DUPLIN COUNTY, N.C. — Unfortunately, North Carolina has a higher than average percentage of adults who are facing depression and anxiety. Because of that, state leaders are making their way around North Carolina to discuss mental-health issues and to hear what real people are going through.
What You Need To Know
North Carolina is reported to have a higher than average percentage of adults who are facing mental health issues
State leaders are investing in mental health and hosting town halls where the public can come to state their concerns and needs
One mother in attendance is pushing for more local mental health resources after five years of mental health issues with her son
Tiffany Wilson has a lot of love to give, a love she always hoped to give to a child.
“I was wanting so desperately to be a mom,” Wilson said. “We went through everything to try to have a baby and couldn’t on our own, so when the foster to adopt was introduced to us, we jumped head-first.”
Now, she’s adopted three sons and loves her family through the good times … and the bad. These past five years, they’ve been dealing with mental health issues with their son, Justin.
After making some serious threats that he could have acted out on, at just 6 years old, Justin was put into a psychiatric residential treatment facility.
“We watched an innocent, sweet boy that had some underlying issues that needed to be fixed turn into somebody we didn’t know,” Wilson said.
Now, Justin is 13, and Wilson says it’s still hard for him to find the help he needs. Issues have ranged from not being able to get a bed in a hospital to not being able to get the level of care needed. Wilson says that, at least locally, there simply aren’t enough resources to give her son what he needs.
That’s why Wilson jumped at the opportunity to make these issues heard at the mental health town hall hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley and Sen. Jim Burgin.
“There’s no way I cannot speak about my son as a parent how this affects the whole and not allow other people to get involved,” Wilson said. “Not allow other people to know, ‘Hey, there are resources out here, can I help you? I can tell you about some stuff.’”
Wilson, and others in attendance, know that having these kinds of conversations is so important. Not only does it help to get rid of the stigma surrounding mental illness, but it’s also an opportunity for the state to see what issues still need to be addressed.
And now that Wilson’s voice has been heard, she hopes her son’s future will be brighter because of it.
“My hopes is that he will be well, well enough to take care of himself one day, to come home and say, 'Mom, I want you to meet my wife, or my kids, he, they, my person,' that would be the greatest joy of my life,” Wilson said. “But if that is not in the cards or the will of God, my biggest joy would be just to see him happy, to live a fruitful life. That means more to me than anything else.”
Kinsley and Burgin will host two more mental health town halls. They’re hoping to lessen the stigma around mental health as well as listen to and address issues that North Carolinians are facing.