May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and at Paz de Cristo, it feels like a meaningful time to pause and acknowledge something we witness every day in our dining room, at our food box distribution, and in our clothing room: the connection between unmet mental health needs and the struggles our neighbors face.
Research published in 2024 by JAMA Psychiatry — drawing on 85 studies and more than 48,000 participants — found that 67% of people currently experiencing homelessness have a diagnosable mental health disorder. That number doesn’t surprise our team. What it confirms is that the work of feeding and clothing people, as essential as it is, only goes so far. Our neighbors are carrying things that a meal can’t reach.
That’s why I’m excited to tell you about something new we’re building this summer.
We’re partnering with The Well, a new initiative through the Diocese of Phoenix, to bring volunteers trained in mental health first aid to Paz who will do something simple and profound: listen and accompany.
These volunteers won’t offer therapy or diagnosis. What they will offer is presence — time, attention, and a genuine conversation with someone who may not have had one in a while. They will be trained in Mental Health First Aid so when a neighbor is ready for more support than this conversation can provide, The Well volunteers will connect them with vetted local resources.
The relationship between mental health and homelessness is not one-directional. Sometimes mental health challenges contribute to losing stable housing. Sometimes the experience of homelessness itself — the instability, the isolation, the loss — creates or deepens emotional pain. Either way, our neighbors deserve care that acknowledges the full weight of what they’re carrying.
At Paz, we’ve always tried to see the whole person who walks through our doors. This empowering program is one more way we live that out. The Well volunteers will sit alongside our clients — not as professionals intervening in a crisis, but as people offering connection to the resource of mental health first aid in a moment when connection matters.
We know this kind of support won’t solve everything. But we also know that being seen and heard is not a small thing.
As Mental Health Awareness Month reminds us, mental health is not separate from the rest of our well-being. It shapes how we move through every part of our lives. For our neighbors navigating homelessness and food insecurity, the weight of that is real.
We’re grateful to be in a position to respond — and grateful for the partners, donors, and volunteers who make it possible.
With gratitude, Jackie Shelley Executive Director, Paz de Cristo Community Center