Mission Statement

Our mission is to create a network and referral system for individuals or families facing mental health/suicidal challenges.

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Describing our Mission

Your tire blows out on a deserted road, and you have no idea how to change it or use a jack

The WIHN Foundation was organized by Anthony Morrone and Giany Guenjo in December 2021.

The primary mission of this organization is to save young lives, young people are suffering and it’s up to our communities to fight back.

The WIHN Foundation intends to raise money from the community and then distribute the funds to suicide intervention instructors like our Champion, Father Greg Van Dyke The organization mission is to slow down the rate of suicidal deaths. The cash drives will finance the cost of treatment up and above State agency funding.

The funds will be directed, in its early stages, for those living in the New York (metropolitan) and South Carolina (Myrtle Beach) areas. In time the organization will expand its coverage to include all locations across the United States.

The WIHN Foundation is a newly formed entity, thus we will be limited in our programs unless we can stimulate the community to become more aware of the crisis at hand. Our business is a very serious business. Our communities are under attack. A mental illness crisis has attacked our children mightily after March 2020.

The future staff of the organization will be instructed on how to educate families how to most efficiently navigate the availability of governmental assistance funds. Our staff will not be trained on how to remedy the blow out, but how to service the getting someone back on the road to recovery.

Awareness and Action Can Help Save a Life

Early Life Stress

“Stress and trauma certainly play a big role in suicide, especially early life stress,” says Dr. Douglas Meinecke, an NIH (National Institutes of Health) scientist who studies the molecular details of mental disorders. Several research teams have found evidence that traumatic childhood experiences—such as abuse or violence—can “tag” certain genes in the brain. These tags, called epigenetic markers, are actually molecules that attach to genes. They can have a lasting effect on whether the genes are turned off or on.

Some NIH-funded studies have shown that suicide victims who were abused as children have unique epigenetic markers on certain genes. These markers were not found in suicide victims with no history of childhood abuse or in people who died in accidents.

Warning signs

One of the most effective tools for preventing suicide is to know the warning signs and to take quick action to get the person into treatment. “One of the biggest indicators of suicide risk is when somebody begins talking about suicide,” says Dr. David Brent, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh who studies suicide in families. “We used to think that talking about suicide meant you weren’t going to do it, but it’s really the opposite. Other warning signs include withdrawal from usual activities, a change in mood, or a change in sleep patterns.”

Never ignore someone’s talk of suicide. You can ask directly if the person has ever thought of harming himself or herself. Most people will answer honestly, and the question itself won’t push a person to attempt suicide.

The Sorrow of Suicide

Suicide is tragic under any circumstance, but wretched when it strikes a young adult or child. The attempt or the death is not only cataclysmic to the parents, but also to the siblings. With such extreme consequences, why would anyone make the dire decision to choose death over life?

People who have certain mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression account for more than half of those who die by suicide.

Initially all donation, raised by our marketing campaign (directed by Thomas LoFaso) will be contributed to Pastor Greg Van Dyke and his staff.

Pastor Greg’s has for the last 6 years acted as a mental advocate in Georgetown and Horry Counties. The implementation the RISE program has been proven to work miracles. The program serves as a “lifeguard” in the effort to slow down acts of suicide.

Pastor Greg has vast training and experience with suicide prevention and intervention. He trains others in suicide intervention skills, and he serves as a community resource for behavioral health and mental wellness, as well.

It is the resolve of Pastor Greg and the congregation of St. Peter’s Church, to train and equip the community to recognize and respond to signs of suicide.

Pastor Greg, and his congregation, wish to remove the stigma associated with mental health care. They work to build a strong community that includes and supports all people, sharing hope for ‘the- all, and not for the select few. Monies raised by the WIHN Foundation will help support this goal and the goal of suicide prevention.

At some point in the future, the WIHN FOUDATION is prepared to diversify its cash raise to all areas in the United States of Compassion.

Learning from Another’s Sorrow

Tommy Raskin lost his battle to suicide at the young age of 25—a great kid. Why?

The Sad Story Recanted

Tommy Bloom Raskin, the son of Jamie Raskin and his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, died at the age of 25 on New Year’s Eve 2020, at the family’s Takoma Park home. The couple remembered their son as having a “perfect heart, a perfect soul, a riotously outrageous and relentless sense of humor, and a dazzling, radiant mind.”