A Brief Message on an Important Cause

and how *you* can help!

Hello, friends. Happy Monday.

Today, I’d like to deviate a bit from my usual newsletter offerings, and talk about an organization that I’m proud to work with—and how you can help us.

In recent years, public awareness of the need many of us have for mental health support has risen dramatically. That’s great—we’ve come a long way to removing the stigma that once existed around mental health issues, something a large portion of the population will deal with at some point in their lives.

Unfortunately, this rise in awareness has not been met with a commensurate rise in access to those services, especially for people without insurance coverage or the financial means to access services on their own.

Our mental health system is a patchwork, one where the gaps are often covered by smaller, independent organizations working hard to do as much as they can to help with as little as they can in resources.

One such organization—one I’m proud to be involved with—is Personal Counseling Services.

Personal Counseling Services is based in Clarksville, Indiana (part of the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area), and has been serving clients in the region since 1959. In that time, we’ve provided hundreds of thousands of hours of therapy and psychiatric services.

Today, we serve seventeen Indiana counties and four Kentucky counties, providing services that include music therapy, talk therapy, substance-use disorder counseling, and a range of other clinical specialties.

Our clients include women and children who have experienced abuse, veterans, families, couples, individuals that have been diagnosed with: depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, autism, developmental disorders and behavioral issues.

Sixty-seven percent of our clients are children and youth, with fifty-seven percent at or below the federal poverty guidelines.

I really want to stress that last point, because it cannot be stressed enough.

Our clients are among the most vulnerable people in our community, and it’s not hyperbole to say that these services can be—and often are—genuinely life-changing.

I’ve been a member of PCS’s Board of Directors for the past seven years, and in that time I’ve been witness an organization full of extremely hard-working people who are deeply committed to serving the mental health needs of our community.

In that time, I’ve also seen how dramatically the need has increased.

Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we received an average of 50 referrals for mental health services each month. Since COVID, that number has risen to a staggering 432 referrals each month.

We’ve been fortunate to be able to expand our offerings to start addressing this backlog of need, but there’s a long way to go, and we’re truly bursting at the seams. We have long-term plans to build a new facility, but our immediate needs are too great to wait. We’ve just announced an interim expansion at our current facility site in Clarksville, with construction set to start next month. This will add much-needed therapy offices, as well as refurbish the outdated existing ones. It’s exciting, but it’s also likely that the day our expanded facility opens, we’ll be full again.

Why am I bringing this up today, specifically?

I’m glad you asked!

This Thursday is Give For Good Louisville, an annual 24-hour giving event that involves numerous non-profits here in the Louisville area. It’s a major fundraiser, one that offers numerous opportunities for organizations like PCS to access additional grants and matching funds, and it’s a great chance for you to get involved with a special organization.

If you are able, I would be thrilled if you could lend your support.

Donations can be made at any time, but the big event is this Thursday, September 14th, 2023. I will be promoting this drive through this newsletter and my other social media channels throughout the week, and I would be truly, deeply appreciative of any support you can provide.

My personal fundraising link for the Give For Good Louisville event is here:

Contributions made on Thursday will have the greatest impact, but if you’d prefer to donate now (or if you’re seeing this newsletter after the event), donations can be made directly to PCS at any time through this PayPal link.

Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your support, both of The Action Cookbook Newsletter and of this worthy cause.

As a token of appreciation, here is a picture of my goofy dog, Olaf.

Thanks for listening, friends.

—Scott Hines (@actioncookbook)

Getty Images / Suriyawut Suriya