KINGSLEY — Helping middle and high school students better understand mental illness and the resources available to them is a call to action heard by many.
On May 16, the Grand Traverse chapter of National Alliance on Mental Illness partnered with everGrowth Consulting and The Rock of Kingsley Youth Center to host a showing of “Do It For Daniel,” a suicide awareness documentary made by Jeff Olson after his son died.
Followed by a Q&A session that included Olson himself, participants were given the opportunity to learn more about mental health resources available in the area, and how to best help a loved one that is struggling with mental illness.
Sue Brown, the director of development of NAMI TC, has been working with local schools to bring in the End the Stigma program. But she found herself stumped at first on how best to inspire awareness and a call-to-action to the local community.
“For years now, we’ve had mental health awareness in May and October. But now, we have this Mental Health Action Day. Now we have that, it’s like, ‘OK, mental health is an epidemic all over the world and here locally in our country, so now is time to take action. What actionable steps are we going to take to actually try to normalize mental health — because it is a medical condition, it’s nobody’s fault that they have this medical condition, and one in five people do in the United States. We need to all work together to end the stigma,’” Brown said.
Just as mental illness can’t be solved overnight, the stigma around it cannot be erased through the efforts of just one organization.
Kathy Grinsteiner, a Kingsley local and the owner of everGrowth Consulting, got involved in trying to raise awareness and improve mental health resources in the Kingsley area following the tragic losses of three area high school students in 2019. After working with organizations such as the Grand Traverse Health Department and K-Town, she was the one to initially suggest bringing in Jeff Olson, and offered to have everGrowth sponsor the presentation.
“We were looking at trying to do a community partnership event and Kathy was like, ‘hey, I’m trying to do this,” Brown said.
In her time presenting the End the Stigma program, Brown worked with The Rock of Kingsley Youth Center, which is directed by Diane Walton.
Walton hosted Jeff Olson once before for a previous showing from the documentary, was more than happy to provide a venue for the event.
“[The previous showing] was successful because of the message that Coach Jeff brings. He’s from Michigan, the U.P. He knows some of the coaches here in Kingsley because our teams play each other in football. I believe it opened some eyes,” Walton said, elaborating that she believes there are now more counselors in the local schools.
Still, Walton feels that a second showing was worth the time and effort it took to put on.
“The message never goes away. The stuff the kids are going through never goes away. In fact, it just keeps evolving and things get added to it as our kids face life,” Walton said. “We can’t wait any longer. We need to make sure our kids are safe, no matter where they’re at or what they’re doing, and mental illness is a huge part of that. You can show the cast on your arm for a broken arm, but how do you portray a broken mind, or illness in the mind?”
Brown shared that on a survey on community support requirements among 530 students from 20 high schools, facilitated by the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, nearly 70 percent of participants expressed a need for mental health assistance.
“They need help. They don’t know how to reach out, and they’re afraid to reach out because of stigma. But we need to save lives. To do that, we need to end the stigma and normalize mental health,” Brown said. “That’s our hope in doing this event: opening up that conversation and having the panel discussion.”
“It’s great to know that all of these organizations are working together toward a common goal: making sure our kids are well,” Walton said. “The more we can collaborate, the more we can make things better for our community and other communities.”
More information on NAMI, mental health resources, and opportunities to get involved can be found at https://namigt.org/.