Fueled by faith, advocacy for children pays off

December 20, 2022

Two parishioners from Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart in Ankeny collaborated with others to move bureaucratic mountains to create a plan that helps children suffering mental health crises.

Jan Brown and Sue Murphy said their faith plus a passion for helping people in pain fueled their drive to fill a gap in health care in the Des Moines area.

Neither woman had a loved one dealing with a mental health crisis. They got involved simply because they cared. 
“It wasn’t charity, it was justice,” Brown said. “It was trying to address a problem that other people maybe could not resolve on their own.”

Murphy’s memories as a teacher spurred her on. “I think of certain individuals who have come through my classroom who needed help, couldn’t find it or waited,” she said.

The problem: Parents didn’t want to call police when their child was having a mental health crisis. Emergency rooms weren’t the right place to go. And it could take weeks or months to get an appointment with a counselor.

Today, if a family calls 9-1-1 about a child having a mental health crisis, there’s a process in place to help.  At the 9-1-1 call center, there are counselors who can dispatch a mobile team of mental health professionals to come to the home or school. Children who need more intensive support can go to Easter Seals for up to a week to stabilize their situation. There, they can get connected to ongoing support.

“It’s less intensive than in-patient but more than a mobile response,” said Courtney Dufford, an organizer with A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy, also known as AMOS. Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart is a member institution of AMOS, which Brown and Murphy worked through uo collaborate with various groups in the broader community.

They “were really at the heart of all this, but in relationship with African American congregations and refugee nonprofits. A diverse collective could get something done that everyone thought was impossible,” Dufford said.

The Des Moines Police Department heard the need of the community and responded with a new service that started July 1 called Crisis Advocacy Response Effort, or CARE. Callers to 9-1-1 or the non-emergency number can ask for the CARE representative, and child mental health professionals will help, said Sgt. Lorna Garcia.

“We’re very excited about this program,” Garcia said. “It is definitely a response to the community demand that we heard.” 
Coincidentally, a nationwide hotline number for suicide and mental health crisis, 9-8-8, has become available.
The genesis of Brown and Murphy getting involved has to do with their faith.

Murphy had attended a Christian Experience Weekend retreat, and asked herself: What’s next? How could she put her faith into action? 

“I’m called to go out and make a difference,” Murphy said. “For me, this was the next step. I can lend my voice and add to the group.”

Brown and Murphy along with representatives of AMOS did make a difference; did research, talked to families, visited with hospital officials and legislators and built the political will to figure out a new system, Dufford said.

The work isn’t done. Now they’re trying to ensure that it has long-term funding and that there are counselors who can meet the need of the community including refugees and immigrants who call central Iowa home.

The work of improving the community will never be done.

Brown said: “That’s our goal is to listen to concerns of families and improve the communities we live in.”