Bipolar is a well known, but completely misunderstood affliction that affects more than five million American adults.

The Jenkins family wants to help those folks and their families. After the tragic loss of a dear family member, Blake Jenkins, our family decided to build a platform that would allow us to help those plagued by bipolar disorder, as well as equip families with the understanding of ways to better love and communicate with their affected family member. Bipolar is not a single person’s issue - it involves the entire family.

Thousands of people are misdiagnosed every year (as ADD or ADHD) and treated with medications that do nothing to help their situation. In some cases, the medications that they are prescribed can react badly bringing on more episodes. In other cases, they numb the person completely to the world around them. Taking large quantities of numerous medications can create reactions between the chemicals that are made to help.

God has given the Jenkins Family a voice and a platform and we want to stand united to help other families and other people cope and better communicate with Bipolar. Bipolar is well known, but no one understands it.

Together our community can raise awareness of Bipolar in honor of Blake. Please join us!

The money will go towards raising awareness on Bipolar, better equip families with education on how to best love and communicate with a family member with Bipolar and provide financial assistance to people diagnosed with Bipolar.

Where Does the Money Go?

We are still partnering with Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and continue to be in contact with the team of Doctors who have been working tirelessly to research Mental Health. Our family’s charge to VUMC is to discover early detection methods to help catch the onset of Mental Illness early as possible.

To date, VUMC has created a Peer Recovery Program in which a Peer who has a ‘lived’ experience with a Mental Health Illness becomes a trained 1st responder mentor. This is a support network for adults and adolescents and is fully integrated with VUMC.

Through major research, the team of Doctors has realized that how one responds to stress may provide an important method for early detection.

For the last year, the team of Doctors has worked with Brain Imagery and with Stress Experts (from Yale). Those with a Mental Illness respond to peaceful and stressful moments differently than those without a mental illness. Brain imagery has proven this over time. VUMC continues to better understand how Stress and Responses to Stress can play a role in 1) early detection and 2) stabilizing methods. They have also printed several Publications about their findings and have spoken at several seminars regarding the subject.

The team of Doctors feels that the data collected and observations made could assist in detecting illness sooner. It’s also important to note that the data indicates that this research may help to differentiate Bipolar Disorder from Schizophrenia sooner and help guide treatment.

We also continue to stress the importance of Mental Health education in the school systems.

While it’s a slow process, we feel that VUMC has made significant headway in their research. We are proud and grateful for their efforts.

If we can save one life with the increased awareness of Mental Health and specifically Bipolar Health, these efforts will all be worth it.

Thank you for helping the cause!