DENISON, Texas (KXII) – Educators, parents, and community leaders attended the Texoma Rural Mental Health Summit in Denison Thursday.

“For a first world country where we’re we’ve got some of the highest GDP, we rank lower in our happiness. You know, we’re not even in the top ten as a happy country,” said USDA Rural Development’s Lillian Salerno.

Salerno said mental health struggles can be seen anywhere, but its rural areas which tend to have fewer resources.

“Part of that is just disconnect, I think polarization of people, people not feeling connected to their communities, and in rural, when you’re detached, you may not have anybody to talk to,” she explained.

Keynote speakers touched on the importance of not only paying attention to one’s own mental health, but also children’s mental well being.

Learning ways to effectively gain insight to a child’s online habits may act as a starting point.

Keynote speaker and pediatrician, Cori Cross said, “We can only learn that by talking to them, interacting with them, and then we need to teach kids how to critically think, how to reflect and say, do I feel better after spending this time or do I feel worse?”

Salerno said the goal of the summit is to break stigma surrounding mental health, while also providing helpful resources to the public.

Copyright 2024 KXII. All rights reserved.