Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers is encouraging community support and working to create awareness for first responders in May during National Mental Health Awareness Month. Childers describes mental health as a “bag on your back. A bag on your back is not heavy until someone fills the bag with things.” In this analogy, the sheriff describes every negative, trauma or heavy experience as a “pebble.” If pebbles are continuously added to the bag, it will get heavy and eventually feel like a boulder. If the bag is not emptied, it will become too heavy carry, he explained. Childers said first responders carry a heavy burden from caused by experiences they face, noting although these men and women have to be professional while on they job, they are still human. “There are many sides to mental health. There are the people in the public we deal with as we try to encourage them to get the mental help they need so we don’t have the same issues over and over — whether that be violence or…