The Mental Health Association in Lauderdale County is a volunteer organization concerned with all aspects of mental health and mental illness and has served Lauderdale County and the surrounding areas since it's inception in 1958. Because of the great concern for the lack of appropriate services for the mentally impaired in the community, members of the MHALC Board of Directors wrote the first grant and helped establish Weems Community Mental Health Center and the Listening Post Crisis Line. 

Among the many past and present activities of the organization are:

• CARE LINE - An information and referral telephone service providing a link of available services to the community

• CARE LODGE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTER - A 24-hour shelter for abused spouses and their children

• CIRCLE OF FRIENDS - A program designed for mental health clients to interact with local church groups for social, educational and religious fellowship

• FRIENDSHIP CENTER - A community service organization cosponsored by the Mental Health Association in Lauderdale County and East Mississippi State Hospital providing centralized, coordinated outpatient services for former patients and community needed services

• LAUDERDALE GROUP HOME - Providing a home for 12 formerly institutionalized individuals who are able to live, with supervision, outside the hospital.

• OPERATION REINDEER - A program designed to furnish gifts during the Christmas season to patients at East Mississippi State Hospital who have nowhere else to turn for Holiday remembrances

• WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS, AND TELECONFERENCES - On subjects such as depression, learning to cope, child abuse, stress management, drug and alcohol abuse, and other community needed information

• PUBLIC EDUCATION - Of legislative action involving mental health issues

• RESEARCH SUPPORT - In the prevention and treatment of mental and emotional disturbances

The most current project of MHALC is the MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN LAUDERDALE COUNTY EMERGENCY SHELTER FOR ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN, a shelter for abused and neglected children ages birth through 12 years who, due to neglect and/or abuse from their primary care givers, are unable to remain in their present home environment. This MHALC developed and operated shelter provides a safe, secure and loving place for these children while allowing the Department of Human Services time to conduct an investigation and allow them to find alternative living arrangements for these most vulnerable in our community who cannot speak for themselves. No other facility in the community provides services to this population. This shelter receives tremendous support from the community, in both the private and business sectors. 

Alzheimers: Pychosocial, Medical and Legal Interventions Workshop

Visitor: