May is Mental Health Awareness Month. To honor it, CRCH’s Behavioral Health team will be meeting to help coordinate a plan to provide mental health awareness and basic interventions for our patients by providing information and materials such as substance abuse conditions, behaviors, anxiety, anger, depression, trauma, and other life stressors, etc.
Information on Mental Health Awareness Month: What is it?
Mental Health Awareness Month was started in 1949 as a way of raising awareness about mental health and the crises that occur when we fail to address mental health concerns early and effectively through prevention, early intervention and treatment. Over the last 60+ years, the one month observance has reached millions of individuals struggling with mental health issues of their own or of those they love. Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental health condition. The National Association of Mental Illness and participants across the country are raising awareness of mental illness. Each year we fight stigma, provide support, educate the public and advocate for equal care. Mental health is a topic that affects us all. We all have minds. We all have feelings. Therefore, mental health is relevant to YOU.
2017 Theme: “Risky Business”
The National Theme of Mental Health Awareness Month for 2017 is “Risky Business”. Mental Health America, the organization that spearheads the themes, media coverage, and local events each year, has highlighted this topic because it is “important to educate people about habits and behaviors that increase the risk of developing or exacerbating mental illnesses, or could be signs of mental health problems themselves”. Some risky behaviors include, but are not limited to “risky sex, prescription drug misuse, internet addiction, excessive spending, marijuana use, and troublesome exercise patterns”. The tools and resources in the links provided may help to raise awareness of the risks that these types of behaviors present, how to reduce these risks, prevent illness and improve wellness. (www.mentalhealthamerica.net)
CRCH and Behavioral Health
As part of an integrated team, together we can support our patients in identifying risky behaviors and addressing them. Ultimately, our wellness is notably linked to our behavioral choices. So, let’s try to make mindful choices in promotion of our own health. Let’s try to make mindful choices that promote one another’s health; and let’s definitely support our patients in strengthening their own skills to make health promoting mindful choices away from risk and towards wellness!
