Journal Sentinel mental health reporter guided by faith

She’s an award-winning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter known for health and welfare investigations, and more specifically, for her reporting on mental health issues.

It’s something that is near and dear to Meg Kissinger’s heart.

She was just 19 years old when her sister Nancy, who struggled with bipolar disorder – known as manic depression in the ‘70s, threw herself in front of a train.

Her brother Danny, who also struggled with bipolar disorder, hanged himself in their father’s basement in the ‘90s.

Her family couldn’t believe it.

With everything they knew, they wondered if they could have done more.

“Worst of all, we had kind of a warning. A week before he died, Danny sent us all letters telling us how sorry he was for all the commotion that he caused. ‘Only love and understanding can conquer this disease,’ he said. I wrote that sentence down and I taped it to the side of my computer in the newsroom. Danny and Nancy weren’t around for me to love them anymore, but I vowed that from that day forward, I was going to do what I could to try to understand what killed them; maybe I could help others understand, too,” Kissinger said during a talk she gave last Sept. 18 at the Sisters of the Divine Savior Community House where she received the 2014 Woman of Faith Award.

It’s the deep-seated faith that has guided the St. Eugene, Fox Point, parishioner through her personal life struggles and her oftentimes depressing work, that’s not as well known.
continue at MkeCathHerald 

No comments: