A North Texas mother is using her pain after a tragedy to bring awareness mental health. She's this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
Vanita Halliburton has made it her lifes mission to bring awareness to mental health issues. It was a tragedy that prompted Vanita to create the Grant Halliburton Foundation. In 2005, her son Grant, tragically ended his life after 2 weeks in a 30-day stay in a psychiatric hospital. He had been suffering from depression throughout his teenage years and ultimately was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 1. He was only 19 years old.
The pain from the loss prompted Vanita to create the Grant Halliburton Foundation to bring awareness to mental health. Her goal is to help people know the symptoms of mental illness and the warning signs of suicide as readily as they know the symptoms of a common cold.
Vanita says mental health issues became more even more visible during the pandemic.
“We are seeing much higher rates of depression and especially anxiety in children and teens,” Vanita said. “Suicide statistics are usually delayed by a year but we know that the suicide rate is up. We really focus on young people and going into the schools to educate them about mental health.”
Fifteen years after launching her foundation Vanita believes progress is being made, slowly but surely.
“I think young people…this generation is growing up to be more open about it,” Vanita said. “And social media gives them a platform to be more open about it.”
Vanita says she
“ We look at suicide as the fatal outcome of untreated mental illness or lack of coping skills. The CDC says now says that more than half the time when a person takes their own life it’s simply because they did not have the coping or problem solving skills to get through a hard time. That, at the same time, is both frightening – that that would be one of the reasons that people give up on life - and assuring because that’s something we can do something about,” Vanita said.
We're proud to call Vanita Halliburton and the Grant Halliburton Foundation this week's KRLD Difference Makers.
If you know someone making a difference in the community, send us an email at differencemakers@krld.com.