A Des Moines nonprofit is hosting its annual bike ride event: How to sign up
Employee & Family Resources, a Des Moines-based nonprofit, is again hosting a bike ride event to raise money for the low-cost counseling services it provides to people with mental health or substance abuse issues.
This year's Ride Don't Hide event will be held at 10:15 a.m. May 21 with cyclists gathering at Jethro's BBQ Southside, 4337 Park Ave. in Des Moines and traveling along Great Western Trail. Registration begins at 9 a.m., but riders can sign up online ahead of the event. It costs $30 to participate.
Cyclists of all skill levels are welcome to join and can choose among three routes — an eight-mile, 15-mile or 32-mile roundtrip distance trail — to ride. A map of the routes can be found here. Other monetary donations can be made online through the organization's site.
The event comes on the heels of Mental Health Awareness Month — which according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has been observed in the U.S. since 1949 — and anchors the nonprofit's long mission to provide access to mental health care for Iowans, according to a news release.
At Employee & Family Resources, clients are offered counseling services on a sliding fee scale. That means the price of services is adjusted based on their clients' incomes.
"The demand for counseling services is greater than ever right now," said Tammy Hoyman, CEO of the nonprofit, in the news release. "Making it OK not to be OK and making services available to all regardless of ability to pay is key to addressing these issues.”
In 2021, NAMI reported that 473,000 Iowans have a mental health condition — that figure is three times the size of the population of Cedar Rapids — and more than 1.8 million people live in a community that does not have enough mental health professionals.
It also reported that nearly 30% of Iowans in need of mental health care cannot afford it. Iowans are also more than twice as likely to be forced out-of-network for mental health care than for primary health care. That alone makes it harder to find care that's affordable, the report said.
"We know mental health care changes lives," a statement on Employee & Family Resources' site read. "Everyone has unique circumstances, and we believe finances should never interfere with health care."
F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: A Des Moines nonprofit is hosting its annual bike ride event: How to sign up
