CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For Jim Love, poetry has always been an outlet. But during one of the darkest periods of his life, even that became difficult.
“One of the big things that happened to me with my mental health crisis is I kind of lost use of language a little bit,” Love said.
What You Need To Know
Jim Love spent years struggling with his mental health
Today, Love volunteers with the Charlotte chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where he helps answer calls through the organization’s Navigator Helpline
The service connects people seeking mental health support with trained volunteers who can guide them toward local resources
The Navigator Program has been so successful that NAMI Charlotte has launched Spanish language versions of both its website and hotline
Love says finding a community of fellow writers helped him reconnect with himself and his passion for poetry.
“Just being able to sit and listen to those people express their lives made me start picking up a pen again,” he said.
Love spent years struggling with his mental health and cycling in and out of treatment programs. In 2013, after suffering a heart attack, his mental health worsened significantly.
“I’d had a heart attack, and things got worse after that. I ended up making an attempt,” Love said.
Over the following years, he tried multiple treatments but says nothing seemed to help. Eventually, a medical team reevaluated his diagnosis.
“Luckily, with the team that I had put together, they changed my diagnosis from treatment-resistant severe depression, major depressive disorder, and found out that I was bipolar,” Love said.
After finally receiving the correct diagnosis and treatment, he started getting his life back.
“Going through that journey that started in my teens, that had carried with me for over 40 years, and finally getting the help that I needed and the help that worked for me, it made me want to help people not go through what I went through,” Love said.
Today, Love volunteers with the Charlotte chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where he helps answer calls through the organization’s Navigator Helpline. The service connects people seeking mental health support with trained volunteers who can guide them toward local resources.
“Someone will call our Navigator Line with some sort of a question about mental health. Our volunteer navigators then take down all the information, like what specifics they need to make the right appointment, and then within 48 hours, we send a curated email back to the person with three to five resources that are perfectly curated just for them,” says Kate Weaver, executive director of NAMI Charlotte.
Love says navigating the mental health system can be overwhelming, especially for people seeking help for the first time. He enjoys serving as a resource for others because for many years, he didn’t know those resources existed himself.
“From support groups and peer counseling, informational resources, all of those things that I didn’t even know were available. Making sure people have access to that is a real key, I think, into improving mental health care for everyone,” Love said.
The Navigator Program has been so successful that NAMI Charlotte has launched Spanish language versions of both its website and hotline.
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