Region One highlights Mental Health Awareness Month

EDINBURG, Texas (ValleyCentral) — May is Mental Health Awareness Month and school districts across the Valley are taking this time to focus on the mental health of their students.

The Office of Counseling and Mental Health, based in Region One, has only been around for a little over a year. Region One received a grant of nearly $6 million last year which helped launch the program.

Since its creation, the Counseling and Mental Health Department has reached over 50,000 students and trained more than 10,000 educators.

The office is currently working with five rural districts on a research-based program. It's a five-year plan to study how well the programs they are implementing work.

“We have some areas that the nearest mental health professional is over 40 miles away, you know," said Director of Counseling and Mental Health, Yovann Salinas. "So we want to ensure that we’re bringing these resources to them and removing those barriers to their access to that care.”

Region One is also working with its other districts to help implement grant money that has been awarded. Salinas said they want to provide training that districts can apply at their schools.

“We’ve gone to their districts, provided them camps and presentations at the campus level, as well as here at the center," Salinas said.

According to Salinas, the state mandated a lot of new laws and policies last year surrounding mental health. The attention to mental health issues is a need that has existed for a very long time.

“Many, you know, fell that the COVID pandemic is what kind of triggered a lot of it," said Salinas. Especially because we were in isolation for so long, but if you look at suicide numbers pre-COVID, they were pretty high then.”

She added that COVID just elevated the need to have mental health support in place.

Districts are holding their own informational sessions to help community members understand these issues.

“They’re also bringing their parents onto the campuses to even train and make the parents more aware of things to look out for," Salinas said. "And how to help their students as well, when it comes to regulating those emotions.”

Region One has also set up crisis response teams that can go to campuses and help out any time grief counseling is needed. They are also looking to hire more trained counselors who can go to districts that may not be able to afford to have them on staff full-time.

On Saturday, Region One is hosting its Second Annual Mental Health Awareness Day. Region One is hoping the Star Wars themed event will be a fun way to get information about mental health resources.