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Mental health advocates, school counselors and therapists gathered at City Hall on May 6 as Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon signed a proclamation recognizing May as Mental Health Awareness Month.

“Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I really wanted to bring an awareness of the partnership that we have with South Central (Mental Health) because they are a vital part of what we do in the schools,” said Michele Thigpen, Mental Health Services Coordinator for Butler County. “They come in and they really work with us hand in hand to make sure that our students get the services that they need.”

Joining Thigpen and Mayor McLendon at the ceremony were representatives from South Central Mental Health, Thriveway and the Butler County school system, along with student peer helpers from Greenville Middle School. Each group plays an integral role in supporting mental health not only within the school system but throughout Butler County as a whole.

“For me, it’s really important to bring light to what we do in this county to support mental health for not just our students but the adults in the community as well,” Thigpen added. She noted that Alabama remains the only state in the nation with Mental Health Service Coordinators in every school district. “We’ve actually been contacted by a couple of other states that are interested in doing the same program. And in fact, I just wrote a proposal to go speak at a national conference for mental health counseling.”

Peer Helpers such as Nahla Stallworth and Joey Hamilton play a vital role in Greenville schools. 

Kim Ruggles, a Peer Helper Coach with Thriveway, the support program that works within the school system, explained that Peer Helpers receive special training. 

“These kids actually go through training and they’re trained really as ‘noticers’,” she said. “We never ask them to, you know, give advice or anything like that but they notice when there’s an issue and they will let us know…”

Mayor McLendon emphasized the importance of early mental health intervention. 

“Well, we all have bad days,” McLendon said. “But at the same time, we need to recognize that some of these kids, you just don’t know what they’re going through at home. And they need to feel comfortable and they need somebody to talk to and somebody that really cares…hopefully, if we do a better job at a young age, they won’t have as many problems as adults.

“I really believe that one of our biggest problems is mental health. He referenced a conversation with former Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange, who said, “75% of the people that were in their jails in Montgomery had more mental health issues than anything else.”