“OUR PEOPLE deserve good things, too,” Misty Bennett told her friend, Laura Huggins. One of the good things she had in mind was accessibility to mental health services for everyone in Bedford County, regardless of their ability to pay, and she knew Huggins, a licensed professional counselor, was just the person to get the ball rolling.
Huggins promised to watch the video about Franklin, Tennessee’s, outreach that inspired Bennett.
“It was probably a few weeks after I watched it that I started waking up at night, playing things over my head. I call that God thumping me on the head, waking me up, and really placing this on my heart,” said Huggins. “After about three weeks, I went back to her and said, ‘Okay, here we go. I’ve been up all night thinking, and I just can’t keep fighting this anymore. Apparently, I need to do something.’ So that’s how it all started.”
Although Bennett planted the seed, Huggins, who maintains a full-time counseling practice in Murfreesboro, was overwhelmed by all the work the project demanded.
That same evening, a life group from the church Huggins and Bennett attend, Fairlane Church of Christ, met at the Huggins home. The conversation turned to the idea of a local nonprofit organization offering mental health resources for everyone, and the overwhelm grew positively.
“We just prayed and talked about it, and everyone in that group said, ‘I can help you with this. And I can help you with that. And I’ve got this skill.’ And that’s how it grew. It grew from those people being willing to donate their skills, time, talents, and prayers to help me. That was January 15, 2023,” Huggins said.
Huggins expected the process to take two years, but with everyone’s help, LifeSource Family Solutions opened in October.
She said, “I have met incredible loving people in this community that I don’t even know personally who have stepped in and said they want to be a part of this. I just get really excited because this is not about me or what I can do; what I can do is very limited and small. But when you put all those pieces together, it gets really big. It’s amazing to me.”
So, what does it look like for the community when you put all those pieces together?
LifeSource Family Solutions is a Christ-focused, biblically-based nonprofit whose mission is to address Bedford County families’ mental health and related support needs. Their goal is to deliver the highest quality mental health services to as many people as possible, regardless of their ability to pay. A sliding scale fee will determine a client’s costs, and the organization is working with area churches and individuals for donations of benevolence funds for those who cannot pay.
Access to such services benefits the community in so many ways. It’s more than meeting the needs of an individual. Huggins and her team are being made aware of more needs to address through conversations with residents and businesses.
“I just feel like the community is crying out for help in so many different ways. It’s not just our children. It’s not just our adults. It’s our school systems; it’s employers. It’s a significant unmet need everywhere you go,” she said.
The services offered at LifeSource Family Solutions will be individual, couples, and family counseling from the start and grow from there. Part-time counselors will rotate to ensure help is there Tuesday through Friday. Huggins will continue her Murfreesboro practice but will be in Shelbyville three days a week. All counselors are members of the American Association of Christian Counselors.
“Studies indicate the rate of anxiety and depression is higher among millennials than that of baby boomers; conversely, religious or church affiliation among millennials is much lower than that of baby boomers. From my perspective, the further we move away from God and our religious belief systems, the more significant our mental health issues will be because this issue requires we all come together based on our core beliefs. We have to focus on our common beliefs in God, family, and community and let those rise to the surface,” she said. “We’ve got to look at where we’re the same, and we’ve got to stay focused and pull together. No one can do this alone. We cannot be divided and succeed. All of the nonprofits, all of the spiritual leaders, all of us as community members have to pull together. The only way we’re all going to be okay is if we stay united.”
LifeSource Family Solutions will be an additional resource for the Shelbyville Community Soup Kitchen and the Community Clinic of Shelbyville and Bedford County. Our residents continue to join forces to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness in the community.
“If you’re suffering from severe depression or anxiety, and it goes into agoraphobia, where you have trouble leaving your home, or if you are suffering from other mental health disorders, it makes it extremely hard to hold down a job. If you can’t hold down a job, you can’t pay your bills, leading you to homelessness. Nothing runs smoothly if you’re battling those mental health issues. So if we can begin to help those people, there’s the potential they might be able to go back to work and make better decisions for themselves and change the trajectory of their lives. At least that’s the hope, the prayer,” said Huggins.
Huggins is grateful for everyone who has responded to help put these services in place. Every contribution, no matter how small, is appreciated and reflects the hearts of our people.
Bedford County is taking another step toward a healthier, thriving community because our people deserve good things. GN
