By Roland Beres, July 23, 2019 for Finding Hope [KIVI TV]
BOISE, Idaho — 6 On Your Side is committed to raising the level of discussion around mental health issues in our state in our special reports called Finding Hope. Now, one organization is tying together dozens of other organizations to help people navigate a bureaucratic sea.
It's a new cooperative effort from a very diverse group with the Speedy Foundation at its heart.When Idaho Olympian Speedy Peterson died by suicide in 2011, Idaho didn't have its own suicide hotline. His death spurred change. The hotline was installed and has surely saved many lives since. The Speedy Foundation is not stopping there. Its co-founder Shannon Decker says the state turned to her organization for help.
"Last year, the legislature assigned us to rewrite Idaho's suicide prevention plan and there I learned about collective impact," Decker said.
Collective impact is the idea that a group from different sectors can come together for a common agenda, and in Idaho it comes in the form of the Idaho Resilience Project. The idea is to bring as many mental health organizations together to avoid duplicating services while increasing resources and filling gaps in the system.
"It's aimed at mental health, child abuse prevention, aimed at domestic abuse prevention," explains Decker, "It's aimed at overall health improvement."
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