At first, Ken Norton was hesitant to interview for a position at the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
A large portion of NAMI NH’s resources went towards suicide prevention. Though he hadn’t discussed it publicly at the time, Norton struggled with thoughts of suicide his entire adult life.
“I’d never attempted, but they were pretty intrusive at times,” he said. “There were times where I’ve really felt it wasn’t a question of if, it was a question of when. I was sort of like, ‘How’s this gonna work if I take this suicide prevention job? I don’t think it would go over well if I then kill myself.’ ”
When he arrived at the site of the job interview, Norton’s doubts faded. The old Victorian house in downtown Concord was immediately familiar — it was where he first confronted suicide in his personal life.
He was in his early 20s, working at a homeless shelter in Concord, when a part-time tutor and mentor of Norton’s disclosed that her husband had a severe drinking problem. She had given him an ultimatum: Either he had to stop drinking or she would leave.
Norton attended her husband’s wake a few days later in the Victorian home after he died by suicide.
“I use that as an example of how sometimes this work chooses us,” he said. “Is it coincidence? Is it synchronicity? Is it the universe provides? Whatever it is, it’s pretty powerful.”
That interview with NAMI NH launched a decade-long year career of advocacy where Norton has been at the forefront of some of the largest problems facing Granite Staters with mental illness.
During those years, Norton helped establish the Suicide Prevention Council, shepherded a bill that increases suicide prevention programs in New Hampshire schools into law, and played a large role in advocating for a network of mobile crisis units.
Norton was also one of the first New Hampshire advocates to raise concerns that many Granite Staters were involuntarily held in the emergency rooms for days or weeks while they waited for a psychiatric bed to open without the opportunity to challenge the involuntary admission.
NAMI NH launched an eight-year campaign against the practice — regularly posting the number of people waiting for a bed on their Facebook page — that culminated in a decision from the New Hampshire Supreme Court in 2021 that ruled the practice unlawful.
The mental health system he entered at the beginning of his career is in better shape than the one he is leaving behind. Police are more understanding of mental illness, legislators better understand the importance of early intervention, there are far more community health resources for those struggling and stigma surrounding mental health is gradually wearing away, he said.
Still, the state must deal with more hurdles ahead.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, Norton said children will face unprecedented mental health challenges. He said evidence had recently emerged that academic performance — which is often tied to mental health — has slipped as a result of virtual learning.
He also has concerns about the state’s workforce of mental health professionals. The field, which is often plagued with low wages and high stress, has had a difficult time holding on to employees. Norton said the next NAMI NH leaders will have to face these problems in the coming years.
The organization’s mission has been personal for Norton, not just because of his own mental health struggles but because of his family members and friends who lived with mental illness.
“It’s hard to explain, but it just sort of like all these things in my life led up to this moment in time, whether it’s my own personal experience, whether it’s been through my family experience,” he said.
But now, he said it’s time to enter a new stage of his life. After years of helping people at a policy and organization level, he’s ready to go back to helping individuals face-to-face. He said he might work part-time on a mobile crisis team, and he’s already volunteered to pick up shifts at a homeless shelter.
Norton thinks about his retirement from NAMI in the same way he thinks about mental health recovery.
“Stage one is detox, stage two is recovery and stage three is rehabilitation,” he said. “I am very focused on stage one, how to detox, and kind of look at my life and make new family ties and friendships.”