Jennifer Allen is a crusader against the stigma of dealing with mental health issues. She’s fighting quite the uphill battle.

The 59-year-old is the new program director at North Valley Embrace Health, an outpatient mental health program that provides for seniors. Her role is a vital one, as mental health disorders affect at least 20 percent of individuals age 55 and older.

She helps a dozen seniors with group therapy weekly at the office in Whitefish, but said the 55-and-over block is a difficult one to crack.

“Mental disorder is a term that gets people nervous,” she said. “I would love the day when we can think of mental disorder the same way we do of diabetes. We tend not to talk about mental health unless we have a horrible event.”

Allen has a long way to go before that happens, but she knows the dangers of untreated mental health issues.

“Suicide is an issue in Montana,” Allen said of the state’s twice the national average suicide rate. “We can’t avoid alcohol, untreated depression and guns.”

Allen said elderly men are specifically prone to high rates of suicide. Montana’s low population density, high prevalence of guns and “cowboy” approach to men not talking about their feelings are all factors that can lead to depression and ultimately suicide.

It’s a heavy topic, but Allen wants to do nothing else.

In her senior year of college at University of Colorado at Boulder, she worked at a suicide crisis line, sometimes literally talking folks off the edge during the wee hours of the night.

She went from the Denver area to Montana’s newly opened women’s prison in Billings. Before the facility opened, Montana’s female prisoners were shipped down to Nevada, Allen said.

She has been in the Flathead Valley for nine years, although the Embrace Health position is new for her. She is finding satisfaction in helping a vulnerable population.

“I love this program,” she said. “But this program can’t meet the whole need. We need to support the entire continuum [of mental health] and destigmatize it.”

During the week, Allen’s high-stress job helps seniors cope with end-of-life issues, loss, depression, isolation and untreated trauma. But the outdoors junkie has a bit of an unusual home life.

“I kind live on ... what people would used to call a commune,” she said. “It’s an intentional community of old Montanans.”

Several families, including Allen and her husband, Mark, decided to join the “commune” to share outdoors equipment so everyone could have an easy, relatively cheap way to enjoy the area’s recreation opportunities.

The families, old friends, each house one of the “toys,” including a raft and a shared dog.

Of course, most of her life revolves around work, so when Allen is not taking turns petting the dog, she is trying to get Embrace Health to the strong, healthy place North Valley Hospital wants to see.

More than a third of clients going to Embrace Health come from assisted living, and Allen said her program — along with the therapist and several other employees — wants to serve seniors.

“My goal is to run a flexible program,” she said. “Anybody who thinks our services could be helpful is welcome. We give a free first assessment.”

One of the issues Allen must contend with while trying to reach out to Montanans is the lack of mental health professionals in the state.

“Montana struggles to recruit psychiatrists,” she said. “No one can figure out why. Often primary care physicians take on the brunt of mental health work.”

As the number of seniors continues to rise, Allen hopes the support for mental health professionals does as well. But if not, she will continue to roll that boulder uphill, maybe with the help of a community dog.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.