Mental Health Minute: Blaine County Mental well-being initiative
KETCHUM, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Mental health took center stage in Ketchum on Tuesday as Blaine County looks to improve and expand its well-being initiative.
18 months ago, the Saint Luke’s Wood River Valley Foundation posed an important question to the people of Blaine County: “How can we improve our treatment of mental health?”
From there the Blaine County “mental well-being initiative” was born.
“We realized we needed more of an ecosystem approach. In other words, to look at everything from prevention, to education, to getting people the care they need, and to a crisis response system, so that when people are needing mental health care, they’re not just ending up in the emergency department or in incarceration, they’re kind of getting the right mental health care. So a kind of end-to-end ecosystem approach,” said Tyler Norris, the Chair of the Blaine County Mental Well-being Initiative.
Norris says the community has really gotten behind this initiative, something showcased as they had to add extra seats for Tuesday’s meeting at the Ketchum Library.
“It’s been like that for 18 months. When we’ve done forums from one end of the valley to the other, people have shown up, they’re asking questions, they’re telling their stories,” Norris said.
Organizers say the initiative aims to foster collaboration and inclusion not just among community members, but also its many partners.
“We have 43 pledged partners from other nonprofits in the community who are doing really great work, to faith organizations, to our school district, to law enforcement, to county officials. So, we’ve really tried to bring in anyone with a toe in this water to be part of the initiative,” said Megan Tanous, the Executive Director of St. Luke’s Wood River Valley Foundation.
The St. Luke’s Wood River Valley Foundation is one of the spearhead organizations involved with the initiative and Tanous says over the last 18 months they’ve made big strides in helping Blaine County.
“So we’ve increased our commitment to scholarship funding, specifically in the mental health space. We’ve brought in a telehealth, mental health therapy service in Spanish to serve our Hispanic community and offer that to organizations across the community to increase access,” Tanous said.
Those added services provide people more resources to better know when they need to ask others for help.
“Having these kinds of issues is part of the human condition. Having anxiety, having depression, having a substance abuse issue is not a moral failing or a character flaw. It’s a health issue, like any other health issue, that deserves the respect and dignity of the individual and they deserve to be cared for,” Norris said.
Residents and people who work in Blaine County are welcome and encouraged to share their input on the Mental Well-being Initiative via a survey linked here: https://www.prcsurvey.com/begin/BlaineCounty2025/
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