Why the Non-Profit?

Every suicide is difficult to hear about. Tears immediately well up in my eyes and my heart begins to hurt. 

In October 2022, I remember hearing about yet another suicide in our community. This time it was different. ENOUGH! Whether you believe in God or not, I personally felt a large responsibility/burden that would not go away, compelling me to do “something”. At this point, I had already been in the mental health field for over thirty-two years. As a therapist, I treat people with mental health needs on a daily basis, but it was clear we needed to do more! I need to do more! 

Our community needs more awareness, education, support, and help for individuals and families who struggle with mental health issues. We need a COMMUNITY EFFORT. We need people working together to help with the prevention and awareness of mental illness in general. We need to be speaking boldly and directly about suicide and the painful destruction mental health disorders can cause in families and communities when left unrecognized and untreated. 

I called a longtime friend and a previous colleague, Katie Diaz-Hughes and we met for breakfast. Together, we planned our first Community Health Forum Event. We decided on our motto, "Say “YES” to help!" Mission Bible Church in Minooka agreed to let us use their space for the event and were wonderful hosts. Four very brave speakers: Tessa, Alec, Claire, and Claire’s mom Janine, all agreed to share their powerful stories. With their help, Katie and I presented our first amateur Community Mental Health Forum to raise awareness in our community about mental health issues. Our speakers bravely shared their past and current struggles with managing mental health issues. Most importantly, they provided hope to those who attended that it can get better with help. The message was direct, real, raw, and not sugar-coated. We encouraged people to seek help and emphasized that help is available. The presentation ended with a message of HOPE! There is help, people can and do get better. 

We are so thankful to Tessa, Alec, Claire, and Janine for their boldness and willingness to share their personal struggles in order to reach others in their community. It takes a lot to be that vulnerable in a closed-door situation, let alone sharing it openly with a room of nearly 300 attendees from their community. I am forever grateful to them for their honesty and their messages of HOPE! After the speaking concluded, a group of local counselors who had volunteered their time was available to speak with anyone who wanted to stay after to ask questions. More generous giving of time, more help from our local community! How wonderful! 

The impact was immediate. Over fifty people (that we know of) reached out for services and mental health treatment of some kind as a result of the forum. They said “YES” to help. IT WORKED! It worked because we decided to do something and took action. None of us are professional speakers (if you watch the video footage from our first forum you will know what I mean). We did it anyway, and as a result, people reached out and got the help they needed. 

After the event, Katie and I approached Sue Bultman, another longtime friend, and previous colleague. The three of us had worked together at Cornerstone Services in Joliet (a nonprofit serving adults with disabilities and adults with severe mental illness). Combined, Katie, Sue, and I have over 60 years of experience working in the mental health field. The three of us committed to forming a nonprofit organization in order to help our local communities with mental health-related issues. That was the beginning of the Mental Health Matters Fund.

Our goal is simple: to fund mental health needs in our community so that people can get well, stay well, and live well. Also, it is our goal to provide education, awareness, and prevention. We’re volunteering our time, and we are willing to freely give to this mission that we care so much about.  However, we have no desire to do this alone, nor can we. WE NEED YOU! We need our community involved. We need local villages, churches, schools, businesses, counseling agencies, medical clinics, hospitals, police departments, fire departments and YOU to help us.

Have you ever had that turning feeling in your stomach? Where you knew you had to, or wanted to do something, but you didn’t know what it was you could or needed to do? Have you had moments in your life when you were stopped in your tracks, and in that split second transported back to memories of “what was,” or “what life was like,” before you got the news? I have. I remember the phone call when I found out a loved childhood friend had passed away, and it was suicide. I remember the second call I got, again, sharing the news of a childhood friend, gone too soon…to suicide. I wish I could say these are the only two stories I’ve experienced in my life, personally and professionally, but they are not. This is a loss that touches so many, yet we don’t talk about it. We don’t grieve. We don’t provide the love, support, and community necessary to minimize the stigma and demonstrate to others that in these spaces, whether you want to acknowledge it or not,…you know them. There are people that love them. Their life matters and they are not the burden they think they are, and there is HOPE. Their mental and emotional health and well-being matter.

I knew at an early age, probably because of all those feelings I had as a child, empathizing and caring for others and wanting to make the world a better/safer place, was what I was going to do “when I grew up.” So I got a degree in psychology, began volunteering, and then worked in many different facets of community mental health until I received my Master’s in Community Mental Health Counseling. I began practicing in a community I have grown up in and care for deeply. Fighting the stigma of mental health is something I have been doing for as long as I can remember. Wanting to support those in their most challenging moments has been something that I have been honored to do, a role that I do not take lightly. While I am passionate about my practice, and the work I do individually and in groups, there is still more to be done. There are still people to reach, educate, and support so that our community can heal, and understand each other well. Two years ago I woke up to several text messages from several individuals that shared that they, or a loved one, lost a friend to suicide. That feeling hit, and it hit hard. So did the regret of realizing why it took these kinds of text messages to get me to take bigger action. As a practice, we organized a series of groups to support local teens living through this loss and offered our support to local schools to help navigate this uncertain and difficult space. Even though no one came, it felt good to know that people at least knew we were there. Then again, this past fall, I get another string of text messages that another local student died by suicide. I could not hold back my tears. I was on a field trip with my son and his first-grade class and all I could think about was the young person who just ended their life, was once a first grader enjoying the sun on his face at a school field trip as well…once upon a time. I felt sick. I felt sad. I felt like I had done so something, even if I didn’t know what that was. I just knew I had to act! Unbeknownst to me, my long-time friends and previous colleagues were feeling the same, as well as several other members of our community. In our anger, hurt, grief, passion, and HOPE…we connected and we said, “Yes!” to doing something to support the Mental Health and Wellness of Our community! My community. This is my why. This is why providing education, awareness, breaking the stigma, and providing resources for individuals to get the mental health support they need are the heart and soul of this organization.

This is my “Why?”

What is yours?