Mind Matters
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 months, 3 weeks AGO
The Mind Matters Mental Health and Behavioral Health Workshop will be held March 26 in the ATEC building at Big Bend Community College. Organizers are asking that attendees register for the event.
NANCE BESTON/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | March 16, 2026 3:30 AM
MOSES LAKE — The Mind Matters Mental Health and Behavioral Health Workshop will explore a wide range of related topics March 26 at Big Bend Community College.
“It's very broad and wide kind of across the whole spectrum of our mental and behavioral health system,” said Rhyanne Berryman, a facilitator for the Grant County Coalition for Health Improvement, or CHI. “It covers a lot of things.”
The event is free and open to the public, although pre-registration is requested. Attendees can register online until March 23, Berryman said.
The keynote speaker will be Bethany Thrasher, immediate past president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, for north central Washington. She’ll talk about personal mental health and wellness.
“Mental and behavioral health is a human thing, not a priority population thing,” Berryman said. “(It’s) something that we all have and we all experience. We all experience hard days. We all experience loss and grief.”
After the keynote address, there will be two breakout sessions, “Building Strong Foundations: Prevention and Early Intervention” and “Recognizing Crisis: When Immediate Help Is Needed.” They’ll take place at the same time, so attendees can pick which to attend.
Lunch will be a box lunch provided by Michael’s Market & Bistro, Berryman said. The lunch period will also give attendees a chance to network and chat with both professionals and community members.
Following lunch, there will be four more breakout sessions to choose from: “Navigating the System: Getting Help & Overcoming Barrier,” “Recovery & Sustained Wellness: Long-Term Support,” “Supporting Transitions: Perinatal Mental Health” and “Community Action: Reducing Stigma.” The breakout sessions are led by panels of professionals.
The purpose of Mind Matters is to bring professionals and people interested in mental and behavioral health all together in one venue, Berryman said.
“We had the goal to bring together people in our community around these topics, because there was kind of a gap for that in an in-person setting,” Berryman said. “There’s lots of resource forums and places that people can meet online on a monthly basis, but not for larger gatherings. CHI … can help foster collaboration and bring solutions from the community.”
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.