Highland Rivers Behavioral Health

10/10/2025

Today is World Mental Health Day – and October is Substance Use & Misuse Prevention Month.

According to SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:

PREVENTION works by STRENGTHENING PROTECTIVE FACTORS and reducing risk factors in our communities.

Prevention:

• Supports healthy social and emotional development
• Supports parents and strengthens families
• Prevents and addresses trauma
• Expands evidence-based programs in communities and schools
• Improves the safety, stability, and livability of community environments

Prevention builds resilience, so join us as partners in prevention this month and year-round!

Help in available:

If you are struggling with your mental health, feeling overwhelmed, or just need someone to talk to, you are not alone.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is here for you; anytime, anywhere.

Judgement-free support is just three digits away: 988.

Highland Rivers is also here to support you. To learn more about services in your area, call 1-800-729-5700.

10/10/2025

We are hiring! Join our Cobb County Team!

Highland Rivers Behavioral Health provides treatment, support and recovery services to individuals.

09/10/2025

Looking to make an impact? Join our hiring event next week! See the requirements for our Certified Peer Specialist positions! Email us to secure an interview time today.

09/10/2025

Sharing this important fundraising message from the Highland Rivers Foundation:

Mothers Making A Change provides life-changing support to women and families affected by substance use disorders—helping mothers recover, reunite with their children, and build a foundation for long-term success.

➡️➡️➡️ However, to truly make a lasting impact, we need to create a safe and therapeutic home.

🏡 The new facility will:

✅ Provide stable housing and recovery services for 40+ women and their children

✅ Offer family reunification and parenting support

✅ Ensure a safe, supportive space for long-term success

💜 We can’t do it without you! Corporate partners, community leaders, and supporters—join us in making this vision a reality.

💡 Donate, sponsor, or learn more today:
🔗 https://bit.ly/4iIXqKu

08/10/2025

This week, we observe Mental Illness Awareness Week, established to educate & increase awareness about mental illness - disorders that can affect a person’s thinking, mood or behavior.

Mental health conditions do not discriminate. This week, check in on your well-being and the well-being of others.

In these graphics provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), we share early warning signs and symptoms - plus tips for living well.

If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental health, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by calling 988.

07/10/2025

Reminder: RSVP for next week’s event❗️

FREE – Veteran-Focused Event!

You are invited to a FREE, upcoming discussion and training - The Resilient Mind: Upstream Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide.

Join Highland Rivers Behavioral Health on Wednesday, October 15 in BARTOW County in Cartersville, Georgia for this important community dialogue about local resources that support community resiliency and foster mental health and wellness for Veterans and their family members – including housing, mental health and substance use treatment, employment, the Veteran peer community, and more.

➡️ This event will also include free QPR Training – Question, Persuade, Refer –prevention strategies that anyone can use directly to help a person struggling with thoughts of self-harm.

✅ This event is free, and lunch is provided.

Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Location:
Sixes Tavern
650 Henderson Drive
Cartersville. Georgia 30120

⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
Please RSVP: Veterans@highlandrivers.org

06/10/2025

This week is Mental Illness Awareness Week, and the theme is “Building Community: Supporting Mental Well-being Together,” highlighting the importance of compassion, connection, and advocacy in advancing mental wellness.

🟢 What is mental illness?

According to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, it isn’t always easy to tell the difference between expected behaviors and what might be the signs of a mental illness.

🟢 Each illness has its own symptoms, but common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents can include the following:

• Excessive worrying or fear
• Feeling excessively sad or low
• Confused thinking or problems concentrating and learning
• Extreme mood changes, including uncontrollable “highs” or feelings of euphoria
• Prolonged or strong feelings of irritability or anger
• Avoiding friends and social activities
• Difficulties understanding or relating to other people
• Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy
• Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite
• Changes in sex drive
• Difficulty perceiving reality (delusions or hallucinations, in which a person experiences and senses things that don’t exist in objective reality)
• Inability to perceive changes in one’s own feelings, behavior or personality (”lack of insight” or anosognosia)
• Overuse of substances like alcohol or drugs
• Multiple physical ailments without obvious causes (such as headaches, stomach aches, vague and ongoing “aches and pains”)
• Thinking about suicide
• Inability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress
• An intense fear of weight gain or concern with appearance

🟢 Mental health conditions can also begin to develop in young children. Because they’re still learning how to identify and talk about thoughts and emotions, their most obvious symptoms are behavioral. Symptoms in children may include the following:

• Changes in school performance
• Excessive worry or anxiety, for instance fighting to avoid bed or school
• Hyperactive behavior
• Frequent nightmares
• Frequent disobedience or aggression
• Frequent temper tantrums

🟢 HELP is available:

If you are struggling with your mental health, feeling overwhelmed, or just need someone to talk to, you are not alone. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is here for you; anytime, anywhere. Judgement-free support is just three digits away: 988.

➡️ Highland Rivers Behavioral Health is also here to support you. To learn more about services in your area, call 1-800-729-5700.

06/10/2025

Save the Date – Friday, October 24

Join us for an evening of FREE FAMILY FUN at 🍂 “Fall into Wellness” 🍂 - on Friday, October 24 from 4-7:00 p.m. in GORDON COUNTY at the Sonoraville Recreation Center.

• Delicious pizza 🍕

• Bouncy Houses, Music, Rock Painting, Games, Raffles, and Candy 🍬

• Community Resource Fair, including Behavioral Health and Wellness Information

• Halloween costumes are welcomed (but not required). 🎃 👻 🐈‍⬛

So, bring the whole family and join us for an evening of free family fun! 🤎 🧡 💛

Fall into Wellness is sponsored by Highland Rivers Behavioral Health System of Care (SOC), Gordon County Parks & Recreation Department, Heritage Baptist Church and The Gordon County Child Advocacy Center and Sexual Assault Center.

We hope to see you there!!!

03/10/2025

FREE – Veteran-Focused Event!

You are invited to a FREE, upcoming discussion and training - The Resilient Mind: Upstream Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide.

Join Highland Rivers Behavioral Health on Wednesday, October 15 in BARTOW County in Cartersville, Georgia for this important community dialogue about local resources that support community resiliency and foster mental health and wellness for Veterans and their family members – including housing, mental health and substance use treatment, employment, the Veteran peer community, and more.

This event will also include free QPR Training – Question, Persuade, Refer –prevention strategies that anyone can use directly to help a person struggling with thoughts of self-harm.

✅ This event is free, and lunch is provided.

Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Location:
Sixes Tavern
650 Henderson Drive
Cartersville. Georgia 30120

➡️ Please RSVP: Veterans@highlandrivers.org

02/10/2025

Veterans - Save the Date!

Join Highland Rivers Behavioral Health for a free Veteran’s health fair!

Date: Thursday, October 30, 2025

Time: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Location:
Cobb Veterans Outpost
840 Roswell Street
Marietta, Georgia 30060

We hope to see you there!

02/10/2025

Mental Illness Awareness Week is October 5-11.

And World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10.

Mental health matters year-round, but these important observances provide an opportunity to come together, share stories, and build understanding.

This year’s MIAW theme at NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is “Building Community: Supporting Mental Well-being Together,” which highlights the importance of compassion, connection, and advocacy in advancing mental
wellness.

Because…

• More than 1 in 5 U.S. adults (23.4%) experience mental illness each year.
• More than 1 in 7 U.S. youth ages 6-17 (16.5%) experience a mental health condition each year.

You are not alone! If you or someone you know is in crisis, call, text, or chat 988, which offers 24/7 judgment-free support for mental health, substance use, and more.

02/10/2025

Highland Rivers Behavioral Health would like to express its appreciation to VFW Post 6570 in FANNIN County.

On Tuesday evening, Highland Rivers Behavioral Health’s Steve Schmid, a Licensed Professional Counselor, U.S. Army Veteran, and Senior Director of Intensive Community & Veterans Services, was given the opportunity to speak at their monthly meeting about our services available to Veterans and their families.

If you would like to have a member of the Highland Rivers Veteran’s team speak to your group about veteran-specific services, please email veterans@highlandrivers.org.

Photo: HRBH’s Steve Schmid (back row, center, standing) with members and guests of VFW Post 6570 in Fannin County at their monthly meeting on Tuesday, September 30.

Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW