Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I first met Tyshion when she came to Essie Justice Group in 2019, right before the pandemic. Like many of us, Tyshion had loved ones who were incarcerated. Through our Healing to Advocacy program, she was beginning to understand just how deeply isolated she felt and what true community felt like. And then the pandemic hit.
Despite moving our programming to Zoom, the compounding impact of social distancing as a medically vulnerable person, economic strain and loss of connection to her incarcerated loved ones sent Tyshion spiraling back into loneliness. In one of her last communications with us, Tyshion wrote “I’ve gone back into isolation. My depression and anxiety has worsened.” Weeks later, we received the news of her death. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Tyshion. We had failed to keep her out of isolation. The system was set up to keep her in isolation. And now she had died by suicide.
Early last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an advisory calling attention to the epidemic of loneliness and isolation, saying “millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows.” He offered that “our relationships are a source of healing and well-being hiding in plain sight – one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives.”
We were supposed to be that source of healing for Tyshion. Of course, mental health and suicidality are never as simple as that. Yet it felt hard to ignore what we knew. We had recently reached out to our members in hopes of better understanding the impact the pandemic was having on the communities we serve. For Tyshion, I guess it all was just too much. This was the conclusion the members of our team came to while wearing pained expressions on our Zoom call.
I founded Essie Justice Group nine years ago to…
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