MindCare and Well-Minded

30/11/2022

29/11/2022

The importance of mental health awareness in school

Mental health awareness is an important issue for all educators, who are often the first line of defense for their students. Education professionals have recognized the impact that a student's mental health has on learning and achievement, and they realize that there's a great deal that can be done to help students with mental health issues. As a high school teacher with more than 23 years of experience, I welcome the fact that mental health awareness is finally becoming an important part of a school's function and curriculum.

Seeing the Signs in My Student
A few years ago, a student in my senior class changed drastically in a short period of time. I noticed that Melina no longer did her homework, and she didn't even try on her essays. Previously meticulous in her appearance, Melina would come to school disheveled, wearing the same clothes. When I tried to speak to her, she was uncharacteristically distant and withdrawn. Because I had some training in mental health awareness, I knew Melina was in some sort of trouble.

Luckily, my school had social workers on staff who could speak to Melina and assess her issues. They discovered that Melina was depressed and suicidal, and she needed an immediate psychiatric intervention. Melina was hospitalized for a period of time, but she was able to return to my classroom a few months later. With the help of medication and therapy, she managed to graduate with her class.

Understanding the Impact
The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that one in five people live with some sort of mental disorder or disease. Despite the fact that the average age of early signs of mental illness is 14, most individuals don't seek help until adulthood. Underlining the seriousness is the fact that 60 percent of high school students with mental illness don't graduate.

Further reading: Ease Student Anxiety in the Classroom

New York mental health experts recognized that earlier intervention could result in more positive outcomes for these students. Beginning in July 2018, New York will be the first state in the nation to require mental health education for all students. The overall mission of New York's School Mental Health (SMH) program is to promote healthy social, emotional, and behavioral development of students, and "break down barriers to learning so the general well-being of students, families, and school staff can be enhanced in collaboration with other comprehensive student support and services."

The SMH program supports the emotional health and academic growth of all students with the following:

Integrating comprehensive services and support throughout every grade level
Assessing mental health needs through universal, selective, and targeted interventions
Providing access to behavioral and mental health services and programs
Leveraging higher-level personnel, such as those working with the Department of Education, for necessary support and services
Building collaborative relationships between the school and students' families and communities

Spreading Awareness Across the Nation

Until mental health education is a mandatory aspect of all schools, teachers and administrators can work to promote awareness with their students. Key elements to shine a light on include the concept of self-care and responsibility for one's own mental health and wellness, with an emphasis on the fact that mental health is an integral part of health, and the concept of recovery from mental illness.

Teachers and students should be provided with ways to recognize signs of developing mental health problems, and there should be opportunities around the awareness and management of mental health crises, including the risk of su***de or self-harm. Further, instruction should address the relationship between mental health, substance abuse, and other negative coping behaviors, as well as the negative impact of stigma and cultural attitudes toward mental illness.

Further reading: Social-Emotional Learning

Because teens spend most of their day at school, it just makes sense to have mental health awareness and education become part of the curriculum. When we empower students with knowledge, and encourage dialogue, students will be able to get the help they need.

Source:
https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/importance-mental-health-awareness-schools1810.html

29/11/2022

What is Mental Health Awareness, Why does it matter?

Being aware of your overall health is important so that you can detect any symptoms and seek professional help when necessary. While everyone is familiar familiar with the symptoms and treatment options for common illnesses that affect their loved ones, like the flu, migraines, or and (most recently) COVID-19, many people are unsure how to look after their mental health.

Raising mental health awareness can help you to understand your symptoms, find professional treatment, and, perhaps most importantly, break the mental health stigma that leaves so many people suffering in secret.

Contents

Which Conditions Need Mental Health Awareness?
How Can Mental Health Awareness Help?
1. Understand Your Symptoms
2. More Behavioral Health Resources

Mental Health Services Near You
What are barriers to mental health care?
What are evidence-based practices in mental health care?
How do I take care of my mental health?
Why care about mental health?
Which Conditions Need Mental Health Awareness?

mental health care

Mental health awareness is something that can help the millions of people who are impacted by mental health issues throughout the United States. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five adults have had or currently have symptoms of a mental illness. These statistics show just how prevalent living with a mental illness actually is.

This is also why NAMI recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month in May. The goal with a whole month of mental health awareness is to help people with mental illnesses understand that they are not alone in their struggles—and that getting treatment can make all the difference. If we applied this approach to mental health every day of the year, more and more people could benefit from knowing about these common illnesses.

Some common disorders that need more awareness include:

Generalized anxiety disorder
Substance use disorders
Depression
Bipolar disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Schizophrenia
Suicidal ideation
Though all of these mental health conditions have different symptoms, they can impact every aspect of your life. In truth, your mental health influences the way that you think, feel, and behave. This means that your social, professional, and personal life can be greatly impaired.

Many people who have mental health conditions aren’t sure how to cope with their symptoms and resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms to push away their emotional discomfort. As a result, you might also have an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Additionally, if you have one mental illness that goes untreated, you actually are at a greater risk for developing co-occurring disorders and you will need dual diagnosis treatment to fully heal.

Mental health awareness makes all of this information available to you so that you can assess your own risks and find help for any conditions you might have.

How Can Mental Health Awareness Help?
Mental health awareness doesn’t just help you. Knowing more about mental health disorders can also help your family members, friends, and coworkers. Three of the main reasons why mental health awareness is so important are outlined below:

1. Understand Your Symptoms
A lot of people who have mental health symptoms don’t actually realize that their struggles are a result of untreated disorders. Therefore, mental health awareness is helpful in getting you to understand your symptoms.

While all mental health conditions have different symptoms, some signs to look out for include:

Changes in sleeping patterns
Loss of appetite
Impulsive decision making
Turning to drugs or alcohol in moments of distress
Suicidal thoughts
If you haven’t been feeling like yourself lately, you might have a mental health issue that requires immediate treatment. After all, the symptoms of mental health disorders can be incredibly dangerous for both your emotional and physical health.

2. More Behavioral Health Resources
Another significant benefit to mental health awareness is that the more people know about the need for mental health treatment, the more mental health resources will become available. Without mental health resources, people would not be able to recover.

The most important mental health resources are:

Mental health hospitals
Behavioral health programs
12-step programs
Medical detox from drugs and alcohol
Inpatient mental health treatment.
In mental health hospitals you will have all of the resources you need to recover from mental health conditions, heal from co-occurring disorders, and learn strategies to maintain your health after your time in treatment. And mental health resources like crisis service care can keep you safe so that you have the ability to go through treatment.

Source:

Mental health awareness can make a big difference for people with mental illnesses. Learn what you can do to help and find help in Florida!

29/11/2022

Mental Health Awareness: The importance of conversation

It's impossible to have a conversation about health and wellness without talking about mental health. In the United States, nearly one in five adults have a mental illness or mental health condition. That's nearly 52 million people.

However, mental health isn't just about having or not having a mental illness. Our well-being is affected by all aspects of our lives, and that, in turn, affects how we experience life, work, and time with our loved ones. Now, the conversation is more critical than ever. In 2021, the prevalent feeling of the year was languishing. BetterUp’s research found that more than 55% of workers weren't mentally ill, but they weren't thriving either.

As the pandemic has brought physical health center stage in an unprecedented way, it's time to look at the other major components of well-being. The conversation around mental health awareness has never been as public, as prevalent, or as important. After all, building awareness is a critical ingredient to learning how to care for your mental health.

Learn what mental health awareness is and how it makes a difference in your personal and professional life in this article.

What is mental health awareness?
So what does mental health awareness mean, and how do you promote it?

Mental health awareness is the ongoing effort to reduce the stigma around mental illness and mental health conditions by sharing our personal experiences.

Often, because of misconceptions about mental health and mental fitness, people often suffer in silence and their conditions go untreated. Mental health awareness is an important social movement to both improve understanding and increase access to healthcare.

How can mental health awareness help?
Mental health awareness is critical to promoting mental health treatment and behavioral health. It’s a necessary and foundational conversation for changing to a more proactive model of mental health.

Right now, we only fill our tanks when they’re on “empty.” Developing our awareness helps us start to recognize the signs and symptoms when we’re feeling “off” — just as we do with physical illness.

Here are four important benefits of mental health awareness:

1. Helps you understand your symptoms
Sometimes, there is magic in having a diagnosis. Despite the stigma around the term, it’s simply a shorthand for a collection of symptoms that occur together.

Especially with mental health conditions, which are difficult to pinpoint — and sometimes impossible to find — on a test, a diagnosis can be incredibly validating. It can help people feel less alone and make it easier to find treatment. Pay attention to your symptoms. For example, you might feel like your mental health worsens with social media use.

mental-health-awareness-therapy-session

2. Starts a conversation
Mental health awareness is an ongoing conversation, but up until recently, it's only been had in whispers. But because a common feature of many moods and anxiety disorders is distorted thinking, talking about it can actually be immensely therapeutic.

Building a support network and speaking with a licensed mental health professional is critical to alleviating symptoms of many mental health conditions.

Unfortunately, stigma creates silence. It also makes it difficult to ask for support at work or in other environments that might be made more challenging by a mental health diagnosis.

3. Better education
It's crucial for caregivers, employers, parents, family members, and loved ones to understand the impact that mental health has on daily life. However, while mental health conditions can make daily life more difficult, they also don't have to prevent you from having a fulfilling and engaging life.

When the people in your life understand and prioritize mental health care, it makes it easier to take the actions you need to do to take care of yourself and thrive.

4. Promotes mental fitness
Many of us have fallen into the trap of thinking of mental health as solely related to mental illness. However, it's possible to have a mental health condition and be mentally fit, and the absence of a mental health condition doesn't necessarily ensure mental fitness.

Expanding our understanding of mental health issues and wellness to incorporate mental fitness, a proactive approach to emotional health, well-being, and cognitive agility. It allows us to live life with more purpose, clarity, and passion. Reducing the stigma around mental health is an important step to embracing mental fitness.

3 tips to promote mental health awareness
How can individual people, especially non-clinicians, make a difference in promoting mental health awareness? A big part of it is learning to talk and share about mental health openly.

When we are quiet about mental health and fitness, we allow stigma to continue. That silence makes it harder for people to prioritize their own mental well-being.

Sources:
https://www.pinerest.org/newsroom/articles/mental-health-awareness-blog/

29/11/2022

"The Importance of Mental Health Awareness "

Mental illnesses affect 19% of the adult population, 46% of teenagers and 13% of children each year. People struggling with their mental health may be in your family, live next door, teach your children, work in the next cubicle or sit in the same church pew.

However, only half of those affected receive treatment, often because of the stigma attached to mental health. Untreated, mental illness can contribute to higher medical expenses, poorer performance at school and work, fewer employment opportunities and increased risk of su***de.

What is Exactly is Mental Health Illness?
A mental illness is a physical illness of the brain that causes disturbances in thinking, behavior, energy or emotion that make it difficult to cope with the ordinary demands of life. Research is starting to uncover the complicated causes of these diseases which can include genetics, brain chemistry, brain structure, experiencing trauma and/or having another medical condition, like heart disease.

The two most common mental health conditions are:
Anxiety Disorders – More than 18% of adults each year struggle with some type of anxiety disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder (panic attacks), generalized anxiety disorder and specific phobias.

Mood Disorders – Mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar depression, affect nearly 10% of adults each year and are characterized by difficulties in regulating one’s mood.

HOME > ARTICLES > ANXIETY > THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

By: Jean Holthaus, LISW, LMSW




Circle of people unified by stretching hands out on top of each otherMental illnesses affect 19% of the adult population, 46% of teenagers and 13% of children each year. People struggling with their mental health may be in your family, live next door, teach your children, work in the next cubicle or sit in the same church pew.

However, only half of those affected receive treatment, often because of the stigma attached to mental health. Untreated, mental illness can contribute to higher medical expenses, poorer performance at school and work, fewer employment opportunities and increased risk of su***de.

What Exactly is a Mental Illness
A mental illness is a physical illness of the brain that causes disturbances in thinking, behavior, energy or emotion that make it difficult to cope with the ordinary demands of life. Research is starting to uncover the complicated causes of these diseases which can include genetics, brain chemistry, brain structure, experiencing trauma and/or having another medical condition, like heart disease.

The two most common mental health conditions are:

Anxiety Disorders – More than 18% of adults each year struggle with some type of anxiety disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder (panic attacks), generalized anxiety disorder and specific phobias.

Mood Disorders – Mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar depression, affect nearly 10% of adults each year and are characterized by difficulties in regulating one’s mood.

What You Can Do to Help Mental Health Awareness ?
Although the general perception of mental illness has improved over the past decades, studies show that stigma against mental illness is still powerful, largely due to media stereotypes and lack of education, and that people tend to attach negative stigmas to mental health conditions at a far higher rate than to other diseases and disabilities, such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease.

Stigma affects not only the number seeking treatment, but also the number of resources available for proper treatment. Stigma and misinformation can feel like overwhelming obstacles for someone who is struggling with a mental health condition.

Here a few powerful things you can do to help:

Showing individuals respect and acceptance removes a significant barrier to successfully coping with their illness. Having people see you as an individual and not as your illness can make the biggest difference for someone who is struggling with their mental health.
Advocating within our circles of influence helps ensure these individuals have the same rights and opportunities as other members of your church, school and community.
Learning more about mental health allows us to provide helpful support to those affected in our families and communities.

Sources from:https://www.pinerest.org/newsroom/articles/mental-health-awareness-blog/