Mental Health Awareness Month

Hi everyone! We here at Blu Alliance wanted to take this time to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month. Its a very exciting time as this is the chance for all of us in the mental health field to not only spread awareness about systemic mental health issues but to also destigmatize accessing resources for support/treatment such as therapy, helplines, and/or self-help guides.

The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) is one of the largest grassroots mental health organizations here in the nation and they have fully thrown themselves into Mental Health Awareness Month. Their goal is building better lives for the millions of Americans who are affected by mental illness. The first step is raising awareness about mental health and how it impacts us as a community and as individuals. That is why their theme for this Mental Health Awareness Month is “YOU ARE NOT ALONE”. This campaign is to show our how our resilience and our sense of community has and will come through when we are in need of support. I fully believe this as this has been a reality I and millions of Americans have faced during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic where we had to stay indoors, social distance, and wear face masks to keep those around us safe as well as ourselves.

NAMI has provided a list of facts about how Mental Health impacts the nation every year in their You Are Not Alone Awareness Events for May-July 2021 Guide. You can click the link above to download the guide but I have also provided information from there below so you might spread this information to raise awareness.

Individual Impact

• 20.6% of U.S. adults (51.5 million people) experienced mental illness in 2019, but only 43.8% of them received treatment.*
– 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year, but less than half get treatment.
• 5.2% of U.S. adults (13. 1 million people) experienced serious mental illness in 2019, but only65.5% of them received treatment.*
– 1 in 20 U.S. adults experiences a serious mental illness each year, but less than two-thirds get treatment.*
• 16.5% of U.S. youth aged 6–17 (7.7 million people) experienced a mental health disorder in 2016, but only 50.6% of them received treatment.
– 1 in 6 U.S. youth experience a mental health condition each year, but only half get treatment.
• 50% of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75% by age 24.
• Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 10–34 and the 10th leading cause of death overall in the U.S.
• The overall suicide rate in the U.S. has increased by 35% since 1999.

Community Impact

• Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are 4x more likely to attempt suicide than straight youth.
• Transgender adults are nearly 12x more likely to attempt suicide than the general population.
• The average delay between onset of mental illness symptoms and treatment is 11 years.
• 55% of U.S. counties do not have a single practicing psychiatrist.*
• 3.8% of U.S. adults experienced both mental illness and a substance use disorder in 2019 (9.5 million people).*
• Mental illness and substance use disorders are involved in 1 out of every 8 emergency department
visits by a U.S. adult (estimated 12 million visits).
• 20.5% of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. have a serious mental health condition.*
• 37% of adults incarcerated in the state and federal prison system have a diagnosed mental illness.
• 70.4% of youth in the juvenile justice system have a diagnosed mental illness.

Here we have provided NAMI’s You Are Not Alone Awareness Events for May-July 2021 Guide for easy access but also a link is included to download directly for the NAMI website.

Here are some of NAMI’s Social Media posts that are encouraged to be downloaded and reposted to spread awareness about mental health.

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Below we have included resources to directories to connect those seeking therapy with sliding scale available therapists and also therapists who identify as People of Color (POC).

Therapy for Black Girls – Therapy for Black Girls is an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls.

Therapy for Black Men – TherapyForBlackMen.org is a directory to help men of color in their search for a therapist. Using the directory, men can search by therapist location and specialization. Searching by location, the results will include the therapists near you and will display their credentials, location, and the issues they treat.

LatinxTherapy – Demystifying mental health stigmas in the Latinx community nationwide which includes a directory that has Latinx therapists.

InclusiveTherapists – Inclusive Therapists offers a safer, simpler way to find a culturally responsive, social justice-oriented therapist.

Open Path Collective – In partnership with licensed mental health clinicians in private practice throughout the fifty states, Open Path Psychotherapy Collective provides middle and lower-income level individuals, couples, families, and children with access to affordable psychotherapy and mental health education services.