The Mental Health Association in Utah was a small office with one full-time employee, but each day a handful of people called looking for help. Staff referred the calls, fought for better mental health insurance benefits and ran self-empowerment trainings.

The closure was heartbreaking to Lisa Marie Potter, whose son committed suicide earlier this year.

"It was so hard to get help for him," the Bluffdale mother said recently. "To hear anything that can help people is diminishing is frustrating."

The association did not receive several anticipated grants, some of which were from pharmaceutical companies. Whether that is a result of the economic crisis remains unclear. The national organization that tracks pharmaceutical philanthropy does not have 2008 numbers available yet.

"Nonprofit work is hard and it's hard with the economy," said Sherri Wittwer, executive director of the Utah branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "And certainly mental health is an issue you have to convince people they need to be concerned about."

Larry Eggett participated in the association's annual walk for suicide prevention and awareness after his son committed suicide about three years ago.

"I don't know how much it may have done to prevent suicide, but it sure helped us heal," said Eggett, who lives in Riverton with his family. "It helped us realize we were not alone."

Having newly discovered another suicide-prevention group, Hugs for Life, he hopes to attend its car show this Saturday at Murray Park.

One year, the Mental Health Association's walk had 1,200 participants wearing shirts honoring the people who had died, recalled board president Jim Magleby.

"I was just in tears from all of these folks who were walking in memory of friends and family," he said. "It was huge."

jlyon@sltrib.com