Mental health advocacy work
What Does It Mean to Be a Mental Health Advocate?
JUN. 24, 2020
By Kristen Fuller, M.D.
Mental health encompasses our emotional health, cognitive health and relationships. It includes taking care of and protecting ourselves so we can succeed in everyday life, taking care of others when they need us the most and overcoming obstacles. In other words, mental health is essential, and worth advocating for.
If we want to be advocates for those who are struggling with their mental health, we must first learn to be advocates for ourselves. This means being true to ourselves, loving ourselves and honoring ourselves, regardless of what our struggles are.
What is a mental health advocate?
Mental health advocates are heroes — individuals who do not wear capes, but who work tirelessly every day to share their stories and help those who are struggling. They take risks and show their vulnerability by telling their truth in hopes of encouraging someone else.
Whether it is through a blog, social media, a book or a speaking engagement, these advocates stand up for others who do not have a voice. They remind us that we are not alone in our struggles. They remind us that we are not at fault. They remind us that there is light, healing and hope throughout this journey. They shatter stereotypes and stigma associated with mental illness.
As an example, my dear friend Daisy Martinez wrote a letter to herself on her social media account about her struggles with mental illness, and how she found the strength and courage to get help and love herself.
“What would I tell this 18-year-old Daisy holding her almost one-month-old baby next to her mom at her high school graduation?
You’re going to be alright. I know you’re scared. I know you’re hurt. I wish I could tell you that the upcoming years will get easier, but they will actually be your toughest years. However, you will get through it all and grow so much.
You will find the courage to leave the abusive relationship you’re currently in.
You will find a way to thrive as a single parent. Your grades will drop. You will actually get into academic probation. You will get very depressed and start doing drugs. You will attempt suicide a few times, but this will [lead you] to receiving help.
You start to see a therapist. You stop doing drugs. You start to get your grades back up. You actually graduate from college and get into graduate school. You even start a non-profit. You will feel lost and like something is missing. That missing part is the love you need to give yourself.
You are loved so much and worthy of so many great things. You are beautiful, and I love you so much for your strength and courage. I wish I could hug you and tell you how amazing you are. Believe it! Believe in yourself. And please stop being so hard on yourself. Take it all one day at a time.
Take care of your health both physically and mentally. Surround yourself with people that help you grow and make you better. You don’t have to have it all figured out.
You don’t have to have a plan for everything. Be free and let life flow. Be grateful for all that comes your way good or bad, it all comes for a reason.”
Daisy is a shining example of an everyday hero: a mental health advocate. She speaks for others who do not have a voice.
How can I become an advocate?
You do not have to share your deepest darkest secrets on social media to become an advocate. You can stand up for others by sharing your story privately with a friend, neighbor or loved one. You also don’t have to share your story if you’re not yet ready. You can also:
- Support someone who needs help
- Volunteer for a local mental health organization
- Attend an awareness walk or other event benefitting the mental health movement
- Encourage your local politicians to prioritize mental health
- Correct those who use stigmatizing language
Together, we can change how the world views mental health. We can continue the mental health movement by speaking out, sharing our stories and showing others that they are not alone.
Our societal perception of mental health, including mental illness, will not change if we do not take action to change it ourselves.
Kristen Fuller M.D. is a family medicine physician with a passion for mental health. She spends her days writing content for a well-known mental health and eating disorder treatment facility, treating patients in the Emergency Room and managing an outdoor women's blog. To read more of Dr. Fuller's work visit her Psychology Today blog and her outdoor blog, GoldenStateofMinds.
We’re always accepting submissions to the NAMI Blog! We feature the latest research, stories of recovery, ways to end stigma and strategies for living well with mental illness. Most importantly: We feature your voices.
Check out our Submission Guidelines for more information.
LEARN MORE
Become a Leader in the Mental Health Movement
Make a change in your local community by being an advocate for mental health awareness.
Here are a few suggestions for how you can work with your community.
Talk with Community Leaders
Ask your governor or mayor to make a proclamation. Encourage your community leader to officially recognize the national mental health awareness events, including Mental Health Month in May, National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July and Mental Illness Awareness Week in October.
Take action on advocacy issues. Policy change is one major way we can make a difference in the lives of people living with mental health conditions and their families. NAMI’s legislative and public policy priority is ensuring people get the help they need, when they need it.
Ask them to "Go Green." Get the greater community involved by asking leaders to light buildings and landmarks in green to show support and raise awareness for mental health.
Reach Out to Your Community
Address cultural barriers. Minorities face additional challenges when seeking care for mental health issues, such as: cultural stigma, lack of cultural competency and limited access to treatment in their community.
It can help to reach out to these communities and start the conversation about mental health. NAMI has developed Sharing Hope and Compartiendo Esperanza to help facilitate the conversation in African American and Latino communities.
Speak with teens. Mental health conditions start early, yet half of teens aren't getting the help they need. Stigma, fear and lack of awareness are part of the reason. NAMI Ending the Silence is an engaging presentation designed for middle and high school students that includes warning signs, facts and statistics and how to get help for themselves or a friend.
Involve Your Faith Community. Faith, and supportive faith communities, can play a large role in helping individuals with mental illness and their families. Talk about ways to improve resources in your community by making informative mental health bulletin inserts that you can share with the congregation or asking faith leaders to address mental health to their community.
Connect with Local Businesses
Hand out ribbons. Hand out or sell green ribbons for people to wear. Invite stores to hang green ribbons in the window, on trees, light posts, columns and in other public spaces.
Create a book display. Ask the local bookstore to feature books about mental health or have an author come in and sign copies.
Share information. Ask about adding mental health awareness brochures or fact sheets and infographics to your local coffee house’s events and information boards.
Host an event. Create a local event at a coffee shop, bookstore or restaurant featuring material about mental health or artists with connections to mental health.
Work with Local NAMI Affiliates
Volunteer. Volunteering at NAMI's national office, or your local NAMI, shows how important mental health is to you. Whether you are giving your time because NAMI has helped you or someone you know in the past, or you are passionate about our cause — you can help make a difference.
Here are some of the ways you can get involved:
- Become a NAMI program trainer so you can teach a class or run a support group
- Volunteer on the NAMI HelpLine: call 800-950-NAMI to find out more
- Join or create a NAMI On Campus club at your university
- Implement one of NAMI's free community outreach programs such as Ending the Silence, Sharing Hope or NAMI FaithNet
- Raise awareness during Mental Health Month, Mental Illness Awareness Week, National Minority Mental Health Month and Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
Let us know if you have questions about volunteering at NAMI's national office. Contact your state or local affiliate to see about volunteer opportunities in your community.
DIY Fundraising. Contact your local NAMI affiliate about hosting a fundraising event in your community. Here are some fundraising ideas to get you started.
Participate in NAMIWalks. Walk with NAMI to spread awareness and raise funds for NAMI affiliates across the country.
Learn more and find a 5K NAMIWalks event near you.
Mental health protection in the workplace
Posted by potkinasm Psychologist recommends
“We spend most of our adult lives at work. How we feel in the workplace is one of the factors that determine our overall well-being,” reads the official statement on the WHO website.
Comfortable working conditions and a favorable psychological atmosphere in the team contribute to the protection of the mental health of people and increase their productivity - everyone benefits from this: employees, employers, and society as a whole. However, according to WHO, over 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression, one of the leading causes of disability, more than 260 million live with anxiety disorders, and the resulting loss of productivity costs the global economy $ 1 trillion annually.
Working conditions and mental health risk factors
According to WHO, many risk factors for mental health problems can be linked to working conditions. Most of the risk factors are related to the interaction of such aspects as the type of work activity, organizational conditions and relationships with management, the skills and competencies of employees, the measures available at the enterprise to support employees in the performance of their job duties. For example, worker m may have the necessary skills to complete a task, but lack the resources to do what is required of him. Or the enterprise may have an unfavorable style of management actions and negative organizational practices .
The risk may also be associated with the nature of the activity, for example with the performance by the employee of duties that do not correspond to his competence, or a continuously high workload.
Some activities may present a higher risk to the worker (e.
g. Disaster Responder or Aid Worker), which can lead to negative mental health effects and symptoms of mental disorders or alcohol or substance abuse.
The risk may be increased if there is no cohesion within the team or there is no social support.
Harassment and psychological abuse (also taking the form of gang bullying) are common causes of work-related stress that pose a health risk to workers. Both physical and psychological problems can be associated with them.
All of this creates economic costs for employers as productivity declines and employee turnover rises. It can also have a negative impact on the family and social life of workers.
Workplace mental health protection
Workplace mental health protection consists of the following components:
- Implementation and enforcement of occupational health and health policies and practices, including detection of stress, substance abuse and disease and providing resources to address these challenges;
- informing employees about available types of assistance;
- involvement of employees in the decision-making process, creating a sense of ownership and participation in the management processes;
- implementation of measures for the organization of work, contributing to a normal balance between work and personal life;
- implementation of career development programs for employees;
- recognition and reward of employees' contributions.
Recall that for the prevention and treatment of crisis psychological conditions, depression, anxiety disorders, psychotherapists and psychologists work in the Arkhangelsk Psychoneurological Dispensary, providing assistance in outpatient units and day hospital conditions.
Bookmark Permalink.
-
For the visually impaired
-
Psychological consultation by e-mail
-
helpline of the children's narcological department
-
Helpline
-
Operating mode
-
Dispensary telephones
-
-
-
Unified children's helpline
-
-
Rate the quality of services
-
Strengthening mental health measures
Strengthening mental health interventions- Popular Topics
- Air pollution
- Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
- Hepatitis
- Data and statistics »
- News bulletin
- The facts are clear
- Publications
- Find the country »
- A
- B
- B
- g
- D
- and
- I 9 9000
- K
- l
- m N
- O
- P
- R
- C
- T
- in
- x
- C 9000.
- Sh
9000 - b
- s
- b
- e
- y
- i
- WHO in countries »
- Reporting
- Regions »
- Africa
- America
- Southeast Asia
- Europe
- Eastern Mediterranean
- Western Pacific
- Media Center
- Press releases
- Statements
- Media messages
- Comments
- Reporting
- Online Q&A
- Developments
- Photo reports
- Questions and answers
- Update
- Emergencies "
- News "
- Disease Outbreak News
- WHO data »
- Dashboards »
- COVID-19 Monitoring Dashboard
- Basic moments "
- About WHO »
- CEO
- About WHO
- WHO activities
- Where does WHO work?
- Governing Bodies »
- World Health Assembly
- Executive committee
- Main page/
- Media Center /
- Newsletters/
- Read more/
- Strengthening mental health measures
Key Facts
- There are affordable, effective and feasible strategies to promote, protect and restore mental health.
- The need for mental health action is clear and urgent.
- Mental health is essential both on its own and as an integral part of a person's overall health and well-being.
- Mental health results from the influence and interaction of a complex of individual, social and structural stressors and vulnerabilities.
Concept of mental health
Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with stressful situations in life, fulfill their potential, study and work successfully, and contribute to society. It is an essential component of health and well-being that underpins our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, build relationships, and shape the world we live in. Mental health is one of the basic human rights. In addition, it is crucial for personal, social and socio-economic development.
Mental health is not limited to the absence of mental disorders. It represents a continuous continuum, individual for each person, within which a person faces a complex of factors of varying degrees of complexity and experiences different levels of stress, which leads to very different potential social and clinical consequences for each individual.
Mental health disorder is an umbrella term for mental disorders, various types of psychosocial disabilities, and other mental health conditions that are associated with significant distress, functional impairment, or risk of self-harm. In general, people with mental health problems are more likely to experience lower levels of mental well-being, although exceptions are possible.
Determinants of mental health
Throughout our lives, multiple individual, social and structural determinants can collectively protect or undermine our mental health and change our position on the mental health continuum.
Various individual psychological and biological factors, such as emotional skills, substance use, and genetic characteristics, can make a person more susceptible to mental health problems.
Exposure to adverse social, economic, geopolitical and environmental circumstances, including poverty, violence, inequality and disadvantaged social conditions, also increases the risk of mental disorders.
Risk factors can appear at all stages of life, but those that arise during critical periods in human development, especially in early childhood, have a particularly strong negative impact. For example, harsh parenting and physical punishment are known to undermine children's mental health, and school bullying is a major risk factor for developing mental health problems.
Similarly, protective factors also occur throughout a person's life and contribute to mental resilience. These factors include our individual social and emotional skills and attributes, as well as positive social experiences, quality education, decent jobs, living in a safe neighborhood, community cohesion, and more.
The impact of risk and protective factors can vary in magnitude. Thus, local threats increase the risk to individuals, families and communities. Global threats such as economic recession, disease outbreaks, humanitarian emergencies, forced population displacements, and the worsening climate crisis are raising the level of risk for entire populations.
The impact of any individual risk or protective factor is difficult to predict. In most people, exposure to any risk factor does not lead to the development of a psychiatric disorder, while many people can develop psychiatric disorders even in the absence of known risk factors. However, the complex of different interacting determinants of mental health can both enhance and undermine mental health.
Mental health promotion and prevention of mental disorders
Mental health promotion and prevention interventions are based on identifying the individual, social and structural determinants of mental health and implementing interventions to reduce risks, increase mental resilience and create a mental health-friendly environment. Interventions may be directed at individuals, specific populations or entire populations.
Reshaping the determinants of mental health often requires action that goes beyond the health sector, so mental health promotion and prevention programs need to reach into the education, labour, justice, transport, environment, housing and social welfare sectors.
The health sector can make a significant contribution to this by integrating mental health promotion and prevention into health care services, and by promoting, initiating and, where appropriate, supporting intersectoral collaboration and coordination.
Suicide prevention is one of the global priorities included in the Sustainable Development Goals. Greater strides in suicide prevention can be made by limiting access to the means of committing suicide, responsible media coverage of such cases, teaching adolescents social and emotional skills, and taking early action. A particularly inexpensive and cost-effective intervention to reduce suicide rates is the ban on highly hazardous pesticides.
Promoting the mental health of children and adolescents is another priority that can be achieved through policies and legislation that promote and protect mental health and aim to support parents and caregivers in caring for their children in a caring and respectful way. implementation of appropriate school-based programs and creation of favorable and safe conditions for children at the level of local communities and in the online space.
School-based social and emotional learning programs are among the most effective mental health promotion strategies in countries of all income levels.
There is growing interest in the promotion and protection of mental health in the workplace; relevant measures can also be taken in this area in the areas of legislation and regulation, organizational strategies, management training and interventions at the worker level.
Mental health care and treatment
In the context of national efforts to promote mental health, it is essential not only to protect and promote the mental well-being of the entire population, but also to address the needs of people with mental disorders.
This should be addressed through community-based mental health care, as it is more accessible and acceptable to the population than inpatient care, helps prevent human rights violations, and improves outcomes for mental disorders. Community-based mental health care should be built into a set of related services:
- mental health services integrated into the general health care system, usually operating at the general hospital level and as part of a shared task with the participation of non-specialized primary care workers;
- community mental health services, which may include community mental health centers and teams, psychosocial rehabilitation services, support groups and visitor services;
- Services providing mental health services in social care and non-medical settings such as child protection services, school health services and prison facilities.
The huge gap in care for common mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety requires countries to look for innovative ways to diversify and scale up care for these conditions, such as through non-specialist counseling or self-help using digital platforms.
WHO activities
All WHO Member States have committed to the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030, which aims to improve the mental health of the population by strengthening effective leadership and management, providing a comprehensive, integrated and community-based flexible care, the implementation of strategies for mental health promotion and prevention of mental disorders, and the development of information systems, evidence and research. According to the analysis of country performance in implementing the action plan presented in the 2020 Mental Health Atlas published by WHO in 2020, progress towards the goals of the agreed action plan remains insufficient.
The World Mental Health Report, published by WHO, calls on all countries to accelerate the implementation of the action plan.
The report argues that all countries can make significant progress in improving the mental health of the population by taking action in three main areas of transformation:
- increasing the value of mental health in the minds of individuals, society as a whole and government; in line with the realization of this value, ensuring the necessary commitment, interaction and investment from all stakeholders and in all sectors;
- transforming the physical, social and economic environments – at home, in schools, in the workplace and in the wider community – to better protect mental health and prevent mental disorders;
- Strengthening the mental health system so that the full range of mental health needs are met through a network of accessible, affordable and quality community-based services and supports.
WHO focuses on protecting and fulfilling human rights, empowering people to share their personal experiences, and ensuring a multisectoral and multistakeholder approach.
