Mental health topic of Gov. Gordon’s recent town hall meeting in Worland

Although uplifting messages were shared, with the subject matter of mental health and suicide in Wyoming, the atmosphere at Governor Mark Gordon’s Mental Health Town Hall at the Wyoming Boys’ School on Oct. 25 was a somber one.
In the wake of the news of House Bill 65 replacing the permanent funding plan for the 988 Wyoming Suicide Prevention Hotline with a biennial funding system, the future of mental health activism in Wyoming has become uncertain.
To be transparent and combat this uncertainty, Governor Gordon held a mental health Town Hall meeting shortly after attending the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Lighthouse crisis center on North 10th Street in Worland. A town hall meeting was also held in Powell earlier in the day.
Gordon brought with him Stefan Johansson, the director of the Wyoming Department of Health, and Korin Schmidt, the director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services.