What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” - Glenn Close
During this past year, two pandemics have come to light; 1) the one we all know of as it’s always covered in the news - COVID-19 and 2) mental health. Each month, Project Empower Circle highlights a different theme, around which we create and share out content. For the month of March, we are talking about Mental Health.
In this article, we share what mental health means to us!
Nikoo
Mental health is an ongoing check-in process for me. It is a muscle I am constantly working to strengthen to be able to identify how I'm truly feeling, why I'm feeling that way, and what I should do about it.
Mental health is also a society-level discussion. I always wondered why we don't have the same health infrastructures as physical health for mental health. I believe we need a mix of both a cultural shift and financial support for accessible and affordable mental health services to begin to target this gap.
"If you see somebody that's hurting, don't look away, and if you're hurting, even though it might be hard, try to find that bravery within yourself to dive deep and go tell somebody and take them up in your head with you." - Lady Gaga
Pallavi
Mental health is an important component of our health. Too often, when we hear 'health' we think of our physical health. However, mental health is just as important and we need to ensure that we are having conversations about and taking care of our mental health.
To me, mental health impacts how I feel and think about myself and the world around me. Mental health is a very personal experience and it looks different for everyone. We need to ensure that we create a culture that supports having conversations about mental health and doesn’t scrutinize people for accessing support services.
Some Resources
If you or someone you know is seeking mental health support, we encourage you to check out the following resources.
https://www.helpguide.org/ HelpGuide is a small independent nonprofit that runs one of the world’s top 10 mental health websites. Over 50 million people from all around the world turn to HelpGuide each year for trustworthy content they can use to improve their mental health and make healthy changes.
https://www.betterhelp.com/ Online counselling and therapy services.
https://kidshelpphone.ca/ Canadian charitable organization that provides 24/7 FREE confidential professional online and telephone counselling and volunteer-led, text-based support in English and French to youth across Canada.
https://bouncebackontario.ca/ BounceBack® is a free skill-building program managed by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). It is designed to help adults and youth 15+ manage low mood, mild to moderate depression and anxiety, stress or worry. Delivered over the phone with a coach and through online videos.
https://www.7cups.com/ Online therapy and free support to people experiencing emotional distress by connecting them with trained listeners anonymously.
https://www.ementalhealth.ca/ Find local mental health services and organizations in Canada.