Whole Health Wellness (WHW) of Warren County’s goal is to improve the overall health — mental, physical, and spiritual — of the Warren County community, with an emphasis on youth.

At a Whole Health Work Session on Wednesday at the Warren County YMCA, stakeholders and providers got together to discuss how they can have more impacts upon the community.

The group brought in facilitator Mary Bula to help.

“Her process uses the six thinking hats,” YMCA Whole Health Wellness Coordinator Erin Wallace said. “It allows you to process and identify your goals, what you want to change, your challenges, and what you’re most likely to be successful with.”

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Facilitator Mary Bula clarifies Whole Health Wellness priorities during a Wednesday work session.

They identified numerous targets along the way – like addressing the feelings of isolation and hopelessness among youth and increasing parental understanding, involvement, and engagement.

Among the ways to increase their ability to impact those targets were finding and including more stakeholders and finding the right means of communication to reach those who could benefit most.

The group is largely made up of representatives of government and private mental health providers and educators. There were also representatives from industry and health care among the 15 in attendance on Wednesday.

Each member was asked for their thoughts on numerous general mental health and community wellness topics.

Those thoughts were categorized by Bula and the consensus of the committee. The members then prioritized the categories, helping them to determine what areas they can and want to impact.