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Every year since 1949, Mental Health America has held Mental Health Month. Along with affiliates across the United States, Mental Health America strives to share the importance of mental health with millions of people through media coverage, mental health screenings, and events led by individuals and organizations.
Especially this year, mental health is a topic that is on everyone’s mind. The Covid-19 pandemic has isolated some, caused others to lose friends and loved ones, and forced others to face significant changes in their lives. These challenges come with their challenges to mental health, and even the toughest among us have struggled.
Every year, but especially now in 2022, Mental Health America works to lessen mental health issues. Every year, but especially now, untold numbers of people suffer under the weight of issues like trauma, depression, and stress. And every year, but especially now, many of those people aren’t willing to seek help because of the stigma around mental health challenges.
This Mental Health Month, InterCoast Colleges hopes to reduce the stigma around mental health by opening up the conversation.
What is Mental Health Month?
For Mental Health Month 2022, the theme is Tools 2 Thrive. With this theme, Mental Health America hopes to offer various techniques and tools to help people work with their mental health and improve their resiliency. Especially important in the light of Covid-19, Tools 2 Thrive offers printable handouts on topics like working with stress, coping with anger, negotiating traps in thinking, dealing with significant change, working with yourself, and accepting reality.
It may sound strange that Mental Health Month would include accepting reality, but many mental health troubles can come from resisting (or trying to resist) reality. So with a toolkit including printouts on mental health skills like radical acceptance, Tools 2 Thrive will spread knowledge about mental health struggles and practices.
Beyond that, Mental Health America is working to sustain a broader conversation around the topic of mental health, helping to end the stigma that keeps people from getting help. By partnering with organizations across the country, Mental Health America is helping to spread the message that mental health is a topic worth speaking out about and that anyone who struggles with mental health issues does not have to suffer in silence.
What Can You Do for Mental Health Month?
Your mental health begins with one person: yourself. That’s why one of the most effective things you can do for Mental Health Month is to take a mental health screening. Mental health screenings aren’t just for people who believe they’re struggling with a severe mental health issue. They can serve as a helpful measure to track your state of mind and see if there are any potential mental health problems you should watch out for. Mental Health America offers screenings for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, postpartum depression, eating disorders, and addiction, along with general screenings targeted at youths and parents.
Looking for other ways you can help the cause of Mental Health Month? Mental Health America accepts donations all year long, and sharing about Mental Health Month on social media can help spread awareness and widen the conversation around mental health. You can also look out for mental health-related events in the local community and even get in touch with Mental Health America to set up your event. Mental Health America is working to create a better mental health future for people across the country.
InterCoast Colleges and Mental Health Rehabilitation
If you’re a caring, compassionate person with a strong desire to help others, you may be interested in the Mental Health Rehabilitation Technician program through InterCoast Colleges. This 720-hour, 56-week program is designed to help you gain the knowledge you need to become a skilled mental health specialist, ensuring the mental health field has assistants who can provide for the well-being of patients and those in need. The mental health industry needs new assistants to help those who suffer from mental health challenges.
InterCoast Colleges offers the Mental Health Rehabilitation Technician program online. It’s designed to introduce students without prior mental health experience to the tools and knowledge they need.
Students in the program will receive instruction in the most necessary skills, including community integration, intensive case management, assertive community treatment, skills development, and family psycho-education.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Mental Health Rehabilitation Technician program, please contact us. We’d be happy to hear from you, and one of our representatives will be glad to help you get started in your journey through InterCoast Colleges.
The Value of Mental Health
Mental health is something millions of people struggle with across the country. Especially in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, mental health has become a significant issue for people trying to move along with their lives. Through work with the media, affiliate organizations, and local events, Mental Health America hopes to use Mental Health Month as a way to raise awareness and encourage those with issues to seek the help they need.
Through screenings and mental health advice in Tools 2 Thrive, you can do your part to ensure your mental health. You may even consider sharing some printable handouts on mental health topics with someone who seems to be struggling. And if you’re driven to help people and looking for a new career in mental health, please reach out to InterCoast Colleges about our Mental Health Rehabilitation Technician program.
May is mental health month. Working together can help end the stigma surrounding mental health, creating a world where people in need don’t hesitate to seek help because they’re worried about how it will look or what people will think. And with that in mind, maybe we can carry the spirit of Mental Health Month forward into the rest of the year.