For Mary Limehouse, the crowd of 400 people at last weekend’s citywide discussion on mental health at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center made for a “work-through-your-lunch kind of day.”
Limehouse had signed on as a data miner at the event, where those streaming through the doors would be part of the audience but also part of the show, polled throughout the day on a variety of queries related to mental health needs and services in the District.
It was the fourth such nationwide gathering facilitated by AmericaSpeaks, a District-based nonprofit group, since President Obama called for a national conversation about mental health in June.
By Friday, the information that Limehouse and dozens of others tabulated was made available, shedding new light on an old problem — the need for mental health services in the District.
Seventy-seven percent of conference participants either agreed or strongly agreed that “people can’t always get the mental health services and treatment they need.” Stigma and poverty were the biggest “mental health challenges” identified.
Limehouse, 29, is a youth mental health advocate at the Total Family Care Coalition, a D.C. non-profit group that connects families to mental health providers. She recruited young adults and teenagers to participate and was pleased with the turnout. Data gathered during the session showed that 41 percent were under 35, and 23 percent were between ages 14 and 18.
“I was overwhelmed,” she said. “For kids to come out on a Saturday and spend an entire day with adults, providers, community members, and to stay engaged, is truly amazing.”
Steve Brigham, president of AmericaSpeaks, said the meeting came down to this: “What do we need to do?”
“The White House and [the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration] are paying attention to this,” he said. “To what degree, it’s hard to tell. But they’re really looking for what comes out of all these different cities that ultimately may need to be done at the national level.”
The conference began with a welcome by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and an explanation from Brigham about how data would be collected. Audience members were asked a series of questions. For multiple-choice, they answered on personal keypads. For open-ended questions, volunteers at each of the 38 tables took notes on an iPad. The answers were immediately pinged back to Limehouse and seven others on a live data-mining “theme team” sitting behind computers on the side of the conference room.
One multiple-choice question revealed that about a third of participants had direct experience with mental health issues, and two-thirds had friends or family members who had suffered with mental illness.
The pervasiveness of mental health problems among youth — autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety, anti-social behavior, post-traumatic stress disorder — was echoed in conversations and speeches throughout the day.
Two high-schoolers from the D.C. Youth Slam Team each received standing ovations for their spoken-word performances about their experiences, one with depression and the other with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Marie Morilus-Black, director of Child and Youth Services at the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health, described an initiative to provide more community and school-based mental health services for children.
Dwight Hollier, a former linebacker for the Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts who is also a licensed counselor, spoke about the need to reduce the stigma around mental health. “We need to change the perception of what it means to be a man,” he said. “Real men get help when they need it.”
All the talk last week raised the question: What concrete initiatives will come out of the conversation and data points? At the end of this month, an action-planning committee, composed of policymakers, service providers and youth group representatives, will convene to review the data.
“Once it is determined that someone has a mental health illness, how do we get . . . to saying, ‘Okay, somewhere, some way, this person was failed. They weren’t provided with a service. They cried out for help,’ ” said Limehouse, a member of the committee. “I feel like the city is finally moving towards real, authentic and genuine community engagement and really making people in this city, if they want to be, a part of a process that will affect them years from now.”
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