The Committee is composed of representatives from critical access hospitals in rural northeast Minnesota. Vescio, a native of Rogers, MN, is a student in the University of Minnesota Duluth Public Health undergraduate program.
Vescio emphasized that “Upstream mental health resources can help improve or stabilize a person’s mental health before a crisis occurs,” and can include everything from recovery groups to churches to exercise facilities.
By contrast, Vescio said, “Downstream mental health resources provide support and treatment to people experiencing a mental health crisis.” These can include treatment centers for substance use disorders, crisis phone lines, and the clinics and hospitals in Carlton County that so often work with people in crisis.
Vescio’s research was a unique integration of the expertise in the Public Health program, under Marzell Gray, and the Writing Studies program, under David Beard. Under Beard’s direction, Vescio communicated her findings in written reports, oral presentations, spreadsheets, and maps (using the software ARCGIS to map the geographic location of services in Carlton County).
From the map, she argued, we can see the increasing importance of telehealth in meeting the needs of rural residents of Minnesota. Vescio saw “the definite need for telehealth mental health services in rural areas. The only places to receive in-person mental health services in Carlton County are in or near Cloquet and Moose Lake. These cities can be pretty far for other people in the county to drive to, but with telehealth available, they don't have to worry about driving so far for the care they need.”
According to Beard, “tomorrow’s health communicators need to be able to use a diversity of technologies and tools.” This project brought those skills together for the community.
For more information about the programs in Writing Studies at UMD, visit academics.d.umn.edu/writing-studies-ba