Mental Health Awareness Month
Did you know mental illnesses can begin at young ages and takes years for a person suffering to be diagnosed. This delays the much needed help they require. This help comes through avenues such as:
- Therapy
- Medication
- Support from friends and family
Mental health awareness and treatment has come a long way from the days where it wasn’t even acknowledged, but this reality begs the question:
Have we come far enough?
So what can we do to bring more awareness as a society to better understand mental health and get help faster for the people who need it?
We have some ideas:
💡 Speak up for the ones who are not able to, bring awareness to the various mental health illnesses so people can identify them and get the help they need.
💡By talking perhaps we can break some negative stigmas and challenge the culture that leads a person to stay silent or feel shame.
💡 Education in schools about different kinds of mental ill health, not just physical health.
💡 Learn how to develop emotional intelligence - ways of communicating healthily just like we learn maths or english.
💡 Accept that traumatic events occur and help people navigate their way through it, rather than ignore it.
💡Help people in our communities find positive environments, places where they feel safe, able to fully express themselves and be loved.
💡 Realise we all have a joint responsibility to be kind, compassionate and try to understand others especially in their suffering, difficulties and confusion.
Here at VALOUR we are passionate about raising awareness and creating conversations through creative projects, that as a community we can sink our teeth into. We are adapting to the constraints around us, currently our production has had to slow down. However we are not slowing down, over the course of this month we will use other creative outlets such as writing and photography to continue the mission.
We would love to hear your thoughts or share this blog post to keep the conversation going and raise awareness on such an important matter.
Mental health matters, you matter.
#MentalHealthAwarenessMonth