Cheryl
It is really important to give people with mental health challenges an opportunity to work. I think there’s a real misconception that people with a mental illness are in some way cognitively deficient. They absolutely are not. Volunteering and working have greatly contributed to Cindy’s recovery. It’s just amazing to me what that can do to someone’s self esteem is to be valued and be able to actually be paid for something that she does very naturally. She’s got the biggest heart in the world, she really does. She really loves people and she really wants to help them and she’s had a lot of personal experience. So I have seen Cindy go from—I was on the intensive stabilizations team when she came in in crisis—and I’ve watched her go full circle. So I feel very privileged to be Cindy’s friend and her boss.

I believe you have to have an open mind and an open heart and I think there’s valuable people out there, but I think you should do this for all your employees. I mean, not, people with mental health challenges are just like anybody else. And I think you should do for them what you would do for anybody you’re employing. I worry about all the people who are under me, my volunteers and my staff people. I worry about them being mentally healthy because they’re under stress on a crisis line. So we have someone here who was in crisis that now is dealing with suicidal callers. Now if that isn’t going the full mile, what else could be?

Say it out loud means, to me, that we need to take it out of the closet, get on the rooftop and shout, it’s ok to have mental health challenges. It’s no different from any other kind of physical illness. These people have the capability of doing all kinds of things given the proper supports and there are definitely supports out there. I know because I work for an agency that provides that support and I know it’s possible because I have seen it right with Cindy, I mean, she’s gone the full nine yards.