Just after I'd posted twice about mental health in the military (here and here), I was absentmindedly watching TV when a feature came on the news about Coffee Strong.
I started to hear the story of Deborah Flagboam, a former Marine who struggled with thoughts of suicide. She credits her life to Coffee Strong. I turned up the volume.
Coffee Strong is a veteran-owned and operated coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington, not far from Fort Lewis, an Army base. It's a coffee shop just for military personnel. Soldiers are welcomed with a free cup of coffee. At Coffee Strong, they can talk about what they've been through with people who understand firsthand. They can get resources and referrals, information about benefits for which they're eligible, and free Internet access.
It's a social service agency disguised as a coffee shop. I love it.
What a nice, organic idea: Create a place where people can go and talk about their lives and fears that's close to where they live and work. Make it even easier by giving them free coffee, and make it less intimidating by not making it look like a doctor's office. Most of all, make it real by not making it about providers and patients, but about peers, connecting because they share an experience and can help another through.
As a credentialed mental health professional, I don't want to write myself and others out of jobs by saying that an informal network of peers is a replacement for formal therapeutic support. But, in cases like Deborah Flagboam, it can hold someone over until help is available.
Flagboam - admittedly suicidal - was told there was a three-month waiting list for psychiatric care. Unfortunately, she is not the only person who's been told that their crisis isn't crisis enough.
I could see teens and college students providing similar support for their peers, of course with training, supervision, and a direct connection with a mental health professional. This model would work nicely for young people, often more able to open up to a friend over a cup of coffee than to a professional across the chasm of an office. Who else - what other population groups - could benefit from a project like Coffee Strong?
