A parent becomes a mental health anchor: Carl Layne
“I care to heal the scene because the world is a dark place. There are not a lot of outlets for people who run into dead ends. When they don't know where to turn or they don't have someone to talk to at the end of the tunnel, terrible things happen. I don't want to see that happen to any of these kids out here. These kids are our future. You guys are our future.”
— Carl Layne, father and longtime HeartSupport donor
Over the past five years, instances of depression and anxiety in adolescents have as much as doubled. Suicide has become the second-leading cause of death for teenagers.
Carl Layne predicted the likelihood of this increased prevalence ten years ago — and he wanted to do something about it.
“One of the programs that I work with here in Austin, it's an outreach for teenagers and young men,” the Texan father and husband shares. “One of the students in particular was in a suicidal place. I was able to reach out to my friend Nate Hilpert for some support on how to deal with this kid. At that point, I really had no experience with people who were suicidal. But Nate was able to give me insight into how to relate to this kid who I was hanging out with in a group. It was pretty effective in just having a neutral position and just being there for this kid.”
This was around the time that Nate Hilpert, now HeartSupport’s Executive Director, was first getting involved with the startup nonprofit HeartSupport. Carl saw that Nate, still freshly out of college, already seemed to have found his purpose in life— and it was backed up by the real-world advice he was offering.
“Nate got connected with me through a friend who said, ‘Hey man, you gotta listen to this guy's story,’” Carl remembers. “Nate approached me and told me about this thing called HeartSupport. He was very passionate about it and very excited. He explained that this new outreach was reaching people when they were at their lowest points. He would meet them through this musician, Jake Luhrs. And I'd never heard of Jake or any of his music, but Nate was so passionate about it. I was excited to hear that this young guy already had a mission. I jumped right in, felt the need, and decided to go ahead and support him.”
Carl was compelled to jump in not only because of the at-risk youth he was interacting with. He’s a father of daughters, girls who at the time were young children. He knew that their teenage years were coming soon. He was sobered by the challenges he knew they’d be facing.
He explains, “It made an impact on me because I knew that at some point in time, my girls were going to grow up, and they were going to run into struggles. Especially as social media was coming online. I could see the effects of that even with me posting on a social media app, the things it does to my head. I knew this was coming down the road for my kids. When Nate first approached me, he painted a picture of what was going on with these teenagers. They were 10 years older than my kids at the time, but it was so clear that they needed help, you know?”
His father’s heart was so moved that he brought the cause to his wife.
“She didn't quite understand it, so I explained it to her. After that, we both agreed that this is something that is a definite need. It's going to be increasing over the years with the stress and anxiety of this world and the things kids are getting exposed to. It was a no-brainer for us. And so we decided to just be an anchor,” Carl says with simple but profound conviction.
Carl was in a strong place in his career, enough so that it was easy to designate a consistent amount to give to the organization. He committed to regular giving, and then started reaching out to friends who he knew were similarly financially stable.
He recalls, “I happened to have a good network, a good sphere of influence of business people and people who could relate to what was going on. People were in similar life stages as I was. I just said, ‘Hey guys, look at the world. Look how this technology has evolved. Look at what's going on with their kids.’ Once I sent that out to about 20 or 25 different people, I got quite a few responses back. And a lot of these people had teenagers that were dealing with the same thing. I think it's a common thread that as parents, we're seeing this across the board.”
That solidarity in a desire to support teenagers became a connecting point that birthed significant support for HeartSupport’s mission during its crucial early years. Carl was able to see his friends’ understanding of mental health develop in the same way that his once had.
“A lot of them really weren't aware of what these kids were going through, and they didn't know there was a place for this group of metal followers to find someone to talk to in their darkest moments,” Carl continues. “Once they heard the story, I think that made it easier for them to jump in. It felt like, hey, we're meeting a need for these kids that are at a point where they have nowhere to go. At least we can provide a backstop for those in need.”
Now, it’s been over a decade of the Laynes providing that safety net for people who need it the most. In those years, they’ve seen the seeds of financial investment they planted long ago grow into a movement of healing in the music scene. They’ve seen real, tangible progress.
“Nate has provided some metrics from time to time, in minutes or hours or years of support,” Carl explains. “Then he'll tie that into people that they've been able to touch. And
It brings a sense of reality. It brings a sense of satisfaction: this is really helping. These guys are finding life at the end of this dark tunnel. Thousands of people have been able to make contact with HeartSupport.
He knows the work isn’t done. He reflects, “I go back to looking at the world today. You look at the state of social media and the screen time that people are using, and HeartSupport is going to be an ever-increasing need.”
Recently, the Layne family experienced that truth in a soberling personal way. Carl’s wife is an art teacher in a local school near Austin. She had bonded with one of her students, a sensitive, intelligent, creative kid. Recently, he died by suicide.
“It really struck home with us because my girls were a couple years ahead of him, but they knew him. It would have been really nice to have a an outlet for him to reach out to, or someone to talk to. And this kid in middle school wouldn't have gone and committed suicide,” Carl says urgently. “When I think of things like that, it really shows how important organizations like HeartSupport are: to have someone there for these kids that just have nowhere to go.”
And as a donor to HeartSupport, Carl is continuing to make sure that it’s less and less common that kids get left behind in that way. It’s a way for him to use the stability of the family he and his wife have built to reach out to kids who might not have that.
“Coming from a nuclear family and having a nuclear family myself, that helps me understand that there are a lot more broken families in this world than there are families that are together. And that increases the probability that a lot of these kids are going to have big issues in life dealing with what's going on in society,” the father reflects.
At the end of the day, it truly does take everyone to heal the scene: not just those inside of it, but those outside of it as well. People like Carl, who cares deeply about youth mental health, even when it’s not his immediate experience. People like you, who can join Carl today.
In closing, he says, “I think the metal scene is a dark alley that a lot of people go down. Once they get there, I think they could always end up going in the wrong direction. When they can find that there's a light where they are, I think that's a great way to heal the scene. HeartSupport is a group of people that are there to meet people in their current stage of life.”
