Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is subsiding, state and local health officials are no longer devoting almost all of their resources to the coronavirus.
That’s a good thing because there are a lot of other pressing health concerns facing state residents that need to be addressed. A series of town hall meetings to be held by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is now focusing on mental health solutions.
In recent years, Guilford County has completely overhauled its mental health services, and, this fall, the county created a task force on homelessness. Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that the county must address mental health issues when addressing homelessness, since mental issues are often a large component of the homelessness problem.
Now, the NCDHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley and Deputy Secretary for Health Mark Benton, alongside state legislators Senator Jim Burgin and Representative James Gailliard, will be focusing on the problem of mental health in the state as well. The group will host a town hall in Nashville, North Carolina Thursday, Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. to discuss mental health issues in the state.
In many ways, this is a logical area of focus after the pandemic since so many people were affected emotionally by being isolated and in constant fear. NCDHHS now estimates that more than three million people in North Carolina have mental health issues or substance use disorders.
State residents are encouraged to attend the town halls, ask questions and contribute to the conversation.
At the event, Secretary Kinsley, Sen. Burgin and Rep. Gailliard will take questions from attendees and comment on key policy issues.
State officials haven’t stated plans to stream the events.
The Oct. 27 town hall will be in the Nash County Commissioners Room at the Claude Mayo, Jr. Administration Building at 120 W. Washington St. Nashville.
NCDHHS and state legislators will be hosting the next mental health town hall in in Kenansville on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022.
Additional details and any additional Mental Health town hall dates will be announced at a later time.
At the age of 65, my dwelling of 20 years had its lock changed by a deputy. All of my personal belongings were then seized by the apartment manager and I was left homeless and indigent. I went into shock and was hospitalized for three days. Not a single official of town hall, police, city council, not a single person looked into this ordeal. Landlords have no real consequences for their actions.
That was four years ago and still no one cares.
Evictions don’t happen overnight or without notice. If you didn’t pay the rent or follow the instructions, dont blame the landlord or the government. Sorry you had such a shock.
Rent was paid each month for over 20 years. Unsure of what you mean by “follow the instructions” but I must have done something right to have lived there for such a long period of time. The landlord is accountable to no one and issued me a non-renewal lease (no reason need be given) and I, at 65 and living on the top floor, simply could not physically oblige. With nearly 500 units at the complex, there were ample for new residents.
This was nothing less than exercising their power to burglarize my personal belongings. And there are no laws to deter such action.
How about penalties for doctors and companies that push meds that lead to psychotic violence and addiction. How about decriminalization of natural thousands of year old treatments for mental illness. As long as the medical-government-big pharma consortiums are pulling the levers expect more pills that even have worse psychosis inducing side effects. Maybe love and God and respect of all life would’ve a good start. Most of these government do-gooders should look inward first.
How about not blindly following what a doctor says or pushes? Just because they hand you a prescription doesn’t mean you have to fill it. Just because you fill it, doesn’t mean you have to take it. If you take it, you’re responsible for figuring out if it works or not. Doctors “practice” medicine. It’s not an exact science, and they definitely do t get everything right every time.
How are town halls in Nashville NC helping address the issues of people in Guilford County? Perhaps a town hall in our area would help as we have a new facility in our area, yet a homeless problem they don’t deal with in a reasonable way, not enough mental health counselors for people to see, lack of mental health services for people with dementia and issues not related to drugs, need more assistance for in-home caregivers of people with long-term chronic illness and disabilities, and some people don’t have options of counselors because they have been silenced for almost three years as social outcasts. There’s a start.
Schedule a tour of your local jail. If you didn’t have mental health & substance abuse cases there, the place would only have about 40% of the people it does today. By the way, that 40% aren’t “residents,” they’re thugs!