There is a new voice on the other end of the line — Lisa Firle has been hired part time to answer calls on the SMOHIT Helpline. Firle, a mental health professional in Colorado, is scheduled to answer Helpline calls Monday through Thursday, connecting SMART members and their families with much-needed resources.
“When you’re in a mental health crisis, you don’t have the energy to find a therapist. I can help them find someone when they don’t have that energy to look themselves, and I can help find someone who is a good fit,” Firle said. “I love being the first contact to the mental health world.”
Firle grew up in the West Texas oil fields, where she saw plenty of people who needed mental help and weren’t getting it, for a number of reasons. See recognized a huge need among people who were not likely to reach out on their own and wondered how to give them access to care, she said.
If SMART members and other adult members of their families are seeking help, or just calling to reach someone with an empathetic ear, it will show the younger generations it’s OK to do that, too.
“I see this as generational work, probably because I saw what was going on in West Texas with these John Wayne types who thought they had it all sorted. They did not,” she said. “You get that generational pattern of not being happy and not knowing what to do about it. It’s not just about pursuing whatever makes you happy. It’s making the most of the life you have. It’s deep generational work we can do.”
Firle likes to stress mental health work isn’t self-centric, it can benefit whole families and communities — “It helps everyone in our lives,” she said.
Firle earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University in 2009 and her master’s degree from Denver Seminary in 2015.