‘Bring purpose to the pain;’ UD focuses on mental health to honor life of Jayda Grant

DAYTON — The University of Dayton focused on mental health and wellness with young people Thursday night at the UD Arena.

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The National Alliance of Mental Illness organization said almost 2 million adults in Ohio struggle with mental health.

UD men’s basketball head coach Anthony Grant’s daughter by suicide more than a year ago.

Jayda Grant, who many knew as Jay, was a member of the UD’s track team.

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On Thursday night, Jay’s parents were part of a panel discussion.

Coach Grant and his wife Chris joined Mark and Kym Hilinski.

Their son Tyler played football at Washington University and died after his junior year.

Organizers told News Center 7 Thursday night they hope events like this bring more awareness and resources.

“We are seeing more and more youth suicides across the country, but it especially hits hard when that’s at home in Montgomery County,” said Colleen Oakes, Montgomery County Prevention Coalition Manager. “So, this event puts a real unique spotlight on some of those mental health disorders and lets us get in front of an entirely new audience of Flyer fans and community members that may not otherwise hear our message.”

Neil Sullivan, vice president and director of athletics at the University of Dayton, told News Center 7 that one of the keys to Thursday’s event was to “change the stigma and change the conversation” when it comes to mental health.

“A number of people want to hear about this,” he said. “(They) want to learn about this.”

He added the second driving force was to tell people the number of resources available.

“When something hits your family and someone finds a situation that they find themselves in,” said Sullivan. “They might be able to find a resource, an organization that they might be able to help them or a loved one.”

Sullivan said Coach Grant felt now was the time to do something about mental health earlier this spring.

“We told from the beginning that if he wanted the full force of the University of Dayton and community behind him to let him know,” he said. “He felt now was the time. So, we went in motion from there and started the process of what that would look like, and the effort was to bring purpose to the pain.”

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The Dayton Flyers will play Ohio State in an exhibition men’s basketball game on Sunday night at 6 p.m.

Proceeds will go to mental health organizations across the state.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health, there are resources to help.

You can call or text ‘9-8-8,’ day or night, to talk to a counselor.

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