In August, the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health kicked off a series of town halls across the Commonwealth.

The Commission hopes to hear how Kentuckians think the Justice system should address mental health issues and other conditions.

Last week, Kentucky Edition traveled to Louisville to sit in on one of those town halls.

Our purpose is to explore, recommend and implement transformational changes to improve system wide responses for justice involved individuals who experience mental health needs, substance use issues, or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

We had a summit last May here in Louisville.

It was attended by over 1100 people, but we still lacked the actual consumer voice.

What barriers and roadblocks are our citizens facing when they are seeking mental health?

So that's the purpose of tonight.

I was neglected and ostracized by my school system for years, surrounded by inadequately equipped providers and social justice system workers who didn't know how to deal with me or denied the fact that I was struggling at all.

They treated me like a head case when I was just looking to cope.

I was so alone, but I didn't have to be like that.

We need to sincerely start talking about mental health issues.

We need to create easier avenues of support.

We've learned that housing is a problem everywhere.

We've learned that student mental health seems to have suffered mightily with with COVID, and we've learned that there are not enough mental health providers that there long delays.

There are always moments when myself, as a panelist and my other panelists will look at each other and think, Oh, that never occurred to us.

The courage of the people who come and stand here, you saw it.

They tell powerful, intimate stories about their lives and what they've suffered and how they recover and how we can help improve the system to make it less painful for the next person.

And recovery is very important.

Information gathered at the town halls will be used to help find resources and opportunities to improve the circumstances for individuals struggling with mental health problems, substance use disorders and intellectual or developmental disabilities.