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The City of Eureka will host a Community Health Town Hall this Saturday afternoon to discuss the persisting mental health crisis and its effect on local kids.

The discussion –“Today’s Mental Health, Tomorrow’ Future: Raising Resilient Children” – is a part of the Eureka Mayor’s Initiative, which aims to cover a variety of topics relating to mental health, substance use and homelessness through a series of quarterly town halls.

“Children’s mental health is critical for the health of our community – especially for our future,” Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel told the Outpost in a recent phone interview. “COVID really exacerbated that problem. On top of that, Humboldt has some of the highest ACES [Adverse Childhood Experiences] scores in the state. We’re really looking at how we can mitigate that.”

Humboldt County has more reported cases of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, than anywhere else in California. Approximately 29 percent of Humboldt’s kids have an ACEs score of two or more, according to parent-reported data compiled between 2016 and 2019, nearly twice the state average.

What can healthcare providers and parents do to make a meaningful impact on children’s mental health? Jacob Rosen, the City of Eureka’s Managing Mental Health Clinician, says proactive engagement is key.

“Attending to mental health early on is super important,” Rosen explained. “What we see is a compounding effect. Children with a lot of ACEs early on will have profound effects on their mental and physical health later, especially if it’s not addressed. The more we can advocate and discuss this as a community, the more we can kind of get everyone behind the idea of trying to mitigate these ACEs, improve children’s mental health and invest in them.” 

Education is the first step, Rosen said. 

“When we educate people around the issues at hand, it helps them make a more informed decision,” he continued. “And when they have that knowledge, they can take that to the ballot box, they can take that to their business, they can take that to the organization that they work for. … Getting that knowledge and opening up some of those avenues for potential volunteering or convention is empowering.

Rosen will host Saturday’s meeting alongside Bergel. The panel of speakers will feature four local experts: Laura Ziemer, foster youth advocate and motivational speaker, Jayme Clark, mental health officer with the Eureka Police Department’s Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), Dr. Virgil Moorehead, director of behavioral health for Two Feathers Family Services, and Martin Stephan, senior program manager for Children’s Behavioral Health at the Humboldt County Department of Health of Human Services.

“Many of the youth and families we serve have been impacted by various forms of trauma,” Stephan told the Outpost. “For younger youth, we see this show up as attachment and family functioning issues and children who have witnessed family violence. As youth get older, we see more risk of self-injury, social/family difficulties, along with depression and anxiety symptoms.”

Because of the high incidence of trauma in the county, Stephan said his team has been trained to use “specific trauma-informed practices,” including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, as well as Child-Parent Psychotherapy, a trauma-informed practice for children up to five years of age. For teenagers and young adults, staff utilize the Transition to Independence Process model, another trauma-informed approach to treatment.   

“I’m looking forward to sharing information about the array of services Children’s Behavioral Health offers,” Stephan added. “I want to answer questions about how the community can access these services. … I’m hoping to just listen and get ideas and feedback from the community about this important topic.”

The Community Health Town Hall will take place in city council chambers on the second floor of Eureka City Hall – 531 K Street – this Saturday, Sept. 30. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. for attendees to get refreshments and find seating and the meeting will begin at 2 p.m. Those interested in attending virtually can tune in here.

Can’t make it but you’d still like to participate? You can send your questions to townhall@eurekaca.gov.

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