Project Freda is guided by the belief that providing a “bridge to hope and healing” via accessible high quality mental health services as early as possible in a given episode of mental health vulnerability is a win-win for all concerned. It both reduces the individual’s suffering (a good all on its own), and results in reduced costs to society. Without timely mental health treatment vulnerable individuals can experience societally costly psychiatric hospitalizations, incarceration, addiction, harm to children due to unstable caretakers, and work absences, among many other negative consequences.
Project Freda seeks to provide a “bridge to hope and healing” by offering free/sliding scale services to the portions of the population most likely to slip between the cracks of the US mental health system – economically challenged individuals with no or inadequate insurance. The Project particularly prioritizes assisting formerly incarcerated individuals take care of their mental health challenges as they navigate their return to freedom. The time gap between date of release and date of accessing services is often dangerously long. Project Freda seeks to provide the bridge across that gap.