Mental Health Conference

The city of Jackson is constantly working on bettering the quality of life for its residents.

That’s why president of the Jackson Chamber Kyle Spurgeon says he attended the state of health and mental health conference at the Jackson Madison County General Hospital.

“It's all about people and one of the most important things is quality of life and health outcomes, how people live in the community, take care of themselves, that determines the health of the entire community,” says Kyle Spurgeon.

The purpose of the conference was to educate and make the community more aware of the importance of mental health.

Marie Williams, commissioner for the Tennessee department of mental health and substance abuse spoke about a few things Governor Bill Lee is doing to help fight mental health all throughout the state.

“The behavioral health safety net where we serve people that are poor and have mental health issues up to 138 percent of federal poverty level, they include the expansion of a medical director in all departments where we will work with eds across the state to train staff with the ability to intervene and not do unnecessary hospitalizations,” says Marie Williams.

Mental health diseases are more common than people realize.

Williams says one out of five people are struggling or have struggled with mental health in their lifetime

Mental health is something everyone should be worrying about and if its not affecting you they say there's things you should do to help those who it is affecting.

“Stop, look, listen, and respond,” says Williams

Williams encourages people to act and call their local mental health center if they know that someone they know is struggling with a mental health disorder.

For 39 News, i'm Camila Rueda.