KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a yearly reminder to take care of ourselves. The observance was started in 1949 by Mental Health America, an organization that works every day to help anyone in need.
The Heartland chapter in Kansas City, Kansas, serves the community with resources designed to break the stigma around mental health.
The organization is KCTV5’s 3-Degree Guarantee nonprofit for the month of May.
“I often liken us to, like, the American Heart Association equivalent for mental health,” said Susan Crain Lewis, CEO and president of the Heartland chapter.
Lewis has worked for three decades to break the stigma around mental health.
“There should be no shame in having a mental health illness that one has to manage over the lifespan,” Crain Lewis said.
Demand for mental health resources grows
She has seen attitudes change over the years.
“We used to go to health fairs and put ‘Mental Health America’ up and everybody would be just walking by the table. We would go with all this literature and all of it came back. Right? Now our tables are just swamped,” Lewis said.
One of the organization’s biggest resources is a hotline called Compassionate Ear.
“We have the great good fortune of being the longest-running warmline in the United States,” Crain Lewis said.
The line does not have therapists on the other end and does not diagnose anyone. Answering the phone are people like Willa Stillman.
“When I take calls, and especially when they turn out well in the caller’s favor, I feel really blessed, you know, that I’m the one who can do that. I’m the one to listen to their problems,” Stillman said.
Peer support from lived experience
Stillman lives with borderline personality disorder. She is able to share her own experiences in conversations that help people feel seen.
“I just like people to hear me. And so I try to pass that on to my callers. I’m listening. I hear you. I understand,” Stillman said.
If someone needs more, Stillman can help connect them with 2-1-1 or a crisis line and encourages them to find a therapist.
“It’s not real technical. It’s a basic conversation, you know?” Stillman said.
“Because sometimes when you’re in the middle of it, you don’t even remember how you’ve handled yourself in the past,” Lewis said.
Mental Health America of the Heartland provides resources to help make sure people in the community and beyond are cared for.
“Manage and live successfully with a chronic illness that just happens to be above the neck,” Lewis said.
The Compassionate Ear Warmline can be reached at 913-281-2251.
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