VERO BEACH — On Oct. 22, 2014, the Mental Health Association Board of Directors hosted a reception at Bent Pine Golf Club to inaugurate an endowment fund established to ensure the organization’s mission into perpetuity.
With the Indian River Community Foundation, the MHA was able to establish the fund through the generous donations of the Steyer family. Tommy and Simonetta Steyer, long time Vero Beach residents, wanted to honor their deceased son, Andrzej Humberto Steyer, in a meaningful way that would support the mission of the Mental Health Association in Indian River County for many years to come. Also donating to the fund were Tommy and Simonetta’s daughter, Sylwia Steyer Garmendia, and Tommy’s sister, Helen Steyer.
Founded in 1978, the Mental Health Association is a United Way Agency that serves an average of 1700 people each year through a variety of programs and services. The organization is dedicated to providing immediate access, with no barriers, to mental health care for the citizens of Indian River County, and operates on a promise to the community to be a model agency for mental health care, maintaining exemplary staff and facilities, and administering the agency with high standards of innovation and professionalism.
Its Walk-In Center, located at 820 37th Place, Vero Beach, opened in 2007 to fill the gap in mental health services available for children and adults in need of immediate access to mental health care, regardless of ability to pay.
The Mental Health Association Walk-In Center is unique in that it offers walk-in access to emotional and behavioral health care for the indigent, uninsured, and under-insured, and others who may have difficulty navigating the mental health system.
Through this Center, those in need, have access to a comprehensive approach to care with individualized treatment. Services include screening to establish needs, information and referral, crisis intervention, risk assessment, individual psychotherapy, family therapy, case management, group therapy, psychiatric evaluation and psychiatric medication management. The Walk-In Center also offers educational classes for anger management, anxiety, depression, and domestic violence.
Additionally, the MHA sponsors three, peer run Drop-In Centers, specifically designed to provide a safe haven for adults with severe and persistent mental illness. These centers provide support, education, socialization and constrictive activities that help its members remain or become productive members of our community.
The MHA is involved in advocacy efforts at the local, state, and national levels to increase funding for mental health initiatives and to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
For more information, contact the MHA at (772)-569-9788, or visit www.mhairc.org.
