As we continue to try to deal with and recover, yes slowly, from the Gulf disaster, storms, and how the worldwide financial crisis affects the Gulf Coast, we should remember how many people have lost their mental health because they have lost everything that a lifetime of work and service made possible. 

Additionally many of our family members are in crisis due to losing homes they loved for so many years, adding homeless families to our list of prayers and thoughts. Add to that the gallant soldiers coming home to find no job and finding it hard to recover from the stress of war.

Sadly many of the people going through these same trials were trying to live with a mental disorder, but just couldn’t find the strength to fight anymore without residential care in our state hospitals. At this season of the year, they need your moral support.

However much we may be personally struggling in our daily lives, amazingly, when we reach out to someone who has an experience which is a lot worse than ours, it makes it possible for us to see what they can’t see, that our reality has possibility and that the road ahead as full of hope for all of us.

Operation Santa gives you that opportunity to insure a small gift arrives in our local mental hospitals for those who will receive no small gift, touch on the shoulder or hug of encouragement from family or friends.

We must obtain 300 gifts for Christmas morning for 300 men and women in our local mental health facilities that didn’t make it through their life storm unscathed. Added to this mission, we have been made aware that additionally 300 residents at Searcy State Hospital are also in need of a small gift on Christmas morning. That makes a total of 600 gifts, 300 more than we planned for. What could you do to help?

We want to keep it simple and hope you can help Operation Santa on the MHA website and sponsor one person. Or mail a card to MHASWA, if you wish, in which you can write a note of hope signed with your first name only and mail the card and donation to MHASWA, P.O. Box 707, Mobile, AL 36601.

We will make sure your cards are given to the patients at Searcy. As an affiliate of Mental Health America, MHA in Southwest Alabama has served Southwest Alabama since 1953 the year the Mental Health Bell was cast from shackles from mental health facilities from across this nation. We have come along way in Alabama toward humane treatment for those with mental disorders and fulfilling our client’s need to have access to care. You can help us continue our campaign to end the stigma of those who have mental disorders. A recent report states that more than 40 percent of Americans have a mental disorder; the statistic goes to 60 percent if addictions are included.

According to professional mental health physicians, a small gift at Christmas goes a long way to helping combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is common after a holiday among their clients. Maybe, together, we can help someone who is alone, without much hope, know that someone out there cares that they have a Merry Christmas.

Lynn Anderson

executive director

Mental Health America Southwest Alabama

Editor’s Note: MHASA serves Baldwin, Choctaw, Clark, Conecuh, Escambia, Mobile, and Monroe counties. For more information, visit www.mhaswa.org.