SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Annie Ackerman-Brown knows what it feels like to lose a child to suicide, and it’s a pain she hopes to save others from experiencing.
“It’s heart wrenching for parents,” she said. “I literally never want another parent to have to experience what we have.”
It was December of 2018 that her son, Kess Collins, took his own life. He was just 19 years old, and Annie will always remember him for the special man that he was.
“Kess was one of the most endearing kids you’d ever meet, he would literally give the shirt off of his back to help somebody else,” Annie said. “Everybody always remembers him because of his hugs. When he hugs somebody, he hugged you with every fiber of himself. I miss that so much.”
Beneath the smile seen in Kess’s high school photos, the teenager was struggling with substance abuse and his mental health.
“I always tell people that he died from a terminal mental illness,” Annie said. “He was in that much pain.”
She said she traveled out of state to seek treatment for Kess.
“The problem is there’s such limited resources here in the states, when a person leaves a facility, they literally give them seven days’ worth of medication, and it takes about six weeks to get in to see a psychiatrist,” Annie said.
Kess did not make it to Christmas of 2018. He died 3 days prior.
While grieving their lost child, Annie and her husband, Terry Brown, launched a nonprofit in Kess’s name: BlessedByKess. Their efforts are dedicated to providing mental health services such as special rooms within schools where students can come to reduce stress.
“We wanted to really focus on getting resources to kids so that we don’t have to have these conversations as a reactive thing,” Annie said.
She was overjoyed to successfully incorporate ‘relaxation suites’ into her Richland area schools in 2021. They included special massage chairs and even utilized virtual reality technology to provide room guests with an immersive experience of ‘total tranquility.’
Chandra Markel is a counselor at Richland High School, which is incorporating Annie’s rest and rejuvenate rooms for students to have a safe space to come relax and de-stress. Markel sees it having a positive impact on students.
“Kids would come in that were dealing with depression, anxiety, suicide ideation,” Markel said, “and they had a place to go if they were struggling, they could regroup, have a 20-minute massage.”
After finding a new home in Spokane, Annie hopes to see more schools in the community add these spaces. She recently found a new platform for bringing mental health to the spotlight.”I am Mrs. USA Prime Division 4,” Annie said. “I was recently given the crown through a pageant at Nationals in Orlando.”
Annie said her pageant platform focuses on self-care, and she’s partnered with Orlando non-profit ‘Rebuild Yourself Inc.’ to continue branching out, reaching more people.
“There’s no greater loss I think than losing a child,” Markel said, ” so to turn that grieving into something positive to help others and save lives is phenomenal.”
Annie said she’s currently working on creating ‘chill clubs’ curriculum that would be student-run with oversight and teach students how to track their sleep, nutrition and how other environmental factors and habits affect their mental health and well-being.
“Getting together as a group to talk about how you manage your week, what tools that you use, because I think when we start sharing it’s like ‘oh, I never thought about that. That could help me too.'”
Annie is networking in Spokane to create new partnerships and events geared towards mental health awareness and sparking those difficult conversations about suicide.
