Introduction

Ed Greene (Host): Join me in congratulating Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, who has been selected to be the 2014 Invisible Disabilities Association Impact Honors Award recipient. She has been chosen based upon her positive impact on the lives of those living with depression and mental illness as the CEO and co-founder of the Carson J. Spencer Foundation.

Sally’s focus on suicide prevention and bereavement through such innovative programs as The Fire Within, Man Therapy, and Working Minds is setting the gold standard of care. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas.

Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas’s Acceptance Speech

Helen Keller once said, “The world is full of suffering; it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

On December 7th, 2004, my younger brother took his life after a difficult battle with bipolar disorder. Before this happened, he was a very dynamic, charismatic, and successful business leader here in Denver. But in the summer of 2004, his bipolar disorder took over and ravaged his life within just a couple of months, and he never recovered.

On the night that he died, his good friend called my brother’s wife and said, “Oh my God, what can I do?” And she said, “No matter what you do, don’t let him be forgotten.”

Just a couple of days before his death, he and I sat down to talk about a book that I had read called An Unquiet Mind by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison. Dr. Jamison is a professor of psychiatry who also lives with bipolar disorder and writes about her struggle not only with her life-threatening despair, but her recovery. And so on that night, we talked about this book and I said, “Carson, look, there’s hope. Here’s another woman—a public woman, a very professional and successful woman, someone just like you—and she’s gotten better. We can figure this out. There’s hope, there’s hope, there’s hope.”

And he turned to me and he said, “But Sally, it’s madness.” And less than a week later, he was dead.

Overcoming Stigma and Social Discrimination

Of course, I don’t know for sure what he was trying to tell me that night, but I have a pretty good idea. My brother was a very determined man who got through all kinds of challenges, and I believe in my heart that he would have found his way on the other side of his unbelievable psychological pain if he knew that he could have his position back as a business leader in Colorado—that his friends wouldn’t look at him funny.

I believe it’s the discrimination and the marginalization around his mental health condition that killed him more than the illness itself. And that makes me so mad. It makes me mad that someone with a biologically based, treatable condition has to also go through all of these social problems to get well.

The Origins and Growth of the Foundation

By January of 2005, we had convened all of his closest friends from across his lifespan and our family, and we dedicated ourselves to do bold, gap-filling things to prevent what happened to Carson from happening to other people.

Now, 10 years later, we have an army with us: a board of directors, a staff on fire, and many, many volunteers. And we’re launching programs not only in Colorado, but across the nation and in Australia.

• Working Minds: Helps build capacity in our workplaces so that employees can help make suicide prevention a health and safety priority.
• Man Therapy: Uses humor to engage men in thinking about their mental health in a different way.
• The Fire Within: Empowers our high school youth leaders to use the framework of social entrepreneurship to champion suicide prevention in their schools and communities.

Dedication and Acknowledgments

I want to thank tonight our board, our staff, and my beloved family. My husband Randy is here with me tonight—Randy, I couldn’t do this without you, thank you so much. And my children and my parents. It’s quite an honor to be doing this work every day.

People say to me, “Oh my gosh, suicide prevention… could you pick a more depressing vocation?” And I say, “No, I’m inspired and honored to do this work, and the people that I get to do it with every day are truly amazing.”

So I dedicate this award today to the team of the Carson J. Spencer Foundation, to my brother, to all those who suffer in silence, and to all those who offer hope in the light of darkness. No one should ever die alone and in despair. No one.

Thank you.

NOTE: The Carson J. Spencer Foundation closed its doors in 2017.