Content Warning: Suicide
In honor of Mental Health Month, local mental health advocate, Crystal Lett, shares her “why” when it comes to standing up for improved access and equity in our mental health care system.
Growing up, Crystal’s older brother, David, experienced debilitating mental illness and the effect it had on her and her family was profound. She explains that this was in the early 2000s when youth mental health services were just emerging and stigma was extremely high.
“He was on the unfortunate beginning of that wave,” Crystal shares. “The school didn’t really know how to support him. His teachers didn’t really know how to support him. Quite frankly, our family didn’t really know how to support him. There was just not enough awareness or resources for them to even know who to call.”
Because of these barriers, her family took on the financial and emotional burden of his care with very little support. This experience led her to become a case manager at North Central Mental Health Services where she could help families like her own.
Working at North Central, she was able to gain an even deeper understanding of the reality that many families face when it comes to navigating Medicaid and how limited treatment options can become for families that are not eligible.
“I worked on the transitional team with 14- to 21-year-old kids that had very symptomatic mental health issues,” she explains. “When I first started out, there was a 3000-person waitlist just for North Central Services, and the criteria to get a case manager like me was very limited. So, you can imagine the spectrum of folks that needed help that were in very vulnerable places but didn’t meet any of those criteria. There was and still is a massive swath of the population that is so underserved.”
Crystal remembers a feeling of helplessness, that there wasn’t enough she could do to help every single family that needed help. She experienced firsthand the burnout that mental health care workers often face.
“We simply do not have enough resources to treat the population that needs help,” she says. “We have folks in the Statehouse that do not understand how significantly expensive it is for families to get the treatment that they need, families that are already dealing with massive stressors. The ADAMH Board of Franklin County and Franklin County Child Services have raised the issue many times, but legislators have done very little about it.”
Over the years, Crystal saw David go in and out of psychiatric treatment and experiment with substances. She says that finding him care as an adult was even more challenging in some ways, and so he experimented with drugs as a way to self-medicate and find some relief from his symptoms. Ultimately in 2011, he died by suicide. She was eight months pregnant at the time.
“A month after my brother passed away, I had my first child and he was born with a very rare genetic disorder,” she explains. “It results in developmental delays, and he is starting to experience some mental health issues as he goes through puberty, which is not uncommon for his particular disorder. So, now as a parent, I’m now navigating mental health treatment for him.”
Enduring the loss of her brother while raising her family has been a challenge for Crystal. But in 2016, she was ready to once again transform her lived experience into work that would help others. She has worked for numerous organizations to advance legislation that would increase funding for mental health care in our community. She also ran for office as a State Senator, which did not result in a win, but helped her build an even deeper connection with her community.
Crystal remains steadfast in her mission to improve the system. As the COVID-19 crisis moves into the rearview, we know that mental illness is a rising concern. Rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance use disorders are on the rise, and more people are seeking help than ever before. She explains that we spend a lot of time in this community talking about what we can all do to take care of ourselves, but we need a system that supports those personal decisions, which requires a collective effort.
“We already know what treatment works, it’s evidence-based and effective. So, I want to give as many folks as I can a voice in the political space because so many of these fixes to the system are legislative,” she says. “It’s been very interesting to be an advocate in the space and kind of raise the flags. But there’s not enough of a concerted effort, I would say, to go from caring to doing something about it.”
For Crystal, that doing looks like legislation that would expand access to Medicaid. Right now, Ohio ranks 17th in the US for Medicaid coverage according to factors such as quality, total spending, and overall eligibility and enrollment.
In addition to changes to Medicaid, Crystal and her peers are pushing for increased funding for mental health care centers and improving access to housing, food, and other basic necessities. Because, so often, many people who can’t afford mental health treatment, need support in other areas, as well.
By sharing her own story, Crystal helps many families of loved ones with mental illness find their voice and share their stories as well. It takes great courage to do this work and we recognize Crystal for her leadership in this space. If you or your loved one is seeking mental health support, our Get Connected program is here to help. Call (614) 242-4357 or email connect@mhaohio.org to speak with someone about the services that best fit your needs.
