Kasson focuses on mental health

The city of Kasson has decided to devote $25,000 to a new mental health care initiative and will partner with area health care agencies to offer community aid.
Funding will come from Kasson’s CARES Act funds. Called the Kasson Community Mental Health Initiative, Mayor Chris McKern is a driving force behind the plan to make mental health a priority.
“If people take advantage of it, then we know it’s something the community needs. If no one takes advantage of it, we know our resources should go other places,” McKern said.
“We can all help each other. We’re hoping it will go a long ways to benefiting the whole community.”
The initiative is in its very early stages. Some ways the city will help people with mental health care challenges is by purchasing one-hour consultations at Fernbrook Family Center in Rochester for families to use. Fernbrook will also be doing five presentations for the city of Kasson; dates aren’t yet known.
Zumbro Valley Health Center of Rochester will provide trainings for suicide prevention. Those will be free of charge. And the city is working with Mayo Clinic to develop some educational tools for Kasson’s mental health care initiative. The city is also partnering with NAMI of Rochester to provide people with suicide prevention classes; dates and times are still being worked out.
“It’s kind of a silent illness at times,” McKern said of suicide. “I think the community talking about it will go a long ways. If we can provide an opportunity or convince one person to get the help they need to prevent a suicide, that would be successful.”
Josh Jensen, Zumbro Valley Health Center’s regional suicide prevention coordinator, said what Kasson is doing “is amazing.”
“There needs to be more mental health initiatives throughout the state,” Jensen said. “We continue to see increases of depression, anxiety, we continue to see increased rates of suicide and by having mental health initiatives it really helps to destigmatize mental health.”
Jensen will facilitate suicide prevention training for the city of Kasson, and said people will be trained in how to recognize the warning signs of suicide, how to ask someone if they are experiencing thoughts of suicide and how to persuade someone to get help and how to get a referral.
“It’s OK to not be OK,” he said. “Suicide is very preventable and it’s through creating a dialogue to address mental health and mental illness where this progress really starts to be made.”
Sean Kinsella, executive director of NAMI in Rochester, said his organization will provide suicide training for residents of Kasson. Dates and times have yet to be worked out. Kinsella said the city of Kasson is doing the right thing by allocating funds toward mental health care.
“I think it’s a very smart use of money,” he said. “I think a lot of people are experiencing mental distress in this climate due to COVID-19, due to economic recession and the whole help your kids get through school and manage school in all of its forms.
We’ve heard that teachers are very aware of their students’ mental health. It’s of great concern. Unless you’ve been trained on how to ask the leading questions, ask and encourage someone, that persuasion to reach out to someone for help and where to refer them are very critical pieces in stabilizing communities.”
McKern said city of Kasson officials are considering doing a city-wide mailing to let residents know about the mental health care initiative, as well as alerting residents through other means such as newsletters and social media posts.