Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

TV Producer Shares Tragic Story Of Father’s Death To Shed Light On Mental Health Crisis

A media producer publicly shared the heartbreaking story of his father’s death to illustrate the mental health crisis in the United States.

Andrew Kimmel, a former head of live video at BuzzFeed News and producer of ABC’s “The Bachelor,” began his Twitter thread with a disclaimer that the story of his father’s suicide, which happened a year ago, is dark but important to share.

Family meant everything to his father, who 11 years ago began spending tens of thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to help Kimmel’s sister, who was struggling with mental illness. As her condition became more debilitating, his father was diagnosed with an incurable nerve condition, peripheral neuropathy, which left him in constant pain. He was incapacitated by his bi-monthly plasma transfusions, but kept working.

The father decided to move the family to California in hopes of finding better healthcare options for his daughter. The mental health facilities were better, but there were no long-term options for her. At the same time, the main financial backer for his company pulled out.

At 70 years old, Kimmel’s father called him asking for help. He was in pain because he couldn’t afford treatment and struggling to pay rent. He tried to hide it all from Kimmel’s mom, his wife for almost 50 years.

While Kimmel was visiting the family in California, his father shot himself in the heart.

“His last words to paramedics were, ‘I failed my family,” Kimmel wrote.

That brought him to his plea about the country’s mental health crisis, sharing articles about continued funding cuts for mental health programs and rising insurance costs.

“My dad had no other options. He didn’t want to be a burden. He knew his health would not improve w/out [sic] being able to afford care,” Kimmel concluded. “He knew there would be no job for someone his age and in his declining health. And because of this, he knew he was worth more dead than alive.”

Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.