It’s 1 p.m. on a Tuesday and you’re walking back to your office after lunch downtown when a stranger runs up to you and hands you what appears to be a business card. But hand-written on the card is their name, the name and contact information for their doctor, a telephone number for their spouse, and – perhaps most importantly – the fact that they live with panic disorder.
Mental Health Crisis Cards are becoming increasingly well-known throughout Wichita. They are in coffee shops, libraries, banks, city buildings, and more. And if you don’t see them where you live, earn, learn, play or pray, then please ask about them because these cards represent the most healthy and sustainable method for Wichitans to assist one another in living with our various mental health concerns. And your fellow citizens need for you to know what to do in the scenario I just mentioned.
With the information presented to you on this card, you know who handed it to you, you know why they handed it to you, and you know who to contact on their behalf because they handed it to you. These simple cards offer everyone in the Wichita metro area the opportunity to help those around us to live with our mental illnesses without the need to involve emergency services or the taxpayer-funded social safety net. Instead, we simply utilize the information provided to help our fellow humans. And someday, someone does the same for you. It is elegant in its ease and simplicity, but it only works if we have seen and understand how the crisis cards work. If you haven’t yet, call your local mental healthcare provider to ask for a supply of them for your own business.
