Support equitable mental health access for Hoosiers!
Irvington Counseling Collective provides income-based sliding-scale therapy, which is only possible through grant funding and individual donors. Your donation helps us provide low barrier counseling services and manage mutual aid funds, ensuring affirming and equitable mental health support for all. Thank you for your generosity!
Mental Wellness Funds
Decreasing inequities in mental health that exist for Transgender and Non-Binary residents of Indianapolis.
We created the Trans & Nonbinary Mental Wellness Fund for Indianapolis Residents to decrease the inequities in mental health that exist for Transgender and Non-Binary residents of Indianapolis. Within the Hoosier state and beyond, legislation has worked to limit or deny access to medical and mental health care and education based on someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Anti-LGBTQIA+ policies and attitudes have a documented negative impact on mental health. The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 42% of LGBTQIA+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth (NAMI, 2021).
At Irvington Counseling Collective, we stand in firm opposition to the state’s position of harm to the Transgender and Nonbinary community. Our commitment is to provide mutual aid to increase access to care which we know can be life saving. The money donated to this fund will be redistributed directly to Transgender and/or Nonbinary residents of Indianapolis seeking mental health affirming support. This is what your donations provide:
Funds will be open to any Transgender and/or Nonbinary resident of Indianapolis and will reimburse up to $500 worth of therapeutic support, as defined by the applicant. Funds will be available on a first come, first served basis and as funding allows.
Applicants must be 18 to apply or have guardian signature at time of application.
Applicants must have an address within Marion County.
At time of application applicants will identify what form of support they are seeking and where the funds should be directed, in sum or in part. For example: an applicant may choose to apply $200 to group psychotherapy with their chosen practitioner, and the remaining $300 toward Hormone Replacement Treatment.
Reimbursement will be made directly to the providers of services (funds will not be directly paid to the applicant).
Please consider joining us in supporting our Transgender and Nonbinary friends in community by donating and sharing with your community today!
“People say, ‘What is the sense of our small effort?’ They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.” -Dorothy Day
Indianapolis has significant structural gaps in mental health resources, leading to serious disparities in access to appropriate care, especially for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in our community. These inequities are due to generational, systemic and personalized racism.
We created the BIPOC Mental Wellness Fund for Marion County Residents to lessen the gap; to support healing practices that are individualized, attuned and relevant, but most of all, defined by the person who is healing.
A Step in the Right Direction: The BIPOC Mental Wellness Fund for Marion County Residents—Funds will reimburse individuals for up to $500 worth of therapeutic support per calendar year. Funds will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Who will the fund serve? Funding will be open to any BIPOC community members residing in Marion County, Indiana.
What is Culturally Responsive Therapeutic Support? Poor cultural alignment and institutional harm is often identified as one of the major barriers to seeking mental health support for the BIPOC community. People heal within differing contexts, environments and systems of support. The BIPOC Mental Wellness Fund for Marion County Residents will support applicants in their work toward maintaining mental wellness based on what each person feels is culturally attuned and beneficial.
Funds are available for any mental wellness supporting practice such as, but not limited to:
Individual and/or group therapy rendered by a licensed clinician or community leader/specialist in their field.
Spiritual renewal and engagement opportunities.
Somatic and nature based therapy processes.
Community based education or psychotherapeutic groups centered around areas of mental wellness.
Art based therapies such as dance, yoga, or writing workshops, and community arts classes.
Psychiatric consult, herbalist consult, psychiatric medication costs, mental health hospitalization or treatment related expenses within the past twelve months from date of application.
Indigenous or culturally relevant mental health support as defined by individual and community significance.
How will it work? An application will be made available online for any BIPOC Marion County resident to complete. Once reviewed, the applicant will be notified of their funding. Reimbursement will be made directly to the provider (funds will not be directly paid to the applicant). Applications will not be prioritized by the type of service an individual is seeking for support, but rather on a first-come-first-served basis, and as funding allows.
The Details: Applicants must identify what form of support they are seeking and where the funds should be directed, in sum or in part, at time of application. For example: an applicant may choose to apply $200 to group psychotherapy with their chosen practitioner, and the remaining $300 toward a community-based class at a local college. Irvington Counseling Collective, Inc. affiliated volunteers will then arrange for direct reimbursements to the identified organizations on behalf of the applicant. Once selected, applicants will have 60 days to help ensure their funds have been appropriately distributed, and any funds not utilized within that time period will go to the next person on the waitlist.
Building Community with Awareness and Accountability: Irvington Counseling Collective, Inc., is a small, nonprofit, sliding-scale private practice located in Indianapolis. As mixed race therapists, many of whom have not been directly affected by systemic racism, we are committed to holding ourselves accountable to and responsive to the needs of the Indianapolis BIPOC community. We invite interested organizations to join us in this effort to lift the burden of structural racism from the shoulders of BIPOC community members and to help us build a more transformative, sustainable and culturally attuned mental wellness landscape in our city.
Please forward any questions or comments to: admin@irvingtoncounseling.org
The Data: We invite those who want more information regarding the lived experience of BIPOC Indiana residents in relationship to mental health to review relevant data below. Indiana specific disparities include, but are not limited to;
Over 14% of Indiana residents report experiencing chronic stress. Of that group, 85% are BIPOC individuals.
Almost 18% of Black and over 24% of Hispanic/Latinx adults say there was a time in the past 12 months when they needed to seek medical care but couldn’t because of costs, compared to 11% of white adults.
The Black population utilizes mental health services at a rate of 24% compared to 40% among white people. Some reasons for this include things like distrust in the healthcare system and inadequate quality of care due to cultural barriers between patients and healthcare providers.
Nationally, Black American’s are up to 5x’s more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than whites and are also more likely to be misdiagnosed for any psychiatric disorder
Over 15% of Hispanic/Latinx and over 14% of Black youth reported attempting suicide one or more times in the last 12 months, as compared to white youth at just under 9%.
32% of the American Indian and 19% of multiracial individuals report symptoms of depression.
Over 17% of Indiana children report high on the Adverse Childhood Experiences/trauma measure scale, which has been found to directly correlate to chronic and life threatening health conditions later in life. These social and environmental factors affect Hispanic/Latinx and Black children 10% more often than their white peers.
Indiana ranks 30th in the nation on the Economic Hardship Index and 42nd in residential segregation. Poverty and segregation are known risk factors for development of ongoing mental health conditions.
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/mental_distress/state/IN
Mental Health Relief Funds
According to an NCBI study, 47% of Americans with common mental health challenges reported that they did not access mental health care due to cost or lack of insurance coverage. Our mission is to make quality mental health care in the safety of a nourishing space available to those who are seeking it, regardless of income or socioeconomic status. If you would like to support Irvington Counseling Collective in our mission to serve those who otherwise would not be able to access care, please consider making your tax deductible donation today! Your gift will directly support subsidized sliding-scale sessions to qualifying low-income individuals and families in need.
General Fund
In order to keep our sliding scale rates and practice fees low for the sustainability and well-being of both clients and clinicians, we direct a portion of donations as needed to essential organizational functions like facilities upkeep, financial management, community outreach, billing coordination, and more. Our primary goal is to keep the financial burden of running a private practice off of our clients and clinicians, while maintaining high quality and high impact mental health services. Your gift will allow us to continue working towards our mission of providing equitable and accessible mental health for our community!