About
Care has always been personal.
Lilypad began with one family’s experience of community mental health care—and the hope that care gave us.
Why we began
Built from a family’s experience of care.
Lilypad began with my family’s experience of addiction and serious mental illness. My brother lived with schizophrenia and an addiction to crack cocaine, spending 12 years on and off the streets. In Lansing, he nearly died when his heart stopped and doctors had to revive him. On many trips to his CMH appointments, he was barely awake. Yet those visits became a source of hope for our family. Psychiatrists, nurses, and front-desk staff met us with patience and dignity and kept showing up for him, even when we could not afford the intensive addiction treatment he needed. Without their support, I’m not sure my brother would still be alive today.
Lilypad grew from that experience and from something my family learned firsthand: no one carries care alone. Community mental health brings families, peers, clinicians, and organizations together. Lilypad seeks to be a constructive part of that shared work.
We’re building alongside the people who understand what care asks of us—helping communities coordinate care without losing sight of the human relationships at the center of that work. We’re only getting started, and we hope you’ll help shape what comes next.
From experience to partnership
Bring Lilypad into one care pathway.
We’re opening a small number of pilot partnerships with community mental health organizations, behavioral health programs, and health systems.
Explore a Lilypad pilot