Rural Minds Founder and Chairman Jeff Winton joined WDOE’s “Viewpoint” program to talk about the response to the Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program in the weeks since its September launch. Chautauqua Today covered the interview.
Winton said hundreds of people across the country have used the program so far, including some local schools, and that it has drawn interest from other countries, including a worker in Colombia. The program was developed in partnership with Northwestern University and is aimed at the suicide rate for rural youth ages 15 to 19, which the CDC reports is 74 percent higher than for their urban peers.