Today, I am going deep with Kimberly Bowman, who brings more than 45 years of combined professional and lived experience in mental health to our conversation. She shares with me how her journey started as a teenager when she encountered severe bipolar disorder in her then-partner’s family and explains how, later on, her younger son showed concerning symptoms early in childhood, around 18 months old. She explains why her family initially struggled to differentiate what was “normal” and what behaviors needed intervention, as so many of us do in the beginning, before lived experience provides clarity. 

We talk about the long and difficult process of getting the right diagnosis for her son, including multiple misdiagnoses such as ADD, ADHD, and major depressive disorder before bipolar disorder was even recognized. Kimberly had to learn to advocate for her child in a complicated and convoluted system where even the professionals would not agree on what was clearly the correct diagnosis. Things went from bad to worse, as her family navigated medication changes, side effects, and shifting symptoms while her son grew older. Is it surprising that he would eventually also experience psychosis, homelessness, and repeated cycles of incarceration and hospitalization? No, because those are the “solutions” available in our non-existent support structure. 

After years of working in administration at a state psychiatric hospital and later at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), Kimberly could see very clearly that the problem was not just a broken mental health system, but, in fact, that this country never intentionally designed one in the first place. So, she has committed to building America’s ideal mental health system through a national design commission that includes clinicians, law enforcement, judicial voices, crisis responders, and lived-experience advocates. Her work provides coordinated, upstream prevention and more options than just the hospital or jail when someone is in crisis.

You are not alone on this journey. Kimberly has made it her mission to provide knowledge, resources, and support to anyone struggling with their mental health or that of a loved one. Read her books, listen to her speak.

How do we go about building a better framework? How do we take a proactive approach to crisis intervention? How do we get the people calling the shots to hear our demands for reform before another life is lost to the “system”?

Learn more about Kimberly Bowman below:

Insight to Impact website 

Purchase No One Told ME – What Every Family Needs to Know About Mental Illness in America HERE

Purchase The System We Never Built – Severe Mental Illness, Criminalization, and the Fight to Create Real Care HERE

Chapters

0:16 Navigating Mental Health Challenges in Family
6:13 The Struggles of Diagnosis and Treatment
11:11 Advocacy and the Role of a Parent
16:06 Understanding the Mental Health “System”
23:57 Building a Better Mental Health Framework
25:51 Insight to Impact: A Journey of Advocacy
32:09 The Role of Lived Experience in Mental Health
36:22 Innovative Approaches to Crisis Response
41:24 Preventing Crises: A Proactive Approach
45:00 Books as Tools for Change

Contact Tabitha:

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https://tabithazeigler.com