SURVIVING MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES
A dad’s story, donors respond, hope at Golisano Children’s Hospital
A dad’s story, donors respond, hope at Golisano Children’s Hospital
You may think the new Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida is all about treating kids diagnosed with cancer and other physical diseases, or perhaps the neonatal intensive care unit comes to mind―but its mission also includes treating the mental health needs of children and their families.
Dr. Emad Salman, the hospital’s medical director, says, “Golisano is not just a hospital, it really is about children’s health. And mental health is a medical condition like every other disease.”
While some news isn’t great―that the Sunshine State “ranks either 49 or 50 in the country as far as our investment in mental health,” Salman says―there is hope. The annual Southwest Florida Wine and Food Fest, hosted in February by the Southwest Florida Children’s Charities and in part benefiting Golisano, for example, each year chooses a cause to fund with auction proceeds. This year, it bravely named the hospital’s mental health department as a recipient to share a portion of the $3.2 million raised that evening.
Brave because mental health can be a taboo topic, Salman and others note, a difficult issue that’s not tangible, something fixable with new equipment. The decision to donate Wine and Food Fest proceeds to a mental health cause made some anxious, event hosts wondering how receptive and generous those in attendance would be. They were, in fact, $1 million worth of receptive, many at the event moved to tears after hearing testimonials of mental health battles.
The frustrating reality of mental illness is that families lacking resources have few options, certainly affordable ones. Southwest Florida parents Susan Goldy and Scott Spiezle are among the fortunate, their child diagnosed in elementary school with health disorders. Spiezle recalls the child making efforts to end her life, “so I grabbed a pillow and blanket and slept on the floor.” He would spend many nights sleeping on the floor in the child’s room, he says.
But because the couple had resources, the story ended well, their child receiving treatment in Philadelphia and today thriving in graduate school. The couple’s encounter with mental health prompted their founding of Kids’ Minds Matter, a group helping raise awareness and funding to develop mental health programs at Golisano in Fort Myers. “If we didn’t have those [mental health] services,” Spiezle says, “my daughter would be dead, no question in my mind.”
Salman’s long-term goal is for Golisano to serve as the hub of the mental health wheel, with neuroscience and critical care services, the spokes of the wheel being the pediatricians and partnering agencies, he says. The idea is to direct pediatricians to treat such things as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, instead of forwarding those children for more serious
mental health treatments, Salman says.
Spiezle applauds the movement at Golisano, saying, “I have a hard time getting through my daughter’s story and she is doing great now, but there’s a lot of pain as a parent, you want to protect your kid. And if she is having problem, you look and say what did I not do.”
With a nice chunk of seed money to lay the mental health foundation at Golisano, Dr. Denise Dutchak, a psychiatrist, advises parents to “know and monitor your kids, know what they’re involved in, support them and their talents, interests and passions. Not everyone can be an A student, but they may be a great musician, and recognize that if there is any inkling of mental illness, we want to provide help.”
Ultimately, Salman says, “We want to prevent another suicide attempt or child taking their life because life for them is so unbearable. For a child to think it is better to die than to live on … it’s so hard to fathom.”