Tennessee Voices for Children Inc., also known as TN Voices, is a nonprofit mental health provider that is a community based organization in all 95 counties of Tennessee. With staff that live in all counties, they seek to ensure that mental health needs are met across the whole state. Chief Executive Officer, Rikki Harris shares more about this organization, and how our community can be engaged during January's Mental Health Awareness month.
Q: Where did TN Voices begin and how has it grown?
A: We were founded in 1986 by Tipper Gore, who worked with a group of people who were concerned about children’s mental health needs and their ability to be educated when they have a diagnosis that might cause educational struggles.This group started to explore how to work alongside schools, parents, and kids who might be struggling with mental health needs to accommodate those needs and make that a more collaborative topic between schools and mental health partners. We’ve grown over the last 38 years. With 250 employees, we now have services that are tailored to all different stages of life. We also have programs for adults who may have come out of mental health hospitals or institutions to provide housing options for them to live in our homes with support around them so that they can enjoy being a part of a community. At the heart of TN Voices, we try our best to advocate for peoples’ mental health needs and use our own lived experiences to help others.
Q: What role does TN Voices play in creating solutions for these children, adults, and families?
A: We partner with families and meet them where they are to guide them to the services they need, which can be anything from talking with their school to get an individualized educational plan set up, to accessing services to have outpatient therapy and medication management. Most of the time we have services to help, but other times we walk them to a partner organization to ensure that their needs are met. So collaborating with schools, hospitals, and anywhere else that people show up with mental health needs is important. We also do a lot of training sessions to help support the workforce and families who work with children.
Q: What are some ways that our community can encourage pursuing mental healthcare?
A: I would love to see a world where we all view physical healthcare and mental healthcare through the same lens instead of separating mental health as an embarrassing struggle or something that’s not real. This would make it a normal conversation for children to identify feelings and teach them how to express them instead of avoiding them. It also looks like encouraging and celebrating those who seek help and well-being in their life. Most families know that it’s a good idea to make sure that their kids have annual check ups, regular dental checks, eat nutritious food, and participate in physical activity, but when it comes to mental health, there’s not one specific idea that most families know is a way to prevent their kids from having mental health struggles. A focus on mental wellness is really just a focus on whole self care and understanding your needs. We all need to figure out what we need physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially, and then make time for those things.
TNVoices.org
"I would love to see a world where we all view physical healthcare and mental healthcare through the same lens."