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River Falls teacher urges council to support a community crisis-response team for suicide prevention
Summary
A River Falls High School teacher and members of RF Action asked council to meet within two months to explore a community response team and described local gaps in mental-health access; presenters said 988 and other resources exist but local capacity is limited.
Taylor Stevens Nunn, a teacher at River Falls High School, told the River Falls City Council on Sept. 23 that limited local mental-health access and long waits for care make a community-based crisis-response team necessary. “This is a mental health crisis,” Nunn said during a presentation organized by RF Action.
Nunn described local survey feedback highlighting lack of access to professionals, affordability concerns, and the impact of unmet basic needs on mental health. She said national statistics underscore urgency — citing World Health Organization figures about youth mental-health challenges — and noted local waits for counseling services. “My best friend just tried to get help here in River Falls, in August, and they were told a 6 to 8 week wait to see a mental health professional,” she said.
Nunn proposed a community response team — a locally organized crisis-response model that would include partnerships with law enforcement, social workers and mental-health professionals — and asked to meet with the council and community leaders within the next one to two months to discuss the idea. She referenced examples and models from other jurisdictions, including CARES in Dane County and Cope in Hennepin County, as possible templates.
Council members and attendees asked for local benchmarking data and suggested staff could compile county and school-district survey results. The mayor and staff indicated they could compile local statistics, and a councilmember suggested consulting the youth behavior risk survey for Pierce and St. Croix counties as one source of local data. During questions, Nunn stressed the importance of training and direct conversations, advising people to “ask directly” if they suspect someone is considering self-harm and to remove stigma through open discussion.
The presenters provided resource lists to staff and requested another meeting with council and community stakeholders to move the idea forward.
