BY RAEGAN NEUFELD
Mental health issues in the justice system are the focus for this year’s Finding Common Ground, an event facilitated by two Fort Hays professors, April Terry and Lindsey Dinkel.
While organized as an activity for Terry’s Social Justice: Policy and Action class and Dinkel’s Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System class, Finding Common Ground is open to anyone.
“I’m a big advocate for experiential learning activities in general, so I do a variety of them,” Terry said.
According to Terry, this is the second year she has hosted the event and first since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was actually a student’s idea when I did this the first time,” she said. “I picked mental health and mental illness [this year] because my background is in mental health and it’s still of interest to me.”
Seven different topics surrounding mental health will be discussed throughout the evening at different stations, with participants moving from one topic to another whenever they want. These topics cover mental illness in youth and adults in the criminal justice system, mental health and self-care in the criminal justice profession, community-based programs and mental health courts.
“I think it will be a laid-back environment to talk about an area that we’ve maybe gotten a little more open-minded about, but I’m sure there’ll be a lot of conversation about the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness,” Terry said.
The event is scheduled for 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. on November 7 in the Black and Gold Room. FHSU’s Student Government Association and chapter of the American Democracy Project are cosponsors of the event. The Zoom link for online participation can be found on the event’s TigerLink page.