Mental Health Awareness Month
We’ve seen how the craziness of the past few months has taken its toll on healthcare workers and COVID-19 patients, but if we’re being honest, we’ve all been impacted mentally and emotionally. Whether social distancing for you has meant the extreme of living apart from your family to avoid infecting them, or just doing without the social support you normally rely on, this much change in such a short time is tough on anyone. We’re dealing with fearing for our own—or others’—health, the loss of loved ones, jobs, or businesses, and the general uncertainty that something like a global pandemic brings. Basically, we could all use a “mental health day” (or 30) from life as a whole. It’s appropriate, then, that May is Mental Health Month, a national initiative to promote awareness of mental health struggles, and to give us practical skills for handling whatever challenges may come today or tomorrow.
For 2020, Mental Health America has launched the Tools2Thrive kit, which provides simple strategies to help people increase resiliency and improve their mental health. From “owning your feelings” to “creating healthy routines,” the Tools2Thrive resources help readers identify the parts of their lives that are causing stress and improve them by changing perspectives and learning new coping strategies. Additionally, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is using Mental Health Month to raise awareness about and erase the stigma linked to mental illness. The “You Are Not Alone” campaign invites people to share their personal experiences so that others may better understand the impact of mental illness on individuals and our greater society.
These initiatives are a great reminder that our overall health is about more than just physical wellness, and that mental illness can wreak as much havoc on our lives and our society as any other ailment. So what do we need to do in Michigan to give our residents access to mental health care that they both want and deserve? We must prioritize and invest in the mental health of every citizen—from offering postpartum care for new moms to substance abuse treatment for people struggling with addictions.
The Governor’s budget for 2020 gives us a strong starting point by expanding in-home nursing and counseling services to 1,000 more families, extending new moms’ access to postpartum care from 60 days to one full year, and increasing psychiatric care staffing, improving the quality of care, and enhancing staff and patient safety. However, to reach every Michigander, we still have more work to do. We must:
Increase the number of behavioral health professionals in underserved areas so that everyone can access mental health care, no matter where they live.
Integrate primary and behavioral healthcare to make it easier for people to seek mental health treatment in the same places they already go to take care of their physical health.
Expand access to in-home services, which helps to ensure that people who lack transportation or otherwise struggle to get to an appointment can still receive care.
Take advantage of telemedicine, which can enable providers to care for patients and even write prescriptions using virtual visits. (In order to ensure our rural population is covered, we must also close the gaps in broadband internet capacity throughout Michigan).
Our state’s mental health situation was dire before COVID-19 hit, and demand is only growing as this crisis continues. Investing in our mental health will be a vital part of our recovery process. In the meantime, if you are struggling, please reach out to a trusted friend, a medical provider, or to a helpline for support. While none of us can make this pandemic disappear or erase the family, career, or financial challenges we and our fellow Americans are facing, leaders in every community are doing the best they can to increase the support and resources available to their citizens. Getting back to “normal” will take time, and it won’t be easy, but we must maintain hope, learn how to cope with the bad, and keep moving toward the brighter days ahead.