St. Luke's Wood River Foundation furthers mental health efforts with major investment

In March, the St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation committed an additional $4.43 million to the Blaine County Mental Well-Being Initiative, which it initially sponsored in 2023. This new four-year commitment will bolster urgently needed work to grow an integrated mental health ecosystem that improves the lives of all people in Blaine County.

“This significant investment reflects the St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation’s continued faith in these collaborative efforts, which have brought together nearly 50 local organizations and entities to help address mental well-being in our community,” says Megan Tanous, the St. Luke's Wood River Foundation’s chief development officer. “It’s a testament to our belief in the overwhelming importance of this work.”

The St. Luke's Wood River Foundation has long championed expanding mental health services in the Wood River Valley. Its generosity – and that of its many donors – was instrumental in building the outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic connected to the St. Luke’s Center for Community Health in 2013. That support continues today through the strategic direction of this critical initiative and with its most recent gift, which will fund work through 2028. 

“In a small community like ours, mental health issues affect everyone,” says SLWR Foundation Board President Pete Smith. “It is overwhelmingly clear – from community health assessments, rising emergency department admissions, physician concerns, and community feedback – that addressing mental well-being is an urgent priority. We at the St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation feel a deep responsibility to sustain this work.”

The Mental Well-Being Initiative seeks to revitalize the entire spectrum of care – from prevention to intervention and treatment – and generate large-scale change. Tyler Norris, MDiv, and Jenna Vagias, MEd, have been key leaders of the initiative but are quick to point out that this audacious goal can only be accomplished by joining forces.

“This effort brings our entire community together to address mental health,” says Vagias, the initiative’s project director. “It is the largest Blaine County community collaboration to date, with government, education, nonprofit, faith, health care, and business entities coming together to effect real change. This work is all about collective action for collective impact."

Thus far, that collective action has been driven by a roadmap developed with a lot of community input. The data-driven plan is spurring cross-sector collaboration, improving communication and connection to resources, reducing redundancies, and addressing gaps in service. It calls for investments in Spanish-language counseling, developing a crisis response system and a community-wide mental health training program, and increased staffing in psychiatry through the St. Luke’s Health System.

This new gift from the St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation will support additional staffing efforts and the creation of a Community Well-Being website to increase education and connect people to mental health resources in the community. It will also help reduce financial barriers to care, implement a first responder peer support program, bolster youth connection, and provide the foundation for a community behavioral health center with crisis response services.

“We are enormously grateful to the St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation and its donors for their sustained commitment to this work,” Norris says. “This type of philanthropy has the power to unite our community and empowers us to think boldly about what we can accomplish together as we focus on mental well-being for all.”

To learn more about the Blaine County Mental Well-Being Initiative, please contact Megan Tanous, Chief Development Officer, St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation, at [email protected] or (208) 727-8444.