Liz Stirn has spent 17 years in community mental health, starting as a school-based therapist bridging the gap between home and school, then moving into program development and leadership. Two years ago she took a leap of faith and launched her own consulting practice, Guided Vision, supporting school-based mental health in rural and urban communities. This week on We, Plural., she sits down with Lisa to make the case that mental health is community health.

Liz explains why a family without reliable food, housing, transportation, or child care can't simply "get help," and why a food pantry open only from 10 to 2 doesn't serve someone who works until 5. She and Lisa talk about why stigma persists even as we talk about mental health more than ever, what the pandemic and rising childhood trauma have meant for kids in school, and why more conversation only helps if it leads to real change shaped by the people who live in the community.

They also dig into what gives Liz hope: messy, honest conversations where people bring different expertise and lived experience to the table. She talks about the silos created when every nonprofit chases the same grant, what happens when good programs lose funding, and how the Kendrick Foundation and the Morgan County Mental Health Task Force are bringing more than 100 people together around community mental health. And she shares the idea that drives her work: data with a soul, because the numbers only matter alongside people's stories.

Learn more about Liz and Guided Vision: https://www.guidedvisionllc.com

More information about The Kendrick Foundation: https://kendrickfoundation.org/

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