LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — Big Brothers Big Sisters of West Central Ohio has been selected by the national organization to help address concerns about children’s mental health.
The local nonprofit is launching a youth mental health focus group and is seeking individuals ages 10 to 25 to share their perspectives on what is needed to support young people’s mental health.
The group will hold four sessions through November to discuss issues participants see and the programming currently available to address them. The discussions will also be compiled into a podcast to be released at a later date.
Dr. Portia Smith, executive director of BBBS of West Central Ohio, said, “Majority of the data will go to national Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and I'm guessing that they're going to use that to also see how they can better service their agencies. But we also noticed that this is an area that we would like to really hone in on and see how we can do much better, because we have kiddos in our programs that are probably going through mental health situations, and we may not be as equipped as we thought we were.”
Smith said the organization is still seeking eight youth participants and is also inviting mental health professionals to join the focus group. Interested individuals can email info@bbbswco.org.
