Marion County Public Health held their monthly providers meeting on Monday.

The meeting provides healthcare and community organizations an opportunity to inform the public of updates within their respective organizations. There is also a presenter at each meeting and on Monday, Laurie Lenertz, Chad DesPlanque and Britney Herbold with CROSS Mental Health spoke about their respective departments with the organization. One major area discussed during the presentation was the success of the CROSS region jail alternative program and the benefit it has had for those in the county suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders and have been arrested. Del Bennet with Marion County Public Health said it’s crucial to have an organization like CROSS in the county.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. Anybody has been affected by mental health in some way. Whether it’s anxiety, a high amount of stress, or depression. If we are not given the right amount of tools to handle those situations, or those anxieties or that stressor, some choose substance use, alcohol and it ends up getting them into trouble or they get further down into an addictive behavior.”

Hear more from Bennett on an upcoming Let’s Talk Knoxville.