The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lorain County Metro Parks receives award
The Ohio Parks and Recreation Association recently recognized Lorain County Metro Parks with a first place award for a collaborative suicide prevention campaign in the parks. In 2018, Metro Parks teamed up with the Lorain County Board of Mental Health to incorporate resources into the parks for those who are facing a crisis, according to a news release. The Park district created stickers with Crisis Hotline information and placed them strategically on trail markers. More than 250 stickers were placed in remote areas including locations where individuals have taken their own lives. Crisis Hotline posters also were placed at trailheads and restrooms. The Crisis Hotline information is a state-wide initiative to extend a voice when people need it most, the release said. “In receiving this award, it is a great honor to be acknowledged by our peers throughout the state of Ohio in helping to address this serious matter,” said Jim Ziemnik, director of Lorain County Metro Park. “We are privileged to work with the Lorain County Board of Mental Health, especially Dr. Kathleen Kern (executive director of the Board of Mental Health) and Clare Rosser, in helping to address mental health issues in the Lorain County Metro Parks and throughout all of Lorain County. “Overall, we are thrilled to work with many of our local health care professionals in encouraging our residents to utilize the parks to address a multitude of health care issues. We are pleased that research continues to show how parks and nature have profound positive impacts on individuals’ mental health.” As part of the campaign, the Board of Mental Health authored an article for the park newsletter titled “Change your brain, just by walking.” “The Lorain County Board of Mental Health is grateful to the Lorain County Metro Parks for stepping up as a true community partner in our county’s collaborative efforts to address the problem of suicide,” Kern said. “The creative outreach that has been done as a result of this collaboration allows for essential public health information on suicides to be shared with a cohort of the public who may need to hear mental health messaging but may not have sought it out on their own.” Throughout the state, 150 programs and projects were nominated. The awards are judged by a panel of parks and recreation professionals from Ohio, the release said. “These award winners represent the best of the best in parks and recreation in Ohio,” said Ohio Parks and Recreation Association Executive Director Woody Woodward. “These programs and projects are changing the lives of people around the state and building better communities in Ohio.”