Where to find Step Up For Mental Health®
Instagram & Facebook: @stepupformentalhealth,
Twitter: @stepupformh
Youtube Channel: click here!
About Step Up For Mental Health®
AM: Step Up For Mental Health® is a peer-to-peer advocacy group providing support, assistance, and education. First, we support individuals dealing with a mental health disorder. Second, we assist family members caring for someone with a mental illness. Third, we educate the public on mental health issues. We are here to share personal stories and help others make sense of the stigma and fear associated with illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. We know there are many misconceptions about how to best help family members and caregivers understand and manage day-to-day challenges. We address many issues relating to mental health including the impact on families, the impact on kids and teens in school, poverty, hunger, homelessness, job loss, impacts on the elderly, mental health stigmas, and loneliness.
The Organization
HS: How long has your organization been running?
AM: We have been around since 2016, but our current name was official in April 2017.
HS: What is your Mission Statement?
AM: Step Up For Mental Health®’s mission is to support, educate and provide services to empower families living with the challenges of mental health disorders. We do this by providing a safe place to share stories and find support for others who are dealing with mental health disorders or caring for a family member with a mental illness. We believe that mental health issues impact social issues, including education, homelessness, and poverty. Step Up For Mental Health® strives to match families with resources to help move them toward a more productive life.
HS: What was the idea that sparked the creation of your organization?
AM: Families dealing with mental health-related issues like I did. (Adrienne J. McCue has been passionate about mental health education since, as a young girl, she helped her mother cope with a serious mental health disorder.) I wanted the whole family to find resources and services. Someone who has a mental health disorder and the caregiver needing support.
HS: What did the startup of your organization look like?
AM: We started with a different name, but I knew that it would be changed. Most of my good ideas come in the form of a thought around midnight when I am laying in bed trying to sleep. Before our name change, we were using the hashtag #StepUpForMentalHealth, but after a conversation with the board, my nighttime process triggered me to come up with it as a name for the nonprofit. After that, I believe the public started to understand what our mission was truly about—families and the caregivers supporting them in the moment, trying to get individuals across a sea of despair to hope. That’s the goal—to bring light to someone when all they know at the time is pain and depression. The shape of our mission has always been clear: peers helping peers through the most difficult times in their lives. Even though a program, idea, class, workshop has been lived experiences, a problem to solve, from childhood really. Peer support works because the clients we serve understand that we get who they are, even if they don’t know themselves at the moment they ask for assistance. And that’s okay—our goal is to help them find a few solutions along the way, and we have done so through our classes, peer groups, and helpline.
HS: What are some of your organization's accomplishments?
AM: I believe it’s never about us—so people find us by word of mouth or a web search, or through their friend and ask for support. The journey is our helpline. A call, an email via our website, or an outsource referral, whatever the case—we help feed families, and we provide financial help for mental health medications and families’ struggles, especially during the pandemic. We are there supporting peer groups and one-to-one chats, or paying for therapy, and it’s the small wins that matter. We are there for one family when they need us most! I received a call from a new client, a senior who hasn’t eaten in three days. He searched for us. The next day I drove to his house and he was outside waiting for his bag of groceries because he didn’t know where the food bank was (we provided that later). He was happy, he was thankful. That is our accomplishment. I tend to cry in my car back on the road home. There have been many of those moments since 2016. It was a good day.
HS: What are some of your goals in the upcoming year?
AM: We fed 150 families at the end of 2020. We want to feed 500 this year, as well as facilitate more 1:1 Peer Chats. Our biggest goal is to tell our community that we are here, that if you sign up to speak to a Peer Support Facilitator, we will just listen when you call. We want to do more one-hour Peer Chats in 2021 than we ever have before! We are planning. We are getting our helpline ready, our volunteers trained, and our service tools in place. As long as we help as many people as we can, then it’s a good day.
HS: How did you manage to gain the following that you have now?
AM: I’m good at technology and search. We have tech partnerships in place that help us. We still have a lot of work to do with regard to social media. We want to promote our peer support groups more via our own website, and not use other third-party tools. That takes time and that is what we are working on now. But for the most part, we are on all the major social media platforms, we have current articles that our digital writers are inspired to share, and families continue to find us—a good day.
The Founder:
Adrienne McCue
HS: Tell us a bit about yourself.
AM: Adrienne McCue has been passionate about mental health education since she was a young girl, she helped her mother cope with a serious mental health disorder. Earlier in her career, McCue has worked in peer-to-peer support groups and with deaf children with behavioral issues. McCue created an advocacy PSA campaign called “I Am Visible” for bisexual+ rights and talked about mental health issues via social media on Huffington Post, which received the attention of White House 44. President Barack Obama invited McCue to the White House in 2011 to recognize her work advocating for social change in marginalized communities. In 2011, she was invited to the GLAAD National Media Institute for People of Color to promote diversity in the media. McCue was a keynote speaker and performed workshops at UC Davis University and St. Cloud State University on topics of human rights advocacy, education, visibility, and using social digital media showcasing diversity. McCue now focuses her passions at Step Up For Mental Health programs and mission educating the public on mental health and transgenerational trauma that is being felt by BIPOC families and communities. Adrienne lived and taught in Japan for two years, loves science fiction, and is in the process of writing her first children’s book on mental health from the point of view of a caregiver. She loves spending time with her husband and dog Larrabee.
HS: What was your personal reason for founding this organization?
AM: My passion for mental health education has been a lifelong goal in removing the stigma of seeking support and/or therapy. Just like cancer or diabetes, I believe mental health should have checkups yearly. The mind and the body is connected.
HS: In the early stages, who would you say were the most influential and helped bring your organization to where it is today?
AM: Hands down, my board, volunteers, and donors along with some key corporate partners. Couldn’t have gotten off the ground without everyone involved.
HS: If you have one, what is your personal experience with mental health?
AM: Supporting my mother as a child, teen, and adult. It was extremely difficult, (along with my siblings) but it made me the person I am today.
HS: If you yourself don't suffer from mental health issues but know someone who does, how do you help them to fight their battles?
AM: Each person has their unique journey: I support hundreds of people a year, dealing with mental health-related disorders as a peer. As with anything, you try to support them one day at a time, make sure they have the resources they need to stay healthy, and provide comfort when they need a place to talk. I believe in our campaign, “Talk. Share. Listen." We all need support at one time in our lives. When I needed support, I had a friend that was there, so I made sure I pay it forward and listen if they needed me.
Mental Health in Step Up For Mental Health®
HS: What does mental health mean to you & your organization?
AM: Mental health touches a variety of groups and backgrounds. Our goal is to make life easier for all families dealing with mental health issues. It’s in our mission: “Step Up For Mental Health®: Changing minds about mental health and its impact on families.
HS: Why is your organization an advocate for mental health?
AM: Because we need more diverse voices -- it affects everyone, we need everyone to step up.
HS: How are you trying to end the stigma of mental health?
AM: It’s in our name. Step Up For Mental Health. Don’t hide from it. Speak up! Talk about it. Share your stories and listen to others. The goal is one day at a time. One person at a time. One family at a time. Education is key. Compassion is key and giving support.
HS: Why should mental health be talked about within the community?
AM: There isn’t a person who hasn’t dealt with a mental health challenge in their lifetime or will deal with one. We want to help connect families to those resources.
HS: What are some things you and your team are working on currently?
AM: During the pandemic, our goal is to continue to educate the public on mental health topics that families can use. We are working on more webinars for on-demand use, more events, and ways to make our peer support chats easier to gain access to.
There are 1 in 5 people dealing with a mental health issue in their lifetime. Don't go it alone. Seek help and find support. Peer support and professional support works hand and hand.