Mount Rogers Community Services has received a federal grant to help expand suicide prevention and mental health awareness training across the six localities it serves in Southwest Virginia.
The three-year, $161,508 grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will fund salaries, training materials and other costs associated with mental health first aid programs, according to Samantha Crockett, senior director of wellness and community engagement at Mount Rogers Community Services.
This is the second time Mount Rogers has received this grant. After the previous three-year grant cycle ended, the organization applied for the funding again.
The organization expects to train more than 1,700 community members through several mental health and suicide prevention programs during the grant period.
Mount Rogers is the community services board for Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth and Wythe counties and the city of Galax. Community services boards provide publicly funded mental health, substance use and developmental disability services.
The region faces significant behavioral health challenges, including suicide rates that exceed the statewide average in some localities, according to Virginia Department of Health data.
Grayson County had the highest 2024 suicide death rate among the localities Mount Rogers serves, with four deaths, or 26.2 deaths per 100,000 residents. The statewide rate was 13.5 deaths per 100,000 people.
In the Mount Rogers Health District, which serves the same localities as the board plus Bristol, about 42 people were hospitalized for self-inflicted injuries in 2024, a rate of 22.7 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents. The statewide rate was 25.8 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents.
The number of hospitalizations for self-inflicted injuries in the Mount Rogers area has declined since 2019, when the rate was about 43.6 per 100,000 residents.
During a phone interview Tuesday, Crockett said limited awareness of mental health resources and the region’s geographic isolation can make it harder for people to get help.
“These trainings and programs are here to support the community. And at their essence, it’s all about building hope and resilience,” Crockett said.
Funding to expand community training
The grant will allow Mount Rogers to significantly expand the number of people who can participate in its training sessions.
Over the last three years, Mount Rogers provided about three or four training sessions per year and trained roughly 100 people total, Crockett said. With the new grant, the organization plans to train about 500 people annually.
The programs target different audiences and teach participants how to recognize warning signs, respond safely and connect people with behavioral health services.
One program teaches adults how to recognize signs that someone may be struggling with their mental health and how to respond. Another focuses on recognizing signs in children, while Teen Mental Health First Aid teaches high school students how to identify when a peer may be struggling and how to connect them with help, Crockett said.
Mental health first aid also teaches participants how to create or carry out a mental health action plan. These step-by-step plans can help people recognize early signs of distress, identify coping strategies and establish a support network.
The goal is to help people recognize a potential crisis before it becomes an emergency and connect them with local services sooner, Crockett said.
Anthony Craver, a Mount Rogers program manager for veteran and wellness services, leads the mental health first aid program.
“It’s important that funding opportunities like these exist to give people and communities the tools to help people who are experiencing hard things and have suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” Craver said in a press release.
Building awareness
Crockett said Mount Rogers’ previous work suggests that community education can improve awareness of available resources.
In 2014, the community services board conducted a survey of about 300 people. Only 13% of respondents said they knew where to find resources if someone they knew was at risk of suicide, Crockett said.
A community survey conducted earlier this year found that 89% of respondents said they knew where to go for help.
Crockett said the organization hopes to build on that increased awareness through the new grant.
People experiencing a mental health or suicide crisis also can call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, to connect with a trained crisis counselor and learn about available resources.
People interested in mental health first aid training can contact Mount Rogers’ wellness team at prevention@mountrogers.org.
