After shutting off mental health care for Austin musicians, SIMS Foundation restarts services

The SIMS Foundation, which has provided low-cost and free mental health care to Austin musicians for decades, is connecting clients to services again after a three-month pause.

SIMS Foundation CEO Derrick Lesnau said the organization reached its fundraising goal of a half-million dollars after a late push last year.

“We just couldn’t be more thankful for the community to really rally to our support and understand the challenges that we were under, and they came to our aid,” Lesnau said. “And we just are very, very fortunate to live in a community that understands [our] importance … and why we need to continue to be around and be a resource for our music community.”

In October, the organization announced the pause to raise money for its work and transition to a new service model. SIMS used to provide discounted mental health care to clients. Now, the nonprofit will provide some assistance for care, while also directing people to sign up for plans through Sendero, Central Health’s low-cost insurance provider.

For clients like Stephen Savage, the announcement last year was a shock. The Austin musician said he received a letter from the board chair saying “aspects of our service are just no longer sustainable,” but the nonprofit didn’t communicate a clear path forward. As SIMS begins to reach back out to clients, he said, it still hasn’t communicated what its services will look like in the future.

“I feel like, because you’re taking away a critical service, you’re taking away something that people depend on, … they have a lot to answer for,” he said. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to get those answers. If SIMS is the organization I want them to be, they would.”

Savage, who has relied on SIMS for years, found an insurance plan through the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians that covers mental health care. Now, he’s worried SIMS may not be able to continue to provide the same level of services.

“I would love for [SIMS] to continue doing what they were doing prior, but I’m really, really scared for the whole Austin community that they provide for,” he said. “There’s now just gonna be a big hole.”

Lesnau said he understands the concern about the nonprofit’s future, but that the foundation had to make the “challenging” decision to pause its services in order to keep its doors open.

“Now begins the work of just regaining trust and regaining confidence in who we are and why we’re here and how we’re connecting our members to care,” he said. “We want to be here for 30 more years, so … some of these changes were necessary in order to make that a possibility.”

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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