Hope on Wheels: Oklahoma Non-Profit Offers Lifeline for Mental Health and Substance Abuse

An Oklahoma non-profit, Parents Helping Parents, Inc., is partnering with other organizations to provide mental health and substance abuse resources to areas across northeast Oklahoma through the Hope on Wheels bus tour.

Leaders with Parents Helping Parents, Inc. said they heard from people living in rural communities about a lack of resources or options for support which led to the creation of this joint effort.

Organizations like Grand Mental Health, Stonegate Center, and the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services have all partnered to make stops in 7 towns across northeast Oklahoma.

During those visits, anyone can show up and learn about the different resources they have in their area regarding things like mental health or substance abuse that they might not have known about.

"We’ve got a bag just stuffed full of different resources, and we're really hoping that it will make people aware. I mean a lot of people in these communities are aware of the problem. They just don’t know where to go for help, so we want them to know that there is help for these problems and for these things that you're facing, even though you might be in a smaller town or community," Tara Carr, director of marketing and outreach for Parents Helping Parents, Inc. said.

This is the first time Parents Helping Parents, Inc. has done a bus tour like this. Even if the resources that people might need aren't available in their town, the one goal is to let people know of resources that might be available in nearby towns.

"This is not only going to help them realize that if there’s not a specific clinic that somebody needs in Wagoner, well maybe it’s 20 miles up the road in the town next door, and although that’s not super ideal, at least they have an option. So we’re just trying to make people aware of what’s available to them," Carr said.

The bus tour will run April 18 and 19. On April 18, the bus tour will make the following stops:

11:00a.m. - 11:45 a.m. in Sapulpa (24 S. Poplar St.)

12:45 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. in Bartlesville (33o SE Adams Blvd.)

3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. in Nowata (325 S. Ash St.)

4:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. in Claremore (400 Veterans Pkwy)

On April 19, the bus tour will make the following stops:

9:45 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. in Wagoner (111 NE 2nd St.)

11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. in Muskogee (501 N. Main St.)

2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. in Shawnee (2307 S. Gordon Cooper Dr.)