Free online resource, CredibleMind, offers many tools to aid in mental health care

It’s OK to not be OK.

Have you ever watched a co-worker or a child going through something, and you are just stumped about how to help them? Have you ever felt like your balance between working-to-live and living-to-work was off kilter? You are not alone. We know that mental health and well-being impacts our physical and spiritual well-being.

When Whitley County Health Department completed their 2023 Community Health Assessment, we found that mental health is a top priority for our community. Nearly 20 percent of Whitley County adults report having poor mental health in the last year.

While mental health is clearly a community need, it is not always easy to figure out how to address it. In Whitley County, there are more than a thousand people for every mental health provider. The farther south in the county, the fewer providers. That means 28% of our residents have little or no access to mental health care when they need it.

While there are no simple solutions, starting Oct.  2023, your health department put in place a resource to help people access help and information. We worked with local and national partners to introduce a new website from CredibleMind – whitley.crediblemind.com.

CredibleMind is a free online service that contains information about all kinds of mental health topics reviewed by mental health experts. You can look up subjects like sleep, anxiety, ADHD, aging, or parenting any time you want because it is free and always there. Because different people like to get information in different ways, each topic offers videos, podcasts, apps, articles, books and so on. You can see ratings that show what other users and the experts like.

Let’s say you are not sure what to look for. Is it job stress or burnout? Is caring for others taking a toll on you? There are quick assessments you can take that will help clarify answers to questions like that. They give you information about what areas to be concerned about and what resources might help. There is even a crisis page if you need urgent help.

All your information is confidential. The site will invite you to join for free by email, but you never have to.

Joining lets you see your own information and get an email newsletter about wellness topics. We never get your information. We get information about the number of people who visit the site and what topics people visit the most. This helps us and our partners know up-to-date information about what people are concerned about. That allows us to focus our other efforts in the right places.

You have choices. There is more than one way to work on your well-being. Our hope is with this easy-to-use website, fewer people end up in crisis and those that do can find help more easily.

You can take charge of your mental health and wellness. You can learn new skills. You can understand your strengths and challenges better. No matter what you are going through, you can find science-backed help when you need it at whitley.crediblemind.com.