According to County Health Rankings, there is one Erath County mental health provider for every 750 residents. This is below the state average of 1 to 550 residents and the national average of 1 to 290.
With the need for more mental health assistance in mind, Dublin Public Library was recently approved for a $375,000 grant to strengthen mental health in rural communities. This will be funded at $75,000 per year over the next five years.
Library Director Adina Dunn said the county’s desire for more access to mental health assistance was revealed during ‘community conversations’ held through American Library Association’s Libraries Transforming Communities initiative grants.
“It focused on food insecurity,” Dunn said of the grant. “People talked about a lot of different needs but mental health is one that kept coming up again and again.”
The grant and conversations led to the library getting connected with Texas Health Resources and some of its work in the community as well as Community Connections Cohorts (CCC), a collaborative group led by CASA for the Cross Timbers Area and joined by Choices Clinic, Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council, and Tarleton State University’s College of Education.
Dunn said THR did more in-depth study on the needs of the county through activities like surveys and focus groups and those studies revealed mental health as a primary need followed by affordable housing and transportation.
CCC is committed to addressing mental health issues in association with the Erath County Wholistic Investment Network (WIN), a ‘hub of hope’ with 30+ community partners working to create a future where everyone is financially and emotionally secure, with access to safe housing and an abundance of food. In relation to this, Tarleton’s newly established Occupational Therapy department has committed to begin community outreach & educational programs in early 2026 at the library and other community events.
The Hogg Foundation grant is extending the efforts of CCC which has been funded by Texas Health Community Impact grants in the past to aid with community needs. (Texas Health recently announced they reached nearly 90,000 North Texas residents in the past five years as they funded $18.2 million in 49 Community Impact Grants to provide care, food and support.)
Dunn reported the first year will be dedicated to determining the biggest mental health needs of the community through items like surveys and focus groups and that will dictate how the grant funds are used in the following years to address community needs.
The grant also helps provide a part-time position as a community engagement and program coordinator to handle paperwork and logistics as well as assist in communication and outreach.
Dunn said the grant also includes partner planning meetings as well as travel/ lodging for training as the Hogg Foundation wants to be involved to ensure the success of the grant and programs funded through the grant.
Dunn said the library is grateful to the Hogg Foundation as well as its partners for helping address a major community need and making Erath County a happier, healthier place to live.
The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health was established in 1940 at The University of Texas at Austin by the children of Texas Governor James Hogg. The rural health grant initiative began in 2018, following the foundation’s previous strategic plan. It aimed to learn more about how to support mental health in rural area settings, address local challenges, and identify community conditions that both help and challenge mental health. The goal was to support ideas that came from within the community to create, support, and promote mentally healthy communities.
For more information on the Hogg Foundation, visit https://hogg.utexas.edu/