My name is Kēphen Merancīs and I am a behavioral health advocate.  As such, I advocate for the fair and equal treatment of individuals with mental health conditions and substance use disorders in employment and society.  I also provide information about resources and support services to people who are struggling.  Behavioral health includes both mental health conditions and substance use disorders.  Mental health conditions, in this context, includes but is not limited to chronic stress, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and so on.

My entry into the mental health industry was through lived experience rather than academic interest.  I encountered adverse childhood experiences including sexual, physical, and religious trauma.  These experiences caused future struggles with depression and suicidality throughout my teens and early twenties.  I began therapy in 2004, experienced hospitalization for a suicidal mental health crisis in 2005, and in 2006 was diagnosed with and entered into treatment for bipolar disorder (type two).

I started sharing my personal experiences very early while still in my late teens via in-person communication and by writing about it online through social media starting in 2005.  I later became more involved in 2018 as a field advocate for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Mid-Missouri Chapter.  In this outreach role I shared information within my community about upcoming education and engagement events, support resources, and participated in advocacy efforts.  I also started attending the annual Out of the Darkness Community Walk, for which I still captain a team made of family members to this day.

In the years since I have attended many in-person and online training events and conferences hosted or sponsored by Missouri organizations such as the Missouri Behavioral Health Council, Missouri Suicide Prevention Network, Missouri Department of Mental Health, UMSL Missouri Institute of Mental Health, Mental Health First Aid Missouri, Missouri Task Force on Children’s Justice, NAMI Missouri, Missouri Partners in Prevention, Missouri Crisis Intervention Team.  I have also attended national training events such as those hosted by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center at EDC, QPR Institute, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Jed Foundation, and the Trusted Provider Network which I became a member of in 2023.

I began independently volunteering in peer support in 2018, assisting (at no cost) anyone I encountered who ​appeared or reported to be struggling with a mental health condition or substance use challenge, primarily focusing on men within the late teens through early thirties age demographics.  In 2019, I became a Certified Peer Specialist, a credential I still hold.  I volunteered in my community with a group dedicated to suicide awareness and prevention.  We met regularly to discuss actions to forward our cause and facilitated support groups for community members in need. I gave talks about my experiences and wrote for the local newspaper.

While employed at the Missouri Department of Revenue as a professional development instructor I was able to form and lead a team called the Human Relations Officer Support & Mediation Team with other members of my office.  Through this initiative we developed inter-agency partnerships, hosted training courses facilitated by the MU Psychological Services Clinic and the ComPsych Corporation.  Additionally, I facilitated recurring training courses on conflict management, motivation, and stress and anxiety, during which I discussed my own personal experiences with a mental health condition, treatment, and recovery.

In 2024, I completed a six-month course with the Trusted Provider Network on assessing, understanding, managing, and treating chronic suicidality.  This course was incredibly personal to me as the topic of suicide awareness and prevention has been at the forefront of why I entered into and have continued to gravitate around the mental health industry.  Not just for my own personal experiences with chronic suicidality but because of friends, family, and strangers I have met along this journey who have also struggled with suicidal thoughts and behavior or who have lost loved ones to suicide.

And finally, I am openly a member of the LGBTQ+ community.  While I was very vocal about this topic when I came out in 2008, I have not been actively involved in public community events, projects, or organizations because I have never wanted that small aspect of my life to define the entirety of my identity.  I mention it here solely to highlight the extent of my personal experiences and because it was highly influential and consequential to my childhood growing up in a religiously conservative small-town community.