DENISON, Texas (KTEN) — United States Department of Agriculture leaders in Oklahoma and Texas discussed the importance of mental health in rural Texoma at a conference in Denison on Thursday.

"We're all in this together," said Texas USDA director Lillian Salerno. 

"The president has us out all this month talking about mental health as a crisis... about what we can do to help address it — whether it's providing more resources for law enforcement, for mental health providers or into the schools — and getting them the things they need that could help situations in these rural communities," added Kenneth Corn, the USDA director for Oklahoma. 

Salerno noted there are 60 million rural Americans, and mental health services are inadequate when compared to urban areas. 

"We see our numbers have been increasing," she said. "What we all know is that since somewhere around 2010, iPhone 4, everybody in the world had it, but the mental health crisis has just increased and increased in young people."

Grayson County Jail administrator Capt. Sarah Bigham said 30 to 40 percent of inmates struggle with mental health. 

"In the jail, the three basic tenets are care, custody and control," she said. "Care is a big part of that, and so we have to make sure that we are taking into account a person's medical needs, mental health needs, and also their needs to just exist or just be in our facility."

In the 2023 fiscal year, $27 billion was allocated to support jobs and opportunities in rural towns by the USDA.