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A resolution commending the Mayor's Behavioral Health and Wellness Advisory Council for providing timely and essential guidance during the COVID pandemic and beyond to prioritize mental health wellbeing and access to services for all residents of Metro Nashville.
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WHEREAS, the Mayor's Behavioral Health and Wellness Advisory Council ("BHWAC") launched in 2018 and counts among its priorities identifying, reviewing, and promoting community behavioral health priorities, and determining best practice goals and strategies for lessening the impact of mental illness and addiction on the people of Nashville; and
WHEREAS, BHWAC membership has included nonprofit, government, university and private sector leaders and organizations dedicated to enhancing the behavioral health wellbeing of all Nashvillians; and
WHEREAS, during the COVID 19 pandemic, which began in March 2020, BHWAC oriented its focus on the community trauma experienced by Nashvillians and the impact on collective mental health; and
WHEREAS, the pandemic introduced unprecedented social effects for which no single or established approach existed; and
WHEREAS, BHWAC addressed a number of Metro-wide priorities that emerged within the first six months of the pandemic and beyond that continue to shape our lives today; and
WHEREAS, Metro-wide priorities during the COVID 19 pandemic included how elementary and secondary education students would be impacted by remote learning; how to reduce police fatalities of individuals experiencing a mental health crisis and improve law enforcement and community relations; how to address escalating fatalities by overdoses caused by opioids; and how to respond to sky-rocketing rates of anxiety and depression, especially in young age cohorts from 18 - 44; and
WHEREAS, BHWAC provided recommendations to Mayor Cooper for COVID 19 Behavioral Health Priorities per his request; and
WHEREAS, BHWAC provided recommendations on co-responder models and training for police...
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