Have you seen the path to mental health care as a twisting and looping bridge to nowhere?  It's not just access to quality mental health care that's a challenge in our nation, it's the lack of empowerment an individual or family faces to find that supportive care and have knowledge as to what options are available to service the need.  Bridging that gap between need and knowledge to access quality mental health care is what Get Support Together is all about.

    How many of you were raised on the ideology, "Practice Makes Perfect?" Another generation can boast about the evolution in thinking because they were taught, "Practice Makes Progress." The problem is, or at least it was for me, once there's a promise that perfection is attainable, it can take over rational thought with obsessive behaviors.  I am here today offering the promise that Get Support Together will remain rooted in progress, knowing the landscape of mental health services and the severity and onset of mental health conditions will be represented in our online community.

    There is a poorly kept secret within my diverse network that my life has been full of trauma, complicated by children with demanding needs and a life burdened with constant chaos that my personal drive to perfection contributed to.  (Note, I was raised in the generation of "Practice Makes Perfect.")  What less than a handful of people know, however, is despite a flourishing career in marketing where I could generate and execute exceptional marketing strategies, I was crippled by insecurities which often created self-fulling prophecies in my life of try, <insert inner voice you are going to fail>, work harder, push more, fail.

    The development of Get Support Together is no different from this.  The concept first came to me when at age two my daughter was showing signs of mental dysregulation and physical pains.  It took us five more years to close that chapter with the diagnosis of a neurological condition, but the hopelessness and loneliness of not being able to find support for her stayed with me as a small black spot on my heart.  I simply could not figure out why getting mental health treatment for a child was so difficult.  My tribulations didn't end there as many times throughout my child-raising years I sought support for me, my husband, my kids, but we didn't really know what type of support we needed and heaven-forbid in some of the more traumatic times, hospital social workers couldn't even provide answers!

    Currently there are suicide text lines and crisis hot lines and 24/7 psychiatric hospital emergency rooms, but for anyone using these services or even managing their way through a period of sadness or grief, there is nowhere to look, learn, and take action for your own mental health recovery.  We are aiming to narrow that gap between need and knowledge by building a community full of resources needed to get through today, take the next right step, and live a happy, balanced, productive life.