Very quietly and with absolutely no fanfare, a leader emerged not too long ago in Anderson Township. His name is Mike Glen, but you have probably never heard of him. He’s pretty quiet when he’s not giving speeches, and rather soft-spoken all around. Although athletic and handsome with a quarterback-like charm, Mike doesn’t demand attention. In fact, he’d probably like to avoid it. But there is something else he wants you to pay attention to, and that is mental health in Anderson Township.
Mike is the founder of the Anderson Mental Health Collaborative, and his timing could not have been better. As everyone knows, Anderson is currently in a quiet state of crisis. As I talked about in my first-ever editorial, people, especially children, are dying by suicide at alarming rates in our community, and it was Mike’s Collaborative that stepped up to the plate to look for solutions.
A New Approach
Mike founded the Collaborative in 2018 and describes it as, “A group of key community stakeholders and partners coming together to educate, share resources and create a supportive environment around mental wellness in Anderson Township.”
The collaborative is still very much a work in progress, although it has come a long way. It’s completely run on a volunteer basis with zero budget. 100% grassroots. It’s just Mike and others who care, attempting to build a comprehensive support system from scratch on their own time, and occasionally on their own dollar.
Mike is not a doctor, or a service provider, nor does he want to be. Mike says there are plenty of services available to those who need it. His vision for the collaborative is primarily to educate and compile information for those resources, and become “A one-stop shop for mental health in Anderson.”
A Lingering Stigma
Mike talked about the stigma attached to mental illness and the difference between how physical health and mental health are perceived in our community. “With physical health, people will share their resources and openly talk about their problems. If someone needs knee surgery, for example, they’ll ask their friends and neighbors to recommend an orthopedic surgeon. But if someone is looking for an expert to address their child’s anxiety, they aren’t as open.”
One of the goals of the Collaborative is to reduce that stigma, while providing access to information that will help people find available services. Mike and his team developed a website that will connect anyone in the community with various mental health services.
Mike’s $0 per year salary from the Collaborative obviously does not pay the bills. In fact, his main employment is in construction. So, what made a construction worker decide to dedicate so much of his free time to this endeavor in our community? Mike’s father, Ron Glen, died by suicide when Mike was 11 years old.
A Tragic Loss
“My dad was a really great person who happened to have a mental illness,” Mike said. Mike described his father as deeply empathetic and someone who always took care of the people around him. At Ron’s funeral, a co-worker of Ron’s told Mike how his father protected him from ridicule because of a disability. That’s just the kind of guy Ron was — until he wasn’t.
Ron was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was only 12 or 13 years old. This would have been in rural Wisconsin in the 1950s during a time when mental health was rarely ever discussed, so you can imagine the symptoms that must have been on display to earn a diagnosis then.
Mike’s parents married in 1976, one year before Mike was born in 1977. They would have a daughter, Mike’s sister, in 1980, then divorce in 1981, when Mike was only four years old.
“As far back as my memory could go as a kid, I just knew something wasn’t right with my family.” Mike said it was hard to understand as a kid because his parents rarely fought in front of him. In fact, they seemed to get along for the most part, but, “There was always a vibe and a tension that something wasn’t right.”
Today, after extensive research and discussions with experts in the mental health field, Mike now knows his father was bipolar, a disorder that causes extreme mood swings. Mike described his father’s mood as, “High and low, manic and depressive, and everything in between.” Mike, his mother and his sister, didn’t know what to expect from Ron on a day-to-day basis. His mood and behavior were a roll of the dice. Would he be whistling around the house in a euphoric state, or crushed into depression?
More than once, in a manic state, Ron would jump into his car and drive at dangerous speeds for no reason until the cops would catch up to him and take him to the hospital. Mike remembers one day his father bought dozens of bags of candy and threw them all over the yard and onto the roof of the house for no reason. It certainly wasn’t harmful behavior, but it was bizarre, and it was enough to scare Mike and his family when that kind of behavior surfaced. Mike remembered sitting in school, terrified that his dad would show up and do something strange. In short, Ron became so unpredictable that as a matter of safety, Mike’s parents split up.
Mike described his father as being head over heels in love with his wife, and a devout family man, so the divorce was not easy. Despite that, Ron went on for seven years trying to manage his mental illness while co-parenting. Mike and his sister would see Ron every other weekend, unless he was in one of his states. In that case, they stayed home with mom.
“My dad was very much into his kids. Even though my time with him was minimal, there are things I do today because of his influence. My dad would wave to everyone because he always said you never know what that means to the other person. He was just very thoughtful and made friends with everyone. Today, whether I’m shaking hands with a CEO or a janitor, it doesn’t matter, and that was my dad’s influence.”
Then on July 23, 1989, just before Mike’s 12th birthday, Mike’s father died by suicide. “Part of me was sad, part of me was shocked, and part of me was relieved,” Mike said. “The fear was over. It was a swirl of emotions.”
Building a Legacy
For the next 25 years or so, Mike didn’t talk about his father’s suicide. His wife and close friends knew, of course, but Mike never made it a topic for discussion. Then about seven years ago, Mike participated in leadership training which exposed him to the champion mindset and highlighted the value of a legacy. “What do you want to leave behind? How do you want to leave your mark? How can you make a difference?” These were the questions that really got into Mike’s head.
So, in a sense, Mike teamed up with his late father to build a strategy that would bring awareness to mental health while forging a legacy for them both at the same time. For Mike, he would leave his mark, and for Ron, it would turn a tragic loss into something positive, honoring Ron’s life in the process.
Mike started to volunteer at the Lindner Center for Hope, then got involved with their annual fundraiser. Eventually, he would start sharing his story, gaining confidence until he ended up on the Board. For those who don’t know, the Lindner Center for Hope is one of the largest mental health centers in the country. They provide pretty much every service under the mental health umbrella.
During his time at the Lindner Center, people in Mike’s social circle were coming to him for advice on mental illness, for themselves, and others in their families. It dawned on Mike that there are quite a few people in Anderson looking for help, and they don’t know where to go.
“I realized that this is my opportunity to do something in Anderson, right in my backyard.”
Community Organizing
Mike had a vision of collaborating with all the major stakeholders in the community to knock down the stigma of mental illness and get people talking about mental health in Anderson Township. He reached out to his friend, Anderson Trustee Josh Gerth, and shared his vision. Mike said Josh was immediately on board and connected Mike with the Township, Park District, School District, Chamber of Commerce, and the Forest Hills Foundation for Education.
“Everyone was in,” Mike said. They only had one question: “What can we do to help?” Mike remembers the first meeting at the Anderson Center. He had a whiteboard and a marker, and everyone brainstormed ideas. “I remember saying I have a vision that this is going to make a great impact, but be patient with me as we figure out how to achieve this vision together.”
Today, those same key stakeholders are still in place, and have been joined by even more community partners, including:
- Mercy Health
- UC Health
- Beech Acres Parenting Center
- YMCA
- Step up Anderson Township
- Parkside Christian Church
- The Ben Kimble Foundation
- A Better Approach to Memory Care
- Child Focus
- Hope Squad
- 1N5
They meet once every other month and have even developed a speaker series where local experts present their knowledge around a mental health topic. For example, a local fitness trainer spoke about the connection between physical health and mental health. Other topics have included addiction and elderly care.
The speaker series events are always free and Mike encourages everyone to attend. Before COVID-19, they were held at the Anderson Center, but now they are webinars. Just go to the Events tab on their website to find out when the next talk is.
Hope
If you’ve noticed green ribbons on display in Anderson, that’s because May is mental health awareness month, and Anderson Township has publicly recognized it as such for the fourth year in a row. For Mike, that’s a huge deal, and perhaps even a victory. This year, the Foundation for Forest Hills fundraiser will continue to use part of their fundraiser proceeds to go toward mental health education in the classroom.
Would that have been possible without the Collaborative? It’s hard to tell, although Mike, in all his modesty, would probably say yes. But before he started organizing at a grassroots level, conversations about mental health in Anderson were mostly scripted CYA sessions put out as a chore by local administrators. Mental health was only addressed when it had to be, and often too late. Today, people are actively speaking out and engaging with each other as experts emerge from within the community to share their knowledge. The stigma is breaking and May is getting greener every year in Anderson, and I think that’s something Mike and Ron should be proud of.
If you are looking for someone to talk to or want to learn more about mental health right here in Anderson, be sure to visit and bookmark the Anderson Mental Health Collaborative website. Don’t forget about it. Use it if you need it, and share it with others.
Also, to stay up to date with the Anderson Mental Health Collaborative initiatives, visit and like their official Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. Again, the website is https://www.andersonmentalhealthcollaborative.com
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