We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
The Blaine County Local Advisory Council For Mental Health has put together a fun night of activities centered around family fun while focusing on Mental Health and a number of other issues affecting our communities. The goal is to provide the information in a fun yet productive manner. The Family Carnival Night is set to take place at the Blaine County Fairgrounds on March 31, 2023. A Spaghetti Dinner will be served from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. The Carnival is scheduled to run from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Folk's attending are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items or free will donations that will be given to the Chinook Food Pantry. Throughout the evening there will be plenty of games for everyone to enjoy with prizes being awarded to various age groups. All ages are welcome to attend and participate in the fun. In addition, there will be plenty of educational information and displays for parents and kids to learn from. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
The collaboration for this exciting night of family fun is a partnership between the Mental Health Local Advisory Council for Blaine County, the Blaine County Health Department, Blaine County MSU Extension Office, Blaine County Superintendent of Schools Office, Blaine County Juvenile Probation Office, Blaine County Emergency Management Office, Blaine County DUI Task Force, Blaine County Library, Blaine County Prevention Specialist Ashley Birdtail and Prevention Specialist - Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program Jay Schuschke. According to a press release "The goal of this partnership is to come together and address current issue within our communities dealing with mental health, substance abuse and other relevant topics. We have been working together for the last 9 months to come up with projects, training, speakers, and educational campaigns that can help us achieve our goals."
Blaine County Nurse, Valerie Beck states, "One goal that we have discussed is how we would like to bring families together and recognize the role the whole family plays in mental health, substance abuse and other relevant topics. We want to extend our partnership to the 4-H youth and the JUMP youth group to help us with this project." The entire collaboration is definitely focused in achieving their goal, "We plan to have the 4-H youth and Jump youth group prepare and serve a meal which is essential to get people to attend. They will also set up and run the carnival events and games. We plan to have booths of education materials set up that deal with mental health, substance abuse and other relevant topics. The DUI Task Force, Tobacco Use Prevention Program, Health Department, MSU Extension and Juvenile Probation will all have booths set up to include education materials aimed at both the youth and their guardians. The 'My Life My Quit', 'What's In Your Kids' Backpack', 'Hidden in Plain Sight' and DUI Task Force 'Fatal Vision' are some of the evidence based programs we will have on hand."
Several of the displays will be interactive such as the DUI Task Force 'Beer' goggles to show blurred vision, and the crash cart. The Blaine County Health Department has been focused on mental health and the increased need to get the information out to the community is and will remain ongoing. The Health Department will continue to hold various activities that have been successful in the past, like the Be Kind Rocks they did last year. "We had a bunch of different groups paint kindness rocks and displayed them all across the county. We had the Nursing Home, JUMP Youth Group, Chinook Senior Center, Sunshine Church School and Blaine County Health participate. We even had prize rocks hidden that if found could be returned to the office in exchange for a prize," said Beck. "We hope that from this families have an increased awareness of the programs and resources that are available to them. Also, we hope that this gives guardians the ability to connect and communicate with kids about substance abuse mental health and other relevant topics."
