Newsletter Article

Looking Forward to Mental Health Awareness Month

By Amie Miller, PsyD., Executive Director

Heading into the month of May, we’re gearing up to support national, state, and – most importantly – your local efforts to shine a light on the importance of behavioral health care and reducing stigma as part of May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s a time to educate the public and to reinforce the importance of increasing access to behavioral health care.

In county behavioral health, this work is being done every week of every month of every year. Each day, you chip away at stigma reduction; you apply creative thinking to get people the maximum possible care they can receive; and you tackle the steep climb toward greater awareness for greater care within your own communities.

In May, many of you will add to that an additional level of events and activities to build on the momentum of the national month of recognition. To help you with that, we’ve updated and added resources to our public-facing Take Action for Mental Health campaign, where you can find tools to support your outreach during May (and throughout the year), such as:

• A sample individual mental wellness plan
• A Spotify playlist of uplifting songs called
• Recipes for wellness and self care
• A guide to mental health support options

We’ll be watching closely at everything that’s happening on the local level so we can amplify and reinforce your work in as many ways as possible, to honor those who seek care and those who do the caring.

We’ll also use this important national spotlight to promote our programs on behalf of counties, like encouraging help-seeking behavior through CalHOPE, reducing stigma through prevention and early intervention, increasing access by building the behavioral health workforce, and uplifting the voice of Peers in the delivery of behavioral health.

In next month’s issue, look for a recap of some inspiring May is Mental Health Awareness Month initiatives in California communities.

With thanks for all you do,

Amie

April 25, 2023