NASHVILLE, Tenn. Mental Health America of Middle Tennessee (MHAMT) connects the community with specialized mental health and wellness resources, provides services that improve quality of life and promotes effective services where mental health needs exist. Since its founding in 1946, MHAMT has worked to educate the community about how to attain good mental health and share a message of hope for thousands each year.
Tom Starling, President and CEO of MHAMT, says the organization’s focus is education training and advocacy.
“Our big mantra is ‘Before Stage Four,” he noted. “You wouldn’t wait for stage four kidney disease, but it’s acceptable in society to wait until incarceration or suicide to get treatment for mental illness.”
As a front line resource for the community, MHAMT is in a position to identify important mental health needs in Middle Tennessee. The organization often facilitates the development of programs to meet those needs or enhances resources to address service gaps.
“We can provide screenings and referrals,” Starling said. “We do a lot of suicide prevention. We teach people how to keep loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease at home.”
Other services include training in-home nurses, support groups in Spanish for abused and neglected woman, counseling services for teens and more.
They hope, Starling added, to encourage people to seek help before they reach “stage four.”
“Our biggest barrier is getting people to know that by the time they call us, they needed help eight weeks ago,” he said.
As part of a recent grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Starling and his organization hope to disseminate information and support research, prevention, treatments and cures for mental illness. Those efforts led him to a partnership with the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA) after serving with the Safety Net Consortium of Middle Tennessee (SNCMT) since 2009.
“We don’t speak ‘research-ese’,” Starling explained. “We have all this analyzed data, and we need better evaluations for our programs, but we don’t know how to talk ‘research-ese.’”
The MVA’s community engagement pillar, led by Elisa Friedman, MS, was “immensely helpful,” he said, as was the Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Engaged Research Core.
Starling credited poster sessions and connecting community nonprofits with researchers as an effective means of furthering MHAMT’s efforts. “We need to document the effectiveness of these programs, so the MVA was really good about helping us with that.”
When asked what future projects are on the horizon for MHAMT, Starling smiled and said, “A ton.”
“We are always doing professional education and trying to highlight different organizations and agencies,” he said.
MHAMT Resources
Free Publications focused various mental disorders (English)
Free Publications focused various mental disorders (Spanish)
Alzheimer’s Publications (English and Spanish)
Finding Clinical Trials
Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials
About the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance
Founded in 1999, the Alliance bridges the institutions of Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Its mission is to enrich learning and advance clinical research in three primary areas -- community engagement, interprofessional education and research -- by developing and supporting mutually beneficial partnerships between Meharry Medical College, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the communities they serve. Through community engagement, the Alliance serves a large community of stakeholders including surrounding universities and colleges, community organizations, faith-based outlets and community health centers. Its interprofessional education enhances students' interdisciplinary understanding and improves patient outcomes through integrated care. The research conducted provides access to experienced grant writers and materials supporting the grant application process and facilitates grant-writing workshops.
