Mental health services on Milwaukee's south side, residents' challenges

Mental health services, challenges on south side

Residents on Milwaukee's south side said the area encounters unique challenges. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and there is help available.

MILWAUKEE - The National Institute of Mental Health estimates more than one in five adults in the U.S. live with a mental illness as of 2022. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and help is available on Milwaukee's south side.

What they're saying:

For Dan Cross and Francis Perez, mental health is not a taboo. 

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"It's OK to not be OK," said Cross. "When people aren't feeling, you know, mentally stable, it's hard for them to go about their daily lives."

"It's important to seek and find help," Perez said. "A lot of us need it, but sometimes finding the resources make it difficult. It would be nice to have easier access to it."

Sixteenth Street 

Cross and Perez both live on Milwaukee's south side, an area they said encounters unique mental health challenges.

"This is definitely a hard place to be out here now, and knowing that you don't have fair access to these resources and everything," said Cross.

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Perez said it can be hard to get resources because of accessibility, language and financial barriers – all things that prevent many people from asking for help.

"We have a cohort of providers who are bilingual in English and Spanish," said Melissa Waldo, Sixteenth Street vice president of behavioral health. "It makes such a difference to be able to offer this really sensitive and personal mental health treatment in the language that people feel most comfortable speaking."

Waldo said her department saw more than 7,000 patients in 2024 and provided more than 45,000 patient visits.

Sixteenth Street

"We want to make sure that we have services available when somebody is ready to see services," she said.

With six locations, five of which are on the south side, Waldo said Sixteenth Street's mental health services can be given to all people in underserved communities. Services are also available through Escucha tus Emociones.

Editor's note: FOX6 News translated certain quotes in this report from Spanish into English.