Inspiring Good

Joyce finally enters an office with a familiar name on the door. Her office is bright and timeless. Large white trim and crown molding offset warm gray walls. Colorful art lines the walls opposite various diplomas and commendations. Greenery gives life to the space, and small personal touches give it a sense of home. Joyce has put her signature on the space. Dozens of perfectly organized dolls and figurines line shelves, play atop tables, and sit in various nooks and crannies of the office.

A seasoned expert at “play therapy,” Joyce had grown a fondness for her tools that turned practice into a unique collection. The kids all loved it, and it was clear from her perfect organizational system that Joyce’s eye for detail made her amazing at her job. That job was as a licensed therapist, a career that she had practiced and perfected (though she’d never admit it) for decades. Her home away from home was called Samaritan Health and Living Center, the organization to which she has dedicated herself for over 15 of those years.

She sits lightly on the most unusual accent chair. Almost made to look like a patchwork of materials, it is bright and modern but still holds in it a rustic charm, an analog to the building itself.

Joyce’s chair tells a story of its own. It reminds a person of the famous Dolly Parton song “Coat of Many Colors.” The song — which Dolly wrote on a laundromat receipt in the back of a tour van — told the story of a coat her mother had patched together from rags handed down to her. In the song, Dolly’s mom told her the story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors as she handed the pieced-together coat to her daughter. None the wiser, Dolly excitedly went to school with her magical coat only to be the butt of jokes and insults. But those kids could never understand the value of the coat and what it meant to her. It was the symbol of her mom’s love, one of family, of home.

Like that coat, the Samaritan Center has been the product of hard work, endless heart, and very little physical treasure. The Center was born of a love for community. Formed in 1972 by a physician (Burton Kintner, M.D.), a pastor (William J. Vamos), and a Reverend (R.J. Ross), the Samaritan Center was the brainchild of Knitner, who had seen an uptick in curious cases at his practice. He was seeing more and more patients who seemed to be suffering as much from mental stress as from any known physical ailment. He worried about the future of his hometown as the stress on an average family — especially those at or below the poverty line — grew with each passing year.

Believing strongly in the relationship between faith and health, he sought the guidance of his pastor and was eventually connected to Reverend Ross. Together, they concocted an idea for a center that would focus on the mind and spirit in equal measure to how Dr. Kintner focused on the body. Ross, a trained counselor, had the managerial know-how and the understanding of mental health to get the new idea off the ground.

Like that coat of many colors, the Center was born of humble means. It was a meager $500 and a church basement that launched the idea. And, like that coat, its history wasn’t without challenges. But an undying love for home and a belief in the power of holistic healthcare has built the Samaritan Center up over these decades. Indeed, in 40 years, the Samaritan ideal has launched over 80 Samaritan Center offices serving over 300 communities around the world.

In its birthplace, where Kintner and Ross called home, the Center’s coat was threadbare and faded. The understated beginnings made sense in an era when mental health was taboo. Church basements and offices were anonymous and provided cover. But today, the stigma over mental health is dissipating. Samaritan H&LC won’t hide any longer, but now boldly states its services to the world.

In 2013, a regional study found that adequate mental health care was the most under-resourced service in the Elkhart County area. That same study saw 86% of respondents cite a lack of access to mental health care as a significant problem in the county. In Elkhart, at the same time, 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 5 children suffered a mental disorder. It was time for The Samaritan Center to take its rightful position in the spotlight.

Call it divine intervention, call it fate, call it what you will. Just as leaders at Samaritan began planning an expansion, one of the city’s most notable properties was made available. Thanks to a $780,000 project to acquire and renovate the property, and an $80,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, it will continue to shape and impact culture and progress.

Now a permanent fixture in the community, the center can continue to address the whole person, while providing the community with much-needed access to quality, stigma-free mental healthcare. The Samaritan Center can expand its missional role to be the expression of the love of God through a ministry of helping people under stress.