World Mental Health Day
The overall objective of World Mental Health Day on October 10, is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health.
Why is World Mental Health Day important
The Day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide.
How to observe World Mental Health Day
1) Volunteer: Volunteer for an organization that supports mental health, such as one that focuses on child and adolescent mental health. Depression is a growing concern among children and organizations such as Big Brothers and Sisters of America, Teen Mental Health, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Children’s Mental Health can help locate a local area for you to volunteer and help the youth in your community.
2) Educate: Consider reading a book to more clearly understand what it’s like to suffer from mental disorders like depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. A few renowned books that focus on characters dealing with mental illness include…
- “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath: Plath writes an emotional, realistic tale about a young woman who has a mental breakdown while chasing her dream of becoming a poet.
- “All the Bright Places” by Jennifer Niven: In this novel, two teens who come from drastically different worlds attempt to save each other from their traumas and their suicidal thoughts. Together, they look for new reasons to stay alive.
- “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” by Ned Vizzini: Pulling from his own experiences in a psychiatric hospital, Vizzini writes about a young boy who struggles with unbearable stress and anxiety, which leads to a suicidal episode and his admittance to a mental hospital.
3) internationally-recognized celebrities and mental health advocates will come together for an online workshop or conference
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The past months have brought many challenges: for health-care workers, providing care in difficult circumstances, going to work fearful of bringing COVID-19 home with them; for students, adapting to taking classes from home, with little contact with teachers and friends, and anxiety about their futures; for workers whose livelihoods are threatened; for the vast number of people caught in poverty or in fragile humanitarian settings with extremely limited protection from COVID-19; and for people with mental health conditions, many experiencing even greater social isolation than before. And this is to say nothing of managing the grief of losing a loved one, sometimes without being able to say goodbye.
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Resources
- Amazon book on leaving depression behind
- Depression
- Suicide Prevention
- Violence prevention
- The ‘Black Dog’ aka Depression – Video
Reference Sites
- UN and other international NGO
- Non-Profits website for the observance
- PAHO
