May 2019: Mental Health Awareness Month




May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States and other areas of the world.  Many different organizations have themes and information for the month.  This month's blog is a list of places to explore to learn more about mental health and wellness as well as mental illness.  The more we know and understand about mental illness and how common it is, the more we can break down the stigma and misunderstandings about it.




The National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) is using the slogan, "Why Care?" with the tagline:  "Because 1 in 5 people will be affected by mental illness in their lifetime.  Take the time to show that you care about mental health."



Mental Health America (MHA) is continuing the theme from last year of #4mind4body and have a number of resources including toolkits and graphics, which can be found here.



Teenmentalhealth.org has a number of excellent resources for parents and teens including a toolbox, educational information about mental illnesses, the importance of healthy sleep, understanding the teen brain, and an area for support and resources especially for parents.


The National Council for Behavioral Health is offering a number of resources, social media links, and infographics talking about mental health and how to support yourself and others. The National Council also offers Mental Health First Aid trainings which teach people how to support and intervene if they have concerns about adults or children. 

Finally, if video is more your thing, there are more than 70 TED talks which address mental health topics including medication, anxiety, anger, addiction, ADHD, depression, and stress. 


Happy reading/watching! 
--Dr J

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

September 2019: Welcome Back To School!

Welcome back to all our returning students and families and welcome to all of our new students and families!  We're so glad you're here and we are ready for another exciting, full, interesting year.  There's an old saying- some attribute it to a Chinese curse- "May your life be interesting."  It's sort of a double-edged blessing/curse, isn't it?  Because interesting doesn't necessarily mean positive or good- it could just as easily be negative and bad.  I think of the middle school years in that context- a double-edged blessing/curse.  Sixth grade through eighth grade is such a full time.  Academically, students are learning critical thinking and executive function skills across all content areas.  Socially, they are learning how to interact, get along and resolve conflict with their peers and the adults in their lives.  Physically, they are growing taller, maturing, and those hormones are often raging.  Emotionally, they are feeling...
Read more

February 2022: Access To Mental Health Services

How's your mental health these days? It's a good time to check in with yourself to see where you fall on a scale of "totally fine" to "really not okay." If you're feeling like maybe you could benefit from some mental health treatment and support and you decide that you want to see a therapist, how would you go about finding one? It's a good question, right? Access to mental health treatment varies widely depending on a number of factors. Insurance, geography, socioeconomic status, race, gender, sexual orientation... the list goes on and on. While this should not be the case, like so many things in our country, the more demographic boxes you check off, the less likely you are to be able to easily access treatment. Massachusetts has a mental health parity law which essentially says insurers who provide mental health benefits for the diagnosis and treatment of certain mental disorders must do so to the same extent that they cover the diagnosis and treat...
Read more

March 2022: Sleep

  Note: I wrote before the devastating war in the Ukraine. As I read over it now, it seems so silly to be thinking about sleep problems as well as many other things when it's clear that there are bigger issues in the world. There's so much happening everywhere- war, climate change, famine, murder, racism, poverty, pandemic... the list goes on and on, and it's very easy to be overwhelmed and to feel like our own seemingly smaller problems don't matter. The truth is, they do. As a therapist once told me, pain and suffering are not a competition. There will always be someone, somewhere who has it worse and who has it better than you do. Your pain is just as valid. So, the best that we can do, I think, is be where we are, when we are; to do what we can, when we can; and to help ourselves and help others as much as we're able. It's a very mindful way of being: staying in the moment and working on what's in front of us both personally and further-reaching. As the ...
Read more