MOUNT VERNON – Mental Health and Recovery for Licking and Knox Counties will host a virtual event on May 31 to update the work Knox County has done since becoming a Stepping Up Ohio county.

The Stepping Up Ohio countywide meeting will begin at 11 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. and will feature presentations on mental illness and the criminal justice population. State partners will share information about resources available to Knox County.

The free meeting is open to the public.

As a chapter of the national Stepping Up initiative, the state organization works to break the cycle of jail being the de facto mental health hospital. The national and Ohio’s Stepping Up initiatives set their mission as helping criminal offenders with mental illness get connected to clinical treatment and other services so they can get well, make positive life changes and stay out of jail.

Stepping up Ohio said an estimated 30% of Ohio’s inmates have a mental illness. Between two and three times more taxpayer money gets spent on jailed adults with mental illness who require intervention.

Stepping Up Ohio helps counties to unify existing community support for people with mental illness and connects them to new or previously untapped free state and national resources.

Contact Lynn Snider at lsnider@mhrlk.org for registration information.

To learn more about the Stepping Up initiative in Knox County, contact Emily Morrison at emorrison@mhrlk.org or Kay Spergel at kspergel@mhrlk.org.