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May is Mental Health Awareness month.

May 8 was Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.

May 10 was the 10th anniversary of my son, J. Timothy Hogan, dying of suicide.

Tim was slim, 6 feet tall, with curly brown hair that he was always trying to straighten in his youth. He had a wry wit and, although the youngest of my five children, he could always keep his siblings in line. They had a great relationship and enjoyed being together.

He was not married, but had a girlfriend of four years. After graduating from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., he took accounting and top financial positions with newspapers. Shortly before his death, he was promoted to publisher of the Taunton Daily Gazette in Taunton, Mass.

It was at this time he started giving his personal possessions away and deciding who would receive his money upon his death. Had we known some of the warning signs we might have stopped this tragedy. Neither his associates, friends nor family had a clue. Two words we heard most often were “If only.”

Upon reading the letters Timothy wrote to us, his siblings and other loved ones established the J. Timothy Hogan Foundation in his memory. (To read one of the last letters he wrote, go to the foundation Web site, www.jthogan.org.) This was done to provide financial assistance to those who otherwise could not afford crucial treatment for mental illness.

Our target population is the children of working-class families. These are the people who fall through the cracks, possibly because they cannot afford insurance or, if they do have insurance, it may not cover mental illness care or provide very little. Yet, how much can they afford before they lose everything they’ve got?

Many times parents tell us they have tried all other avenues to no avail, and then someone tells them about the foundation. However, due to the economy and other factors, we now have a long waiting list.

Untreated mental illness is the primary cause of suicide; 6,500 U.S. teens are reported killed from that every year. But we know the number is much larger. Many single-car wrecks and drug overdoses are suicides, though classified as accidents.

Mental illness is a brain disorder, many times beginning in childhood. Without proper treatment, the consequences of this disease for individuals and society are staggering — disability, unemployment, addiction, homelessness, incarceration and wasted lives.

We are losing some of our brightest stars of the future. This is especially heartbreaking to the foundation, as we know treatment works. We know early intervention will allow these children to lead healthy and productive lives. The longer that it is left untreated, the worse it will get and the harder it will be to treat.

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among teenagers. The teenage rate has tripled over the past two decades, while the rest of the population remains about the same. About half the suicides for this age group had been in trouble with the law or school or were known to abuse alcohol or other drugs.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an alarming 65 percent of boys and 75 percent of girls in juvenile detention have at least one mental disorder. We are incarcerating our youth with mental disorders, rather than identifying their disorders and providing the appropriate treatment. Approximately 50 percent of students with a mental disorder age 14 and older drop out of high school.

These are all national figures, but if you think this is not happening in Collier County you are very much mistaken.

Florida ranks 48th per capita in spending for mental illness and 35th for substance-abuse programs.

We at the J. Timothy Hogan Foundation are trying to assist some of these children. We need your help. Contributions in any amount will be gratefully accepted, as will volunteers in many different areas.

The foundation mailing address is 4949 U.S. 41 N., Suite 203, Naples, 34103; phone, 263-8383; e-mail Pat Scoones at spanfl@earthlink.net.