Where do you turn when worried about a loved one at risk for suicide?
Where do you turn if that person at risk is you?
What if it’s a mental health crisis unrelated to suicide?
A clinician is the most obvious answer, but frequently there’s a backlog and a long wait to make an appointment. There’s also the suicide hotline, 988. But what happens after the call ends?
Fortunately, there is Here Tomorrow, a suicide prevention and mental health support nonprofit. Because it’s located in Neptune Beach, area residents can visit in person. But it also offers virtual assistance to people living anywhere in the nation.
Though not staffed by licensed mental health professionals, Here Tomorrow has a team of state-certified recovery peer specialists who truly understand.
“Our peers all have lived experience with different mental health struggles, substance abuse struggles, life experiences such as homelessness, incarceration, domestic abuse, so that when someone reaches out, they can talk to someone who truly gets where they’re coming from,” said Maia Savage, outreach and collaboration coordinator. “There is no judgment.”
Those who seek help from Here Tomorrow may wish to enroll in its yearlong program whereby the recovery peer specialists provide regular support and reach out on a regular basis.
Said Savage, “It’s not just help now. It’s help tomorrow. It’s help the day after. It’s help for a full year.”
The team can also connect friends — the organization does not use the terms patient or client — to resources from its vast network of partners. In some cases, the organization can arrange to connect them with a therapist and even fund some of the sessions. It’s a service reserved to those who qualify, so as to ensure funds are properly spent.
Here Tomorrow also conducts support groups and offers suicide prevention training.
To learn more about Here Tomorrow or make a donation, go to heretomorrow.org. If you need help, call 904-372-9087 or, after hours, 988.
