Brandon and Michi Marshall Speak Out Loud for Children’s Behavioral Healthcare

The final Speak Up for Kids “road trip” event was held in Chicago last Wednesday, with an introduction by some very special guests. Bears’ wide receiver Brandon Marshall and his wife Michi, who have just pledged $1 million to the mental health community from their Brandon Marshall Foundation, opened up the panel discussion on integrated mental and physical healthcare with equal parts humility and inspiration.

“I can’t tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of integrated care,” Marshall joked. “I’m not a professional. But what I am is a patient. So I can give you my story.” He received a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in 2010, but the emotional and behavioral problems were there long before. “My life was a living hell.”

Standing beside his wife, Marshall described just the sort of distressed interpersonal relations that are such an insidious part of BPD. “We had a dream home and I sat in a darkened room for days. When I walked out my front door I had to have a hoodie on because I didn’t want to talk to anybody. My wife is beautiful, but I couldn’t tell her I loved her, I couldn’t connect with those emotions.”

BPD is associated with suicidal thoughts, and Marshall acknowledged this when he said, “Now I understand why famous people, celebrities, millionaires sometimes take their lives. We grow up sometimes thinking that if we have security, if we make a million dollars, we’ll be happy, but there’s more than that.”

Marshall has described the treatment program at Harvard’s McLean Hospital that enabled him to take back his life. “It’s like a light bulb’s been turned on in my dark room,” he told the Sun Sentinel at the time. (The state-of-the-art treatment for BPD is called dialectical behavior therapy, and last week a very accomplished DBT clinician, Dr. Alec Miller, described the therapy for us. Here’s a video.)

The Marshalls’ dream for kids acknowledges that there area a lot, like Brandon, who come from very chaotic homes, who act out in school because they need help. “We would love to see every school, not just in Chicago, but in the nation and possibly the world, have onsite behavioral healthcare services that not only treat the children but also the families,” he pledged. “That’s the root of our issues.” When we address the problems of our children, “we’re not dealing with the surface, we’re not dealing with the shell.”

Introducing CMI president Dr. Harold Koplewicz, and perhaps addressing other clinicians in the room, Marshall noted that “people like you really save guys like myself.” But looking at the Marshalls it was clear that their strength and resolve has the potential to create a movement that will save many more kids, by making their needs visible, and fighting the stigma that keeps so many of them from getting care. We’re thrilled to be on their team.