, a parenting
program aimed at reducing alcohol and drug abuse within families, and a
community-based early autism screening clinic.

● Other resources communities can create, like a website listing all local mental health
resources and providers, and a tool to make local youth mental health data available to
the public.

With the Strategy Guide, members of the public will be able to easily find the strategies each of the 10 coalitions used to bring community partners together to identify an issue of focus, steps each coalition took to address its region’s mental health challenges, and best practices and lessons learned. The guide is intended to be a resource for other mental health advocates to use and adapt to their own communities.

This project was a large, coordinated effort to understand the mental and behavioral health issues affecting communities. The coalitions that participated serve a diverse set of Wisconsin populations – rural, urban, suburban, and tribal. YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE.