“Audrey Gruss – Hope at Home” by Chris Cameron
Originally appeared on Social Life Magazine July 4, 2020 Issue
Click here to view the original publication.
Some might say that we’re going through dark times, but from where the philanthropist Audrey Gruss is sitting, hope is everywhere. “The weather is sunny and beautiful,” she says looking out over the water from her apartment in Florida – a temporary residence Gruss and her husband Martin are calling home while their house in Palm Beach receives a sophisticated overhaul. “Oh my goodness, we are so fortunate to be down here. We took some of our furniture instead of storing  it and Scott Snyder  helped decorate. It feels  like we  are on a boat right in the middle of Lake Worth. It’s uplifting.”
EASING INTO QUARANTINE
Although Gruss, – a renowned philanthropist New York, the Hamptons,and Palm Beach -typically keeps a busy social calendar, she would under normal circumstance be enjoying London society, polo, Ascot, and the Chelsea Flower Show at this time of year. She says that she’s finally begun to ease in to quarantine. I’m at home being a good girl,” she laughs.” Martin and I are watching a lot of  Netflix and PBS Masterpiece. The only problem is that you could start to gain weight in quarantine, eating three meals a day and sitting on the sofa. So I’m exercising every day and I’m staying active.”
HOPE FOR DEPRESSION RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Most important, staying active means that Gruss’s foundation, Hope  for Depression Research Foundation (HDRF) – the leading depression research organization in the country – is  continuing its important work fighting mental health disorders. As a  part of that work, she recently launched a new email newsletter called Hope at Home.
It’s  very relatable,” Gruss says of the free email newsletter, which is accessible via hopefordepression.org. “These are important emails based on the four pillars of good mental health. We’ve had a wonderful response from people. Even when I go pick up sandwiches in town, people come up and thank me for what we are doing.” For the uninitiated, the four pillars are exercise, nutrition, sleep, and mindfulness. Each day, the newsletter focuses on one of these aspects of mental health, accompanied by quotes and input from psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and other experts. “People are very stressed during this pandemic,” says Gruss, a Tufts graduate who was formerly an executive at the textile firm J.P Stevens and director of advertising at the beauty brand Elizabeth Arden.
“So we’ve created a daily guide filled with healthful advice that will help people build resilience, stay connected, and maintain normalcy.Even for people who do not have mental health issues, during times of natural disaster there is fear, anxiety, and tremendous stress. People who don’t have depression might very well feed depressed at a time like this.”LINCOLN CENTER, FIT, LENNOX HILL, WATERMILL CENTER, MET, MOMA & THE GUGGENHEIM
Those who know Gruss wil recognize the passion she puts into this work. Since she founded HDRF in 2006, she has been a full-time champion for cutting-edge neuroscience-based research into the prevention of depression and new and better treatments.
“I founded HDRF a year after my mother, Hope, passed away,” says Gruss, who is the longest-standing female board member of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, as well as a borad member of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, the FIT Couture Council, the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Center, and a major supporter of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. “My mother had been battling depression most of her life, but never received full relief from her symptoms. So I started to investigate. I discovered that 35 percent of the people who need medication don’t respond to what’s out there. The existing antidepressants that are in broad use are all based on Prozac, which was introduced in 1985. That’s 35 years ago! Since then there has been no new broadly used category of medication introduced. Our mission is to find new medications and treatments and raise awareness. ”Guss felt that mental health was misunderstood, stigmatized, under-researched, and underfunded. Though her fundraising events , such as the Race of Hope, the Hope Fragrance Collection and other charitable endeavors, HDRF has been able to invest over $40 million in advanced depression research to date. “We don’t just raise funds,” says Gruss. “We actually created the research program. Our Depression Task Force is a team of the world’s leading neuroscientists, each sharing their research in realtime, instead of waiting years until it is published. They have made some important discoveries, and, as a matter of fact, we are now going into clinical trials in three university hospitals with a new potential category of anti-depressant.
NEW TREATMENT INITIATIVE
But big breakthroughs come with big bills. That’s why this MAy, Gruss launched a new $30 million fund for HDRF’s New Treatment Initiative. “We are making an open call to universities worldwide to find out who is doing the most advanced and out-of-the-box research for new depression treatments,” she says. “We are going to fund the most promising projects and get them into clinical trials as quickly as possible.” This is just the start. Gruss adds that she is looking to start a matching campaign because “It’s going to take so much more to find new treatments for depression fast. When you realize that 350 million people around the world and 20 million people in the United States suffer from depression,” she says, “and with the great stresses of the pandemic, it becomes so important to find ways to help. If we ca move this field forward, we will have done an amazing thing, and I am so proud that HDRF is leading the way with this new initiative. ” hopefordepression.org
