MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Chamber members listen during the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce' Local Leaders Summit: Leading a Culture of Emotional Well-Being at the Williamsport Country Club Tuesday.

Have you been taking care of your emotional well-being in ways that you should?

This is a question that was discussed at the fourth annual Leadership Lycoming Local Leaders Summit held on Tuesday evening at the Williamsport Country Club.

The panelists, Dr. Lindsay Sauers, clinical psychologist, Dr. Brian Schurr, clinical psychologist, William Weber, county detective, and Cheryl Yoxtheimer, vice president of human resources at Hope Enterprises, added to the discussion by also speaking about the subject of emotional health in the workplace.

While Weber spoke about how he sees it in a community point of view where law enforcement and public safety work to ensure safety through the mental health crisis, Yoxtheimer focused more on the effects of mental health in the workplace and what employers could potentially be obligated to do in terms of providing a healthier work environment.

Both Schurr and Sauers talked about the effectiveness of well-being, how it’s being used and portrayed, focusing both on how to deal with pain and who deals with pain and behavior.

“It is one very important part of a whole,” Sauers added. “It’s physical well-being, emotional well-being, having one’s internal state functioning with our behaviors about what is going on in the environment. It applies to everybody.”

Yoxtheimer added that there are numerous things that employers can do to create a “caring culture”.

“It needs to start from the top,” she said. “Not just the CEO but the supervisors and managers. They need to show that they care about their employees by having empathy and open door policies.”

Schurr spoke to the statistics regarding mental health as it is one of the leading causes of “disability”.

“That statistic speaks to a lot of lost productivity, a lot of lost work in the United States,” he said. “That includes people calling off of work, people just not being as effective in their role — when we don’t feel well we don’t do well. I think people are not always taking care of their emotional health in ways that they could.”

“When employees don’t feel valued, it creates an atmosphere where people don’t want to contribute,” Yoxtheimer added.

The audience at the recent event at the Williamsport Country Club also asked questions regarding mental health in the local hospitals, including proper professionals and resources for residents to go to for help. Though there has been significant improvement in the Williamsport area, the panelists agreed that there is still room to grow in a positive way in terms of helping improve the state of the mental health issue in the city.

“Here in Lycoming County we do some amazing things that other counties don’t do,” Weber said. “We (law enforcement, fire and EMS) are all actively involved in the crisis intervention training. We have well over 100 people trained.”

“It’s a problem in communities all across the country,” Schurr said. “There just aren’t enough providers for the need. It can be particularly challenging.”

Sauers also added that the newer addition of technology in terms of video therapy sessions could potentially be beneficial to more rural areas.

“This is a slow process and no one needs to do our work for us,” Sauers added. “There are other ways to support and to be able to connect to individuals in the interim.”

Jim Yoxtheimer responded by saying to audience members to contact government officials as well, as their opinions are both informational and they have chances to bring positive impact to these smaller areas.