State and local behavioral health leaders will come together this week at a public forum to share their ideas for fighting mental illness in the community.

The Douglas County Community Foundation, which is organizing Monday’s forum, is calling the event a “Community Convening.” The idea is to encourage collaboration among nonprofits, businesses and governments to address the community’s struggles with behavioral health issues, said Chip Blaser, the foundation’s executive director.

“We really wanted to bring more people around (to learn) what’s going on in the community … as well as how they can be involved in taking action on this very important issue,” he said.

Speakers at the event will include Patrick Schmitz, the CEO of Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center; Bob Tryanski, Douglas County’s director of behavioral health projects; and Kansas Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator Gina Meier-Hummel, according to the LiveWell Douglas County website.

Stephen Ilardi, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas who researches clinical depression, is also among the event’s speakers. He said these conversations were especially important at a time when mental health problems were becoming more prevalent across the U.S.

“There’s a really burgeoning epidemic of serious mental illness,” Ilardi said. “Every successive generation is battling a greater burden of mental illness than the cohort who came before.”

The forum is the third in a series of public meetings to discuss local concerns that the foundation hopes to help address. Previous events explored affordable housing and food security in the area.

Blaser said the issues were closely related.

“It really does fit together,” Blaser said. “A lot of the issues that lead to housing displacement may come from behavioral health issues.”

Another of the event’s speakers is Lori Alvarado, CEO of local substance abuse rehab center DCCCA. She said it’s important for the community to focus on behavioral health because it’s an issue that affects everyone.

“If someone has a behavioral health issue, it could affect their family, their coworkers, their friends or neighbors,” she said. “This is a far-reaching issue, and we believe the opportunity in a community forum to learn and hear from different facets of the community will give us the opportunity to think about how to address this more effectively.”

The public forum begins at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Theatre Lawrence, 4660 Bauer Farm Drive.