With so many recent disasters, the issue of mental health is taking on new prominence. While many people directly affected by disasters will recover due to the resiliency of human nature, many others will suffer from major depression, generalized anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. This week we take a look at three Benevon alumni organizations—the Mental Health Center of Denver, CO; the International Center for Clubhouse Development in New York, NY; and the Recovery Center in Monticello, NY—who are on the front lines of bringing needed attention to mental health and hope to thousands who suffer from this often hidden and neglected problem.

For mental health experts, disasters only illuminate a problem they see every day: people suffering from personal trauma and/or untreated mental disorders.

Marijo Rymer, associate director of development for the Mental Health Center of Denver, estimates that 60–70% of chronically homeless people in Denver have a mental illness, and many of them turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate. She says her group takes one homeless person off the street every day to give them treatment, but she estimates there are 1,500 more people a year they could be helping.

Despite the huge need already for mental healthcare in Denver, the Mental Health Center of Denver volunteered to assist the 1,700 Hurricane Katrina evacuees housed temporarily at an unused military base nearby. Rymer says they mostly worked with children, who seemed the most bewildered.

"What we know about trauma is that people are so focused on surviving, the serious depression and anxiety that follows the trauma often doesn't hit right away," she said.

The International Center for Clubhouse Development (ICCD) in New York found that after huge disasters like in Kosovo, agencies providing aid remain in place until the next crisis occurs somewhere else. When they leave town, the services end as well, said Pauline Anderson, ICCD's director of development. Her group helps to run 400 mental health or clubhouse programs in thirty countries—all of which have local support, so mental health services remain in place before, during, and after a crisis.

The clubhouse community provides a safe and nurturing place for people with severe mental disorders with the goal of integrating these people back into society. Each clubhouse runs on the standard business hours kept by the local community. They are open 365 days a year, offering educational programs and support. The ICCD provides training and support for the local clubhouses.

Anderson said the clubhouses have a great record of putting people back into the workforce—40% of those in daily attendance at clubhouses reintegrate with society in a productive way.

What Anderson and others want people to realize is that mental health is a treatable disease, and most people with a mental illness will recover.

The Recovery Center in Monticello, NY, knows that well. Veronica Uss, the executive director, is so passionate about helping others to recover from alcoholism and other addictions that she said her job has become part of her soul.

"I love the Recovery Center's magic: the healing and hope we bring to so many lives," she said.

In 2004, there were more than 900 admissions to their five licensed treatment programs. Uss said nearly half of those they treated were under the age of twenty-five.

Uss said one of the goals at the Recovery Center is to mobilize the entire community to introduce a proven, research-based prevention program at every grade level in Sullivan County.

All three of these organizations have been successful with the Benevon Model, and their missions have grown and strengthened because of it. Anderson's team at the ICCD held their fundraising Ask Event^™ on October 20 with phenomenal results that show how much people can rally behind mental health issues.

"Even with mental health, the least sexy issue surrounded by a huge amount of stigma, the [Benevon] approach, if followed, is successful," Anderson said. "The outcome was beyond our wildest dreams."

Rymer of the Mental Health Center of Denver said her group had their first fundraising Ask Event a few weeks ago. With 160 people in attendance, they raised well over $100,000 in gifts and pledges, 70% from new donors.

Rymer said the successful event demonstrated the value of this model to staff and board members because it caused them to hit or exceed all their fundraising targets.