Mental Health & Substance Use

Mental Health & Substance Use

Those struggling with mental health or substance use issues deserve to feel well, find support, and move toward recovery.

Mental health and substance use affect individuals, families, and communities across La Porte County. When people can access the right support at the right time, they have a greater opportunity to build stability, strengthen relationships, and live healthy, fulfilling lives.

Through our Mental Health & Substance Use focus area, HFL is investing resources with partners to make support more accessible, responsive, and connected for people who need it most.

What We’re Working Toward

We envision a La Porte County where people can:

• Access support when they need it — Mental health and substance use services are available in accessible, welcoming places.

• Get the right help at the right time — People experiencing a crisis can receive timely support and connections to ongoing care and recovery.

• Find services that work for them — Language, hours, transportation, cost, and other barriers don’t prevent people from getting help.

How We’re Investing

HFL supports efforts to strengthen accessible, coordinated hubs for mental health and substance use services. This includes a broad range of supports such as treatment, therapy, peer support, case management, insurance enrollment assistance, crisis response, and connections to longer-term recovery services.

We also recognize that accessibility means meeting people where they are.  Investing resources can help expand mobile and 24/7 crisis response, extend service hours, improve coordination among families, schools and organizations, and increase multilingual services so more people can find support in ways that work for them.

Our goal: A La Porte County where people can access the support they need to experience positive mental health and live free from substance use.

Why This Matters

Mental health challenges are a significant concern in La Porte County. Adults reported an average of 6.0 mentally unhealthy days in the past 30 days, suggesting recurring experiences of stress, depression, or emotional distress. Additionally, between 2019 and 2023, the county experienced 22 suicide deaths per 100,000 residents, an age-adjusted rate that signals ongoing risk and underscores the importance of early intervention, connection to care, and community-based supports (County Health Rankings, 2025).

Substance use also presents notable public health concerns in La Porte County. Between January 2021 and December 2024, La Porte County recorded a total of 151 accidental drug overdose deaths (La Porte County Coroner, 2025).

Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU) is one of three focus areas identified in HFL’s 2026–2029 Strategic Plan. Through focused community investments, we’re working alongside partners to improve people’s lives across La Porte County.