During Mental Health Awareness Week, do a mental health checkup. Use the assessment tools offered by Mental Health America, a national nonprofit that advocates for mental wellness, to determine if you’re experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety, addiction, an eating disorder, or bipolar disorder.
Patient health questionnaires are effective tools to screen for mental illness, and can get you on the road to recovery through professional treatment. Go to: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/mental-health-screening-tools.
If you or someone you love needs help, contact NewBridge Services at services@newbridge.org or 973-316-9333. Visit newbridge.org for more information.
Mental illness has a wider reach than many people realize. One in five adults in the U.S. experiences mental illness each year, and that statistic holds for children: about 20 percent of children either have or or at some point have had a debilitating mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14 and 75 percent by age 24.
The stigma of mental illness remains a major roadblock to treatment. An estimated 40 percent of people with a mental illness don’t receive treatment. We all can help reduce stigma by:
✓Educating ourselves about mental illnesses
✓Seeing the person, not the illness
✓Pushing for legislation and policies that improve access to treatment
✓Taking the 8-hour Mental Health First Aid training to learn how to respond to an individual having a mental health crisis (more than 1 million people have trained already!)
“The sooner mental illness is identified and treated, the better the outcome,” NewBridge CEO Robert L. Parker said. “People with mental illness are able to enjoy fulfilling, productive lives when they have effective treatments available to them.”
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