Williamson County Health Council will Address Local Health Disparities with Tennessee Dept. of Health Grant Award
[County Seat], Tenn. – The Williamson County Health Council announced today it will use a $25,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Health for a locally-designed community health project supporting mental health and suicide prevention programming.
The Williamson County Health Council will use TDH funds to partner with the state’s suicide prevention network and local prevention task force to provide suicide prevention training and social media campaigns to reduce suicidal behaviors and deaths.
“This grant will create additional opportunity to address the challenges of mental health and suicide in our community and improve the overall health of our citizens,” said Dr. Ken Moore, Mayor of Franklin.
TDH’s grant award to Williamson County is the result of a statewide effort, called Collaborative Action for Resilience and Equity (CARE), in which County Health Councils identified local priorities and created action plans to support health improvements for low-income, minority, and rural populations.
“The grant will allow us to train additional instructors to provide Question Persuade Refer (QPR) training to more groups and explore certification of a master trainer to allow us to have a greater impact,” said Mindy Tate, Executive Director of Franklin Tomorrow, a partner agency in the project.
TDH’s County Health Councils are active in all 95 Tennessee counties and include representatives of local organizations and partners, from both the public and private sectors. Every three years, the Health Councils conduct Community Health Assessments to identify the top priorities to improve public health in their communities. This year, 53 Tennessee counties conducted local health assessments and improvement plans.
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