Page 6 - Silver Hill Hospital Annual Report 2022

SILVER HILL HOSPITAL
TRULY
LIFESAVING
CARE
“YOU ARE GIVING THOSE WHO DO NOT SEE A FUTURE FOR THEMSELVES THE ABILITY TO SEE A FUTURE. YOU ARE GIVING HOPE AND LIFE.” — CHRISTY, FORMER PATIENT
It felt like the weight of the world was crashing down on Christy.
If she hadn’t found Silver Hill Hospital and been able to receive financial assistance, “I don’t know if I’d be alive today,” she says.
A variety of factors converged on Christy’s life to make it almost unbearable. In addition to living with depression and anxiety, her job in fashion is stressful (in her words: “your best is never good enough and they want everything yesterday”), she endured bullying by a co-worker, and her mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Then COVID started, and Christy was furloughed from her job. Her longtime psychiatrist retired, and she could not find a new one, as very few doctors were accepting new patients during the pandemic. To make matters worse, Christy had stopped taking her medication for depression because she thought she would be OK without it.
She wasn’t OK, and her downward spiral happened quickly. She sought help at several facilities in her home state of Massachusetts, but they either didn’t accept her insurance or her situation was not dire enough because she “didn’t have active suicidal thoughts,” she recalls. Unfortunately, she felt as if she was heading in that direction.
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