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!