Dear John,

My son, Calvin, was a 19-year-old college freshman when he experienced his first psychotic break due to severe mental illness. In the following years, as his life and our family splintered, I sought help from every direction. Treatment Advocacy Center was the first and only place where people finally said, “We get it.”

Devastatingly, my son’s 4-year experience in our broken mental health system ended in his death by suicide at the age of 23. In the horrible aftermath of Calvin’s death, I went from advocating tirelessly for my son to advocating for countless families like ours, and earlier this year, I joined TAC’s staff as a family resource and advocacy manager.

I was also honored to be chosen as a DJ Jaffe Advocate, a position that pays tribute to the late great DJ Jaffe through innovative, original projects in support of TAC’s mission. Currently, I’m spearheading a project to train families about coping with ambiguous loss, a terrible form of grief experienced by people with SMI and their loved ones.

​​​​​My advocacy work at TAC has given me the scaffolding to keep my own life going and to make my son’s too-short life matter. TAC was a lifeline for me, as it is for so many families with loved ones suffering from SMI.

I ask you to please donate today to support our work helping families in their darkest and most desperate days.

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Your donation will support not only my work guiding families through tremendous day-to-day challenges, but also the critical research and policy work TAC does to ensure that gets the treatment and support they need.

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Thank you for your generous donation.

Sincerely,

Jerri Clarke
Family Resource and Advocacy Manager

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