PEORIA MAGAZINE January 2023

“Five years, maybe 10 years ago, people were very reluctant to share a personal experience with mental illness, either themselves or their families. “Now we’ve had public figures come out and talk …Michael Phelps was one of the first ones, the Olympic swimmer saying ‘I’ve struggled with depression.’ You look at him and go, ‘How can you train to be an elite athlete and manage depression, too?’ It gave a platform for people to begin speaking about their own mental health challenges.” The pandemic, meanwhile, changed everything for everybody. The social isolation it produced hit children dispropor t ionately hard. Some parents had to alter the way they did their jobs or leave the work force altogether to stay home to supervise remote learning. That created financial pressures. People masked up. “When families are stressed, kids are stressed. That’s just theway it goes,” said Thompson. “And our families have been very stressed through the pandemic.” Well before COVID, children had become glued to their screens. “Thebiggest impact is thecomparisons and the exclusions and it’s pervasive,” Thompson said. “I think about myself as a 14-year-old awkward adolescent. It’s death by a thousand cuts … This friend groupwent and did that and I’mat home. What happened? Who didn’t call me? “Children kind of relate to the world through their phones. And if that phone isn’t giving them good feedback, I think they’re very vulnerable. Really, what children want is to be liked and to be included and to have good friendships. And social media can impact that.”

Meanwhi le, violence has been normalized in American culture, either as entertainment or the real thing. Impressionable, impulsive and sometimes bullied kids don’t always think things through. Finally, parenting has changed. “You can’t just play soccer anymore, you’re going to be on a travel team. You can’t just play in a marching band … you’re going to go to competitions. There’s a lot of pressure on kids,” said Thompson. And that’s for often resourced parents. Economically and socially disadvantaged families face other challenges meeting just basic needs. Children are attuned to the anxieties that can produce, and sometimes internalize them. “But I really think the biggest driving force is how children are relating to one another,” said Thompson. And it all adds up to the need for this facility. A BIG RETURN ON INVESTMENT As always, the availability of resources is central not only to providing the quality of services but the quantity, too. “This has been a very successful capital campaign,” said UnityPoint Vice President Mike Unes, who runs the organization’s central Illinois foundation. “We’re just in awe.” The fundraising effort is very close to its goal of $12 million in donations, to be put toward the project’s brick and-mortar needs. That includes a $1 million gift from an anonymous donor,

$2 million in federal contributions through a request to Congressman Darin LaHood’s office, and $500,000 from CEFCU. Grant dollars also are being pursued. Meanwhile, the fundraising continues – youcangive at https://www.youngmind sproject.org/donate -- with UnityPoint offering naming rights opportunities and hoping to establish an endowment to offset ongoing operational expenses, as this is less a profit center than "a re sponsibility to be there for the hospital so much as “a responsibility to be there for the community,” said Unes. What does that generosity buy? A healthier, safer community and more peace of mind, for starters, which has wide-ranging spinoff benefits. “When you have a child who receives treatment out of the area, maybe they have a discharge plan, maybe they don’t,” said Thompson. “If we’re able to stabilize that child, give them good coping skills, help that family, their tra jectory is much more positive. If we don’t do that, what is the impact on that child? Maybe they don’t reach their full potential, whatever that potential may be. Maybe that family is more disrupted than they would have been. Maybe a parent has to drop out of the workforce to handle the issues. … Parents split up, or other children are impacted … Then, suicide is always a risk.” For countless central Illinoisans, then, the Young Minds Center represents a potential lifesaver that cannot arrive soon enough.

Mike Bailey is editor in chief of Peoria Magazine

30 JANUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE