Finding mental health care can be especially difficult in rural communities, where long drives and limited resources often stand between residents and the help they need.

Stabilization Support Services (SSS) hopes to continue changing that as it prepares for the second year of its rural mental health program.

The program has been expanded from 12 to 16 weeks in its second year and will serve up to 25 participants, up from 15 during its inaugural year. SSS Clinical Director Robert Cox noted the program was created to help bridge gaps in mental health care that continue to exist in rural communities.

SSS operates as a program within the nonprofit Special Needs Services (SNS) of Ray County. The organization’s vision, Cox said, extended beyond offering traditional counseling and instead focused on creating a program that could address a wide range of behavioral health needs.

“ Suzan Breen, founder and executive director of SNS, and I have been working together for nearly three decades in the d…