A new monthly talk show airing on local cable channel ETC-3 addresses mental health topics, while highlighting services and resources available to residents of Gilmer and other north Georgia counties.
The series, “Your Mental Health Matters: It’s Okay to Not Be Okay,” began airing Thursday, August 19. It will be broadcast live on ETC-3 at 3 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month through December.
Shows also air as Facebook Live segments on the Fannin County Family Connection Facebook page, and episodes will later be featured on the Fannin Family Connection YouTube channel, noted the program’s host, Kristy Lindstrom.
“The purpose of this series is to be educational, provide awareness and share information,” Lindstrom said. “If you are in Gilmer, Fannin or Pickens and need mental health services, where do you go?”
Lindstrom, who also hosts the recurring ETC-3 program “Talk of the Town,” said the special series resulted from a recent community mental health awareness campaign launched by Fannin Family Connection, which also involved several local organizations and service providers.
“I’m putting that show aside so I can focus on mental health in this series,” she said. “I typically do shows about people, organizations and businesses and what they’re doing. I think my job is to be a resource for the community when I can, so I want to give the platform to these (organizations) to share this message because I think it’s so important.”
Lindstrom noted that there are very limited mental health resources in the Gilmer-Pickens-Fannin area. The services and agencies highlighted on the show may not all be in a viewer’s immediate area, but she hopes the information shared will at least open a door and give those who need help with their conditions somewhere to call.
“We had the first show last week. My guests were Sherry Morris and Anna Speessen, both with Fannin Family Connection, and Dr. Kyle Raque, a psychologist who serves clients across north Georgia and in Gilmer. Also, as a guest, was Michael Mullet, of Highland Rivers Health, which has clinics in Gilmer and Pickens,” Lindstrom said. “They all mentioned that the pandemic has had an extraordinary impact on people’s mental health. One of the stats we gave in the first show was that one in five people will be impacted with a mental health issue in any given year.”
Highland Rivers Health (HRH), which has eight outpatient recovery and wellness centers in Georgia including the one here, uses an open access process that functions somewhat like a mental health triage system, Lindstrom noted.
She said HRH is among the organizations that have been heavily involved in the community mental health awareness campaign since it began earlier this year.
“Most places you would go to, you’d need an appointment or referral. With HRH, they have open access, which is like going to an ER where they triage those most seriously impacted with whatever they’re dealing with. They have open access days in which they will triage what your need is and take the most serious, which would be suicidal or other things,” she said. “Both HRH and Georgia Mountain Health (also) have a sliding scale fee where you pay what you can, but they’re never going to turn anybody away. That, to me is most unique.”
September is both National Recovery Month and Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, Lindstrom noted.
The upcoming second installment of the show will address those topics. Among others, it will welcome guests whose mental health conditions have improved.
“The goal is to remove the stigma that surrounds the topic of mental health,” Lindstrom said.
Questions for the talk show can be submitted online at FCFC.org.