We were honored to be invited to attend The McLean Award event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston in June. It was a very exciting evening. Jane Fonda was present to receive the award, and you can read all the details here.  In addition to the excitement of all the Hollywood presence, McLean shared has once again been named the #1 free-standing mental hospital in the US. 

It was an evening where the energy was palpable as three new donations were announced including endowments for the Chair of Psychiatry at McLean Hospital, the Chair for Scientific Research and an anonymous donation to support the care of women with mental illness. 

We are honored to be partnered with McLean Hospital in the creation of the Living Assistance Fund. 

Welcome to our first newsletter for the Living Assistance Fund. We wanted to share all our news since there’s been a lot going on! We have recently been made aware of a college-age student who needs our funding in order to receive much needed residential care at the Appleton program at McLean Hospital. This young man has recently had a first psychotic episode and is in the early, critical stages of treatment. His clinical team estimates that he would greatly benefit from 3 months at Appleton which will cost $68,000. We currently have approximately half the amount needed. We are hoping you can help us make this commitment to this young man and his family. If you have already supported the Living Assistance Fund, we of course thank you deeply. Any amount will help us to be able to support this young man and his family at this time of crisis. We hope you will consider supporting this effort.  You can make donations online at https://givemclean.partners.org/livingassistancefund or contact Lori Etringer at 617-855-3840 to mail your donation.

In other news, we’ve had a busy few months since we established the Living Assistance Fund at the end of 2013.  As we expected, there has been a lot to learn about the world of fundraising and grant-making.  We have been lucky enough to become part of a networking community in the Boston area of funders. It has been a terrific opportunity to learn about the workings of the non-profit world. There is just as much vocabulary to learn as any specialized occupation! We have a lot to learn.

Also last fall, we joined the McLean Hospital National Council where we are exposed to various hospital programs and research as well as meeting staff members and clinicians.  As members of the National Council, we are ambassadors speaking out on mental illness. We are glad to be partnering with McLean Hospital as the #1 mental hospital in the US.

Monica & David