Terrebonne Parish leaders bring Mental Health Resources door-to-door in 988 Awareness Campaign

This past week, community leaders gathered to promote mental health awareness and resources across Terrebonne Parish.

The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, Houma Police Department, and other local public safety partners continued their third year of the “988” Mental Health Awareness campaign, where advocates go door-to-door across vulnerable communities to distribute information on mental health resources.

The 988-dialing code is a crisis hotline across the United States, providing a direct connection to compassionate, accessible care and support for anyone experiencing mental health-related distress.

“This initiative started in 2023 when we started having conversations with community leaders about mental health awareness, access, and how it could improve in Terrebonne Parish,” said Sherry Wilmore, Community Coordinator Reentry Terrebonne-Lafourche, Goodwill Industries of SELA. “Law enforcement was seeing an increase in calls about mental health, and so we came up with the idea to go into the community ourselves and spread as much information as we could.”

Participants traveled up and down the parish on May 15, personally handing out cards, pamphlets, bags, and more to businesses and personal dwellings. Law enforcement provided statistics on where the most mental health-related calls originated from, helping to ensure the event was as successful as possible.

Over 2,500 bags were distributed during this year’s event across Terrebonne Parish, with plans to extend into Lafourche Parish later this year. 

Photos provided by the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s not asking the community to come to us– with this initiative, we are going to them,” continued Sherry. “Every year we grow and include more people, and it’s beautiful to see friends, family, and community members all come together to help our neighbors.”

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet urges anyone who is suffering with or experiencing suicidal crisis or mental health-related distress to know this service is available, in addition to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“Mental Health is a huge component of what we do, and the situations we deal with on a daily basis. We see time and time again that people are hesitant to call for help for many different personal and social reasons. I want our residents to know that someone is always there, and help is always available,” said Sheriff Soignet.

For more information about the 988 hotline, please see the graphic below.