It’s Mental Illness Awareness Week. Know Support Matters

Tanya J. Peterson

It’s Mental Illness Awareness Week. Know Support Matters
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The first full week of October is Mental Illness Awareness Week. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has dedicated 2021’s campaign as “Together for Mental Health¹.” When people come together to give and receive mental health support, thriving with mental illness is possible.

Many people living with mental health disorders lack professional help.

Less than half of people in the U.S. living with a mental health disorder received professional health care or other services in the past year².
In 2017-2018, 60 percent of youth living with major depressive disorder went untreated. States with the best availability of mental health services still see a third of youth with depression going untreated³.
In 2017-2018, almost 25 percent of adults living with a mental illness reported a lack of treatment, a number that has remained consistent since 2011³.

While this is a systemic issue that will be slow to improve, all hope is not lost. Having a strong social support network has been found to be invaluable for people living with mental illness⁴.

Who in your life can you trust to listen to your concerns, treat you with dignity and respect, and help you do what you need to do to embrace life? Identifying trusted family members, friends, faith leaders, organizations, and peers in a support group will help you build a strong support system to work through the challenges of living with mental illness. You aren’t defined by your mental illness, and your support system not only knows that but will help you embrace that fact, too.

Sources:

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (n.d.). Mental illness awareness week. Retrieved October, 2021 from https://www.nami.org/get-involved/awareness-events/mental-illness-awareness-week
Mental Health First Aid. (2019, February). 5 surprising mental health statistics. National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2019/02/5-surprising-mental-health-statistics/
Mental Health America. (n.d.). 2021: The state of mental health in America. Retrieved October, 2021 from https://mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america
Mental Health First Aid. (2020, August). The Importance of Having a Support System. National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2020/08/the-importance-of-having-a-support-system/

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