CHADS offers Signs of Suicide®, Family Support, and Social Emotional Well-being programs to advance
11/22/2025
Wrapping up this Friday with nothing but gratitude in our hearts!💚🍁
Thank you to all the schools that welcomed our
SOS® team this week to have an open conversation about mental health.
Palmyra Missouri Middle School
Barnwell Middle School
Rockwood South Middle School
CBC High School - St. Louis, MO
Jefferson Intermediate School
Northwest R-I School District
Holman Middle School
Canton R-V School District
St. Charles High School
Villa Duchesne
11/21/2025
Huge shout-out to Kristine Alphin of Northwest Valley HS for being our September 2025 Lighthouse Awards winner! Recipients of this award are nominated for being extraordinary advocates for mental health and su***de prevention efforts. 💚
Kristine, it's because of partners like you that we're able to do the work we do. Thank you and Northwest R-I School District for your support of our program and for caring for the mental health of the kiddos at Northwest Valley HS. We are grateful for your partnership!
11/20/2025
Don't forget to join our very own SEW Program Coordinator Cate Perry tonight at 6:30pm at Crystal City Public Library for this very important discussion on how to recognize adolescent depression and what to do. Free and open to the public. Details below! 👇
11/20/2025
Remember to let them know how special they are to you. It really does make a difference. 🍁
11/19/2025
This International Men’s Day, let’s normalize talking about men’s mental health. Speaking up is strength. 💚
11/19/2025
When you get feedback like this from a kiddo, you take it. Enough said.
And yes, for anyone still figuring out what our kids are saying today, this student did not call our therapist an actual goat. 😂
GOAT= Greatest Of All Time.
11/18/2025
Anybody got a this afternoon? 🍔 After all, White Castle says: when the crave calls, you know what to do.
Stop by any location on the graphic between now and November 30th and be sure to to support CHADS.
11/18/2025
Last Friday's All-Staff meeting at Logan University gave us time to reconnect and reflect on the impact of our work across the region this Fall. 💚
Our team also brought in food items to support families facing hardship, and we're grateful to donate everything to Operation Food Search . Special thank you to Logan University for the space.
Thankful for this team. Thankful for our community. Thankful for the work we get to do.
11/17/2025
We’re proud to host our Training Trusted Adults presentation at Crystal City Public Library on November 20th, led by our SEW Program Coordinator, Cate Perry!
This free community training is open to the public and helps to equip parents, school staff, and community members to recognize the signs and symptoms of adolescent depression and su***de and how to ACT® with confidence and care.
By learning the same common language used in our SOS® student program, adults gain a stronger understanding of mental health and how to support the youth they interact with most.
11/14/2025
On World Kindness Day, we’re reminded that some of our greatest teachers are the kids we serve.
Over the last couple of weeks at Jefferson Intermediate School, our Hope Squad students have been creating motivational posters, painting “Hope” canvases, and spreading the kind of kindness that truly matters: recognizing when a peer is struggling and how to get them help from a trusted adult.
Sometimes kindness isn’t just an act… it’s a lifeline. 💚
11/13/2025
Let’s go!! 👏 There’s still time to get tickets for She Said St. Louis at the The Sheldon this Saturday Nov. 15th! Proud of our very own CDO, Melissa Brickey as she prepares to take the stage!
We’re proud to see our partners at Shelby County Cares featured on 60 Minutes, shining a light on the vital work being done to support mental health and prevent su***de in farming communities. 💚
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Chad McCord was not your ordinary teenager. He was an Eagle Scout. He was in the top 15% of his class at Oakville High School and had almost 20 college credits. He was a church youth group retreat leader and an outstanding athlete. During his 3-1/2 years of high school, he earned 5 “most something” plaque awards for cross-country, soccer and track. He was being recruited by a Division 1 school to play college soccer. He was nominated for and attended a week-long leadership program in Washington, DC. As a volunteer, he spent many hours as a coach and worker for the Kirkwood Track Club. He was the assistant coach for his church C*C track team for four years.
Chad had a special compassion and respect for everyone. He loved to volunteer, especially with children with special needs. This was clear in his work with Ride On St. Louis, an equestrian therapy program for physically challenged children.
Chad’s life was forever changed after depression reared its ugly and deadly head. The disease was just as deadly and invasive as cancer. Slowly, it took over Chad’s spirit, body and mind. With every passing day, Chad lost hope and began seeing himself as a burden to all. His depression blinded him to the many gifts he had.
Chad could no longer hide his depression behind the mask he wore so well. In October 2003, Chad was diagnosed with depression and an anxiety disorder. Several months later, he was diagnosed with OCD (obsessing to hurt himself) and rapid cycling Bipolar Disorder.
As Chad underwent his treatment, he vowed that after he got better he wanted to make a difference in people’s lives by bringing mental illness out of the closet. He said that once he was better, he wanted to stand in front of the school assembly and say, “Hi, my name is Chad McCord, and I suffer from depression.”
He commented, “If I had cancer, students would rally around me and make posters and give me a hero’s welcome when I came back to school. But since I have a mental illness, the students will shy away from me. They will think I am weird and not want to be around me.”
Chad McCord was 18 years old when he lost his battle with depression and took his life on April 15, 2004. Unfortunately, Chad left this world before fulfilling his dream to increase awareness and acceptance of mental illness.
Chad’s parents, Larry and Marian McCord, vowed to be Chad's voice! In 2005, they founded CHADS Coalition for Mental Health in memory of their son, Chad. CHADS' goal is to save teen lives.
