Published on March 21, 2024
Twin Lakes Mental Health & Addiction Resource Fair Draws Large Crowd
Twin Lakes welcomed hundreds of visitors to the Mental Health & Addiction Resource Fair, held yesterday at The Centre in Leitchfield. Fifty (50) exhibitors were on hand to demo the wide range of services that are available to local residents.
“We want to decrease the stigma around mental health and addiction struggles,” said organizer Jessica Embry, Owensboro Health community engagement specialist. “This event gets the word out to the community, and it also provides a networking opportunity for organizations that provides services.”
Kristin Buck, APRN practices at Owensboro Health Medical Group – Addiction Services (located at OHTLMC), and she was the first face that greeted visitors as they entered the fair. Along with Jessica Hunt, medical office assistant, she passed out marketing materials about her clinic and talked to guests about what her team offers.
“We treat opioid and alcohol addiction across the health system and can provide alcohol detox services to inpatients,” Buck said. “There is a surprising amount of need in this area.”
Jason Collins, director of pharmacy, and Jeff McKeever, manager of outpatient pharmacy talked to visitors about options for quitting tobacco—and had nicotine replacement products on hand for the taking.
“If someone is ready to quit, we can get them started right now,” McKeever said. “We can put them in touch with a Tobacco Treatment Specialist immediately.”
About halfway through the event, Collins estimated that close to a dozen visitors had filled out paperwork to enter a tobacco treatment program.
“Our outreach extends well beyond Daviess County and into any community that we serve,” Collins said.
Other Owensboro Health services represented at the fair included the geriatric-behavioral health unit (OHTLMC); primary care (OHMG); trauma services (OHTLMC); and behavioral services (OHMG).
Everyone who came to the fair received a free Owensboro Health gift bag, and the first 150 guests enjoyed a free lunch courtesy of Community Engagement. The event was co-presented by the Grayson County Chamber of Commerce and hosted free of charge by The Centre.
“We would love to see this duplicated in other Owensboro Health services areas,” Embry said. “We’ve grown from about 20 vendors in 2018 to over 50 now.”
About Owensboro Health
Owensboro Health is a nonprofit health system with a mission to heal the sick and to improve the health of the communities it serves in Kentucky and Indiana. The system includes Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, nationally recognized for design, architecture and engineering; Owensboro Health Muhlenberg Community Hospital; Owensboro Health Twin Lakes Medical Center; the Owensboro Health Medical Group comprised of over 350 providers at more than 30 locations; three outpatient Healthplex facilities, a certified medical fitness facility, the Healthpark; a weight management program, and the Mitchell Memorial Cancer Center.
On average each year, we have more than 19,000 inpatient admissions, deliver 2,000 babies and provide the region’s only Level III NICU. Owensboro Health physicians perform nearly 33,000 surgical procedures, including nearly 150 open-heart surgeries. Our physicians and staff have 90,000 Emergency Department visits and more than 1.25 million outpatient visits annually. Visit our home page for more information.