Berkshire County needs more free mental health resources.
Berkshire County has the second highest suicide rate in the State and the Berkshire clinical health system is overflowing with patients and not enough clinicians. If you are in crisis for your mental health and are looking for support, your option is to wait.
Community mental health institutions in the Berkshires have anywhere from a 5-week waitlist for short term care to a 9-month waitlist to see a therapist or a psychiatrist. Private practices are closing their waitlists due to the overwhelming need. Moreover, for individuals who want support but do not want to go a clinical route, there are zero services available.
We cannot ask individuals to wait any longer when it comes to living with suicide, which is why we need peer-support services.
The Solution
Love of T believes that the answer to the Berkshire’s mental health crisis is through peer-support work.
Studies done by Mental Health America, show that when individuals work directly with a peer specialist, hospitalization rates go down, in-patient services go down, self-stigma goes down, and the individual shows an overall increase in empowerment and hope. Moreover, peer-specialist programs are an effective strategy to engage with people that traditional health services fail to reach.
By providing free weekly support groups, one-on-one peer support and weekly drop-in sessions to gather with community, we can meet individuals before, during and after mental health crisis in a nonclinical setting.