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KEYS Parent Advocates

Harper County

Mary Johnston
Mary brings a wealth of experience to the area of family assistance. She was involved in a marriage with an alcoholic and abusive husband whom she divorced after three years. She has been in her second marriage for twenty years and has two step-sons and one natural son. Her experience with severe emotional disturbance arose from raising her step-sons who both had varying degrees of emotional problems. One of these boys lead her through the maze of special education, medication therapy, out-patient therapy, family therapy, long-term hospitalization and reintegration into their family. She has had the unique experience also of dealing with a gifted child who has struggled with being the sibling of brothers with severe emotional problems. She has dealt with numerous agencies in the attempt to help her family including Social and Rehabiliation Services and Juvenile Justice. To help her gain a better understanding of mental health services available (and unavailable) to children, she served six years on the local mental health center board and two years on the board of the state associations of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas. Mary was one of the founding board members of Keys for Networking Inc. She is very friendly and easy to talk to, is a good listener and someone who can get things done. She would be available to help families in the following counties: Pratt, Barber, Harper, Rice, Harvey, McPherson, Saline, and Kiowa. She would be able to do phone contact evenings and weekends and face to face assistance on weekends and evenings in the Hutchinson area.

Mary McCoy
Mary has been married for 22 years and has two step-sons ages 26 and 29, one son who is 19 and 4 grandchildren. She works full time for Horizons Mental Health Center as a Parent Support Specialist and a Wraparound facilitator. One of her step-son's has severe emotional disturbance, so she has that personal experience plus the work experience of being the facilitator for 30 Wraparound teams of children with SED. Mary has served on the board of Keys for Networking, Inc. and is a member of their Consensus Stakeholders. She has also served on the board for the Kansas Association of Community Mental Health Centers. She is available to assist families in Reno, Pratt, Kingman, Harper, and Barber counties.