When it comes to mental health, a peer can be a life saver

Michael Hardie hadn’t taken a first sip of his coffee at South Lake Union’s Uptown Espresso when a young man carrying a Bluetooth speaker hurried into the cafe and stood at a nearby pillar. He was agitated, muttering to himself.

“You doing OK?” Hardie asked him. “You doing all right?”

The man glanced at him, and, still muttering, turned away, ignoring Hardie’s question. A moment later, the antsy guy ran — pranced, really — out the door of the coffee house, where a woman was stopping people on the sidewalk, asking for money.