Nate Chute Foundation shifts mission to include promoting mental wellness

Resilience — it is the process of successfully adapting to challenging situations, especially through mental, emotional and behavioral flexibility, according to the American Psychological Association (APA).

The idea of building resiliency and having an increased focus on promoting mental wellness is a shift the Nate Chute Foundation (NCF) in Whitefish has recently made. For over 20 years the foundation has been dedicated to suicide prevention in the way of educating people on recognizing warning signs and risk factors, and knowing what to do when somebody is in crisis. Now the nonprofit organization is altering its mission statement and primary objectives to include promoting mental wellness as a way to prevent suicide.

“Our previous mission statement was really just this dedication to suicide prevention, and now it’s expanded to the Nate Chute Foundation supports, educates and empowers our communities to provide mental wellness and reduce suicide,” says NCF executive director Kacy Howard.

Although the foundation is adding this piece to its mission, Howard says traditional suicide prevention education is still essential to what they do. But, if the foundation can promote mental health and build resiliency as well, they can go “metaphorically upstream” to help people build the skills and healthy routines necessary to cope when life becomes increasingly hard.

“It is to say, OK, what can we do to help humans key in with the skills and the tools that help them build resilience… so that if they get to a place of crisis, they have some practice,” Howard said.

According to the APA, psychological research suggests that the resources and skills associated with having greater resilience can be cultivated and practiced. Howard adds that skills and routines are easier to use in a crisis situation when they have been practiced previously.

“In a lot of ways, suicide is about psychological pain and it’s about hopelessness,” Howard said. “When we connect things that bring us joy, that support our overall mental health and wellbeing — that can help decrease those feelings of psychological pain or can mitigate feelings of hopelessness.”

The Nate Chute Foundation is currently working on how to implement ways of teaching resilience and promoting mental wellness in the community.

MAY IS MENTAL Health Awareness month and the Nate Chute Foundation just released its new mission statement to include promoting mental wellness alongside suicide prevention. The foundation is also participating in several events, offering trainings and continuing to help people find the resources they need throughout the month and beyond.

In the month of May, NCF will be at the Columbia Falls Community Market, beginning Thursday, May 18, talking about self-care. The foundation will also have representatives at the Mental Health Symposium at the Gateway Community Center in Kalispell on May 18 and also has partnered with Whitefish School District to offer a Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) training that is free and open to the entire community on May 24.

The foundation hosted a youth mental health first aid class which helps adults expand their understanding of mental health in youth and co-sponsored a mental health awareness event at FVCC at the end of April.

These local events are all related to Mental Health Awareness Month, but a main part of the Nate Chute Foundation’s everyday work includes offering trainings on suicide prevention, and now also mental wellness. The foundation recently partnered with a nonprofit called Well Montana, which is a Sweetgrass Psychological initiative, to provide mental wellness trainings. In May, NCF staff is training all of Pursuit’s employees and they have provided this training to several other businesses and organizations that request it since the beginning of the year.

Well Montana’s mission, in part, is to provide opportunities for people to build their skills and resources so they do not need therapy and help them on their journey to mental wellness.

Howard says the partnership with Well Montana has a lot of mutual benefits. NCF is helping Well Montana coordinate, deliver and expand its Workplace Wellness Workshop. And, this workshop coincides perfectly with the robust suicide prevention trainings that Nate Chute Foundation was already offering, while adding the mental wellness aspect.

“Instead of just addressing the crisis piece, it feels like a much more holistic way of talking about wellness,” Howard said.

Additionally in the Nate Chute Foundation’s school trainings, they provide to local districts, called Signs of Suicide, they have started to infuse other evidence-informed resilience tools. The purpose is to help kids find ways to connect within their communities — such as taking care of physical and mental health, surrounding themselves with positive friends, discovering practical ways to find healthy outlets for emotion and more.

“That shift to building resiliency awareness is already happening in our schools and our hope for that is to build out programming that not only builds awareness but gives people opportunities to practice and connect with those skills,” Howard said.

THE FOUNDATION has increasing requests for its services each year. According to Montana DPHHS, Montana and Flathead County have high suicide rates. For all age groups, Montana has ranked in the top five for suicide rates in the nation for the past 30 years. In a 2019 National Vital Statistics Report, Montana had the third highest rate of suicide in the nation. Howard says because of how the communities in Montana are impacted by suicide, her staff finds that people are wanting to tune into strategies that could improve mental wellness, build resiliency in the community and in turn hopefully prevent suicide.

In 2022, NCF as an organization taught about 50 community trainings which equated to educating around 1,000 people. Additionally, the foundation sees around 2,000 students in schools each year. Now offering additional mental wellness education, the foundation hopes to continue to have an impact on not only preventing suicide but improving the lives of people in our communities.

“This resilience-based approach helps people just cope better with some of that day-to-day stuff,” Howard said. “Whatever we can do to help people find a sense of purpose, find a sense of joy, find some hope — that’s the real suicide prevention work.”

The Nate Chute Foundation was founded in 1999 by Terry Chute and Jane Kollmeyer. The foundation continues to receive community support each year and has grown from an all-volunteer organization to a nonprofit employing five full-time staff members. For more information on the Nate Chute Foundation visit www.natechutefoundation.org/

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.