Family Houston luncheon puts focus on mental health
Family Services of Greater Houston has provided residents with counseling and guidance since 1904. Though obstacles have evolved from influenza and the Great Depression to wartime and cultural change, the “Pillars of Strength” luncheon centered around mental health issues. Fitting, as May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
“Family Houston provides counseling to anyone who walks through our doors, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Ronald K. Martin, board chair. “And we’ve recently begun admitting children.”
Mistress of ceremonies Sharron Melton shared a few fresh luncheon additions, too. Each table was topped with socialmedia fans to encourage the 200 lunchgoers to post photos online using #FamilyHouston. Artist Patti Lennon-Potter live-painted a Texas flag from the back of the Briar Club’s ballroom. Two auction bidders each ponied up $3,000, bringing the total amount raised to $225,000.
Kathy Williams, a longtime Family Houston client, is grateful. She’s witnessed the organization’s impact over a 30-year period, from the time she first walked into the clinic as a severely depressed mother of two children in the 1980s.
After Williams’ moving testimony, keynote speaker Elizabeth McIngvale chronicled her own ongoing battle with obsessivecompulsive disorder.
“Hopefully, I begin and end with the same message,” she said. “That mental health matters.
“You probably wake up to my dad screaming at you from the television that he’ll save you money,” McIngvale joked. Her father is Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale. “And he will, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.”
Her remarks centered around the ongoing support that she received from immediate family members and the Menninger Clinic.
Around age 13, McIngvale first began to experience what she described as “bizarre, intrusive thoughts.” She soon became crippled with fear that those close to her would suffer unless she “fixed” it with rituals and repetitive actions.
A 12-week stint at the Menninger Clinic placed McIngvale on the road to recovery. She’s now founder of the Peace of Mind foundation, runs OCDChallenge.org and serves as an assistant professor at Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.
“One of the things I learned from Brene Brown is that we can’t live a full life if we’re not vulnerable,” McIngvale said. “My favorite line from her books is ‘If we deny our illness, it owns us. But if we own our illness, we get to write the ending.’ ”
This year’s gathering recognized another ending: honoree Paz A. Guerra recently retired after 40 years of service.