Team HERO mental health event on Friday
TROY, N.Y. » Organizers of the second annual Mental Health awareness workshop said that they are hopeful people from the community will take advantage of any information and services that can help them battle any mental health disorders
Jerry Ford, who is one of the main workshop organizers from Team Helping Everyone Recognize Opportunity, has been hosting various ‘Don’t Block the Truth’ workshops for youth and their families at the Troy Boys and Girls Club along with anyone else from the community who attends their free monthly workshops.
The mental health awareness workshop will take place at the Troy Boys and Girls Club from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and organizers said a light meal will also be provided.
For this workshop, Team HERO said they partnered with Unity House and Commission on Economic Opportunity
Organizers said guests in attendance will be able to hear from experts in the mental health fields from Unity House and CEO and that they will be able to receive information for those and other vendors who set up any information tables during the workshop.
“When it comes to mental health especially in communities with the makeup such as [the City of Troy], you know there’s a stigma on mental health and we feel that especially concerning our youth that they don’t get or seek out the treatment that they need based on that stigma,” Ford explained.
“They think that it’s something that will put a bad light on their situation, so we want to let them know that, ‘ hey, it’s OK if you have issues, we all have issues’ and we want to direct them in the right path to the help and treatment that they need.”
Ford said he is not sure how many people from the community actually even know about the services that are being offered in the city already, but said in light of another recent school shooting that took place in Florida last month, it is important for people to be diagnosed and treated before it escalates to something worse like the shooting.
“We want to promote their components so that people in our community are aware that these services are available to them,” said Ford, who noted service providers say they have seen an increase in people using their services since Team HERO began the different workshops.
Organizers said since they started their community workshops over a year ago that they see an increase in attendance with roughly 50 or more people on average attending the events and Ford hopes that these workshops es- pecially helps youth and their families who are involved with the boys and girls club.
“We’re very happy with that, our goal is to at least reach the young people that participate in the programs that we facilitate at the boys and girls club, that’s our goal, if we can reach them and their immediate family members we’re satisfied with that, but then when the community comes out and supports it too, that’s just icing on the cake,” Ford said.
Ford said in the coming weeks that Team HERO will announce an initiative that they are going to focus on for several months related to a youth non-violence campaign.