NEW Mental Health Connection

The mission of the NEW Mental Health Connection is to lead a coalition of diverse stakeholders to champion mental health for everyone in the Fox Valley by addressing barriers, challenging systems, creating solutions and prioritizing care and support.

We are a membership coalition with over 80 member organizations that include health systems, mental health providers, public health, law enforcement, school districts, municipalities, resource agencies, homeless shelters, NAMIs, and higher education.

We have several large, multi-year grant-funded, systems change projects focused on adult suicide prevention, youth mental health, and mental health equity.

Our coalition's Impact Areas:

PROMOTING RESILIENCY: A focus on mental health and wellbeing, prevention, awareness and education REDUCING STIGMA: A focus on mental health literacy, storytelling about living well with mental illness and promotion of Mental Healthcare as Healthcare CONNECTING TO CARE: A focus on access to mental health services, service navigation, crisis system reform, and diversion to treatment GROWING & STRENGTHENING WORKFORCE: A focus on availability and accessibility of mental health professionals, training and development of a quality workforce, and expanding the spectrum of care providers SEEKING SOLUTIONS: A focus on Collective Impact and Systems Change Models for solving, not managing, current problems, bringing incubating ideas to fruition, and supporting aligned activities.

Our coalition's guiding principles:

COLLABORATION: Collaborate with others on shared root cause and shared risk issues

EQUITY: Elevate, understand and address disparities in mental health outcomes

DIVERSITY: Enlist and engage diverse champions to voice the mental health needs and concerns of our community

INNOVATION: Embrace innovation, challenge existing norms and structures, and champion out-of-the-box solutions

DATA-DRIVEN: Make mental health, suicide, and substance use data accessible, digestible, and usable to drive strategy and decision-making for our community

LIVED EXPERIENCE: Welcome and intentionally center the voice of lived experience in all activities

SYSTEMS ORIENTATION: 94% of the problem is caused by the system, and 6% by the individual (Demings 94/6 Rule)