COMMUNITY
THE MESA TRIBUNE | AUGUST 1. 2021
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Saving lives are crisis responders’ passion BY ASHLYN ROBINETTE Tribune Staff Writer
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very moment across the region, tireless mental health professionals answer calls for help from people of all ages who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Terros Health's team of frontline heroes meet these individuals wherever they are to provide assessment, intervention and connection to ongoing care resources. For Mesa resident Molly Fisher-Foster, saving these lives is its own reward. “The reward comes from within,” she said. “There are days where I go home and know that I was able to make a positive difference in someone’s life.” Fisher-Foster has been at the center of delivering mobile crisis services for Terros Health for more than 23 years, addressing mental health emergencies involving suicidal thoughts, self-harm, potential harm to others, trauma, loss, substance abuse,
Mesa resident Milly Fisher-Foster is a mobile crisis service provider for Terros Health. (Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer)
increased depression or anxiety, and more. Once dispatched, Fisher-Foster works
with a partner to stabilize individuals in crisis and provide mental health services
to them no matter their location or situation. “Every day is different,” she said. “When you think you’ve seen everything you haven’t because there’s another day.” Fisher-Foster recalled how once an elderly woman with physical and mental health conditions walked out of a skilled nursing facility in Massachusetts and boarded a bus for Arizona. The woman, who had feeding tubes, was unable to take her medications or had had no food or water for four days. After receiving the call, Fisher-Foster was able to meet her and get her the help she needed. It’s a taxing job, but one that reaps big rewards when there’s an opportunity to change someone’s life, she said. She compares situations like these to solving a puzzle, putting all of the pieces together to help people become whole again. Fisher-Foster especially does well with
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Mesa congregation opens heart to needy families BY SYDNEY MACKIE Tribune Staff Writer
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n lieu of their annual mission trip, members of the First Presbyterian Church of Mesa last month dedicated themselves to providing essentials to 10 families in the Valley facing �inancial and personal dif�iculties. To complete this project, which the group called “Mission: Possible,” the church connected with the organization CarePortal, a database of requests submitted by caseworkers at government child welfare agencies or other child-serving organizations. Local churches are then encouraged to utilize their means and membership to aid and donate the requested items to these families. “All of these families have had children that are in the system,” said Ellen Hickey,
Members of the First Presbyterian Church of Mesa helped 10 families in crisis by providing them with necessary household and personal items the families could not afford. Now, they’re going to adopt a family a month to repeat their charitable outreach. (Special to the Tribune) the head of the CarePortal ministry for First Presbyterian Church of Mesa, refer-
ring to the foster care system. “Whether it’s just on the books now that they’ve
been keeping watch or they’ve actually been taken away or returned.” Hickey has been a member of the congregation since 1976 when her mother found the First Presbyterian Church of Mesa shortly after moving here from Holland. Since then, Hickey has taken an active role in organizing the church’s variety of charity projects. These include the mission trips to the Navajo Reservations and Mexico, which were canceled this year due to COVID-19 and other programs like the food pantry and annual assistance for homeless women. “This portal kept talking to me. I’ve been hearing about it for years and it just kept reaching out to me, it got to where I couldn’t ignore the pull, the holler and the yes, I hear you telling me I need to do this.
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