Free counseling for young people in our community

Our organization is named after our son, Max Cochran, a young man who took his own life at the age of 19. Max was a beautiful, vibrant, loving person who “lit up” the entire room every time he walked into one. Unknown to many people, Max fought for many years to conquer his struggles with mental illness, and he was a very strong-willed person who tried many different ways to overcome his personal battles. In the end, life became more than he could endure. We, his family, battle daily the grief of his loss and try to understand why Max was hurting so much. Unfortunately, we will never fully understand.

During Max's life, we battled many frustrations, and we learned several things about mental health care. One, there is not a good network available for young people, or any person for that matter, to receive help for mental health issues. We would call local doctors and agencies and would be told, “We can see Max in 7 days.” We would reply that we needed help today, and tell them that Max is talking about harming himself. The answer would be, “If you feel that this is an emergency, dial 911.” You can imagine the frustration that we felt.

We also learned that when we finally found a well-trained mental health counselor Max felt comfortable speaking with, this would help Max and give us all a feeling of hope. The things we learned from our experiences with Max hopefully will allow us to help other families who are dealing with the issues we have experienced. Therefore, we have created MAXimizing Mental Health, Inc.