Huron County's Community Safety and Well Being Oversight Committee Launched Their First of Four Campaigns Last Week

by Bob Montgomery

Huron County's Community Safety and Well-Being Oversight Committee launched their first of four campaigns last week.

The Community Safety and Well Being Plan is a plan that was developed by all the lower-tier municipalities in Huron County as mandated by the province in 2021. It focuses on 4 Priority Areas: Mental Health and Addiction, Housing and Homelessness, Domestic and Family Violence and Community Security. Lynn Higgs is the manager for the In-Patient Mental Health and Addiction Unit at the Alexandra Marine and General Hospital in Goderich and the manager for Huron Community Mental Health Services. She says mental health is more visible today than it might have been ten or twenty years ago. She believes part of that is there isn't the stigma related to mental health that there was in the past, and also, there are a lot more pressures today than there have been in the past. She says one of the things they're going to be working on is decreasing stigma so that people who need help will feel comfortable coming forward and getting help.

Higgs says the world has definitely changed in the last twenty years and that has put more pressure on people and there are indicators of a problem in children and adults. She also points out if an adult is not feeling well, is socially isolating themselves, having suicidal thoughts, or any one of a number of other challenges, they should feel comfortable about getting help. She says if they can get that message across it will certainly impact the service that people get and the outcome from that service.

Anyone who feels they need help can call 211 to connect with the people that can provide the help they need.