May is Mental Health Awareness Month, an annual observance established by Mental Health America in 1949 to emphasize the importance of mental well-being. Next month is the time to raise awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding behavioral health issues, as well as highlighting how mental illness and addiction can affect all of us.
This observance brings additional attention to the challenges faced by those with mental health conditions and the need for a supportive, understanding environment. Despite years of advocacy, awareness and discussion, the stigma around mental health still exists. People can still suffer in silence, brush off emotional struggles or feel ashamed to seek help. That’s why Mental Awareness Month matters, it’s about recognizing the daily impact of mental health on our lives and committing to doing something about it.
Mental wellness is crucial for overall health and well-being, it influences all aspects of our life, from our physical health and relationships, to our ability to cope with challenges and make decisions. When mental health breaks down, everything else can follow, such as relationships, work, physical health and basic daily functioning. By building a solid mental foundation, including emotional resilience, healthy coping tools, strong relationships and self-awareness can arm ourselves with the tools needed to withstand challenges.
Promoting wellness is not just a one-person job, it’s something that we all must do as a community. There are times when mental health issues get dismissed; physical injury gets sympathy and support, but anxiety, depression, or trauma may get minimized. The gap between how we treat mental health versus physical health needs to close.
This is why it’s on all of us to work together to lead with actions, such as:
- Normalizing therapy and counseling in our workplaces and friendships
- Encouraging rest and boundaries with ourselves and others
- Training leaders to recognize warning signs so they can support their teams
- Investing in mental health education in schools and workplaces
- Talking openly about struggles, without judgment or shame
Northern Arizona Healthcare’s role
Hospitals and health systems play an important role in the conversations we have around mental health care. Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) knows that mental health is an important issue in our region, and is committed to its expansion of outpatient behavioral health offerings. Expanding outpatient care will help address and identify mental health conditions earlier, which will allow patients to have immediate care that can be maintained in their home and community.
Flagstaff Medical Center (FMC) currently offers both inpatient and outpatient behavioral health care to patients from across northern Arizona. NAH also provides integrated care, with licensed psychologists practicing in its Coconino County and Yavapai County primary care clinics on the connections between patients’ physical and mental health conditions. FMC’s inpatient program has 17 adult beds and nine for adolescent patients.
As part of its long-standing commitment to supporting all organizations that work in the realm of behavioral health care, NAH will ensure that the community has access to the full continuum of care for all who need it.
If you or a loved one is experiencing any of the following symptoms, it’s time to seek confidential help:
- A growing inability to cope with daily living
- Depression
- Noticeable personality or behavioral changes
- Multiple unexplained physical ailments or changes in eating and sleeping patterns
- Confused thinking, inability to concentrate and/or memory loss
- Excessive fear, anxiety or suspiciousness
- Withdrawal from family, friends and associates
- Hallucinations
The national mental health hotline is 988.
Mental health isn’t something you fix once and forget about, it’s ongoing work, just like physical health, and it needs daily attention and care. Whether you or a loved one have personally faced mental health challenges, we are all affected. Being open, compassionate and educated can make someone feel seen, or even save a life. Mental Health Awareness Month is a reminder that we still have work to do, but we are working toward a healthier, more compassionate world.
Learn more about FMC’s Behavioral Health and Psychiatry services.
If you are interested in submitting a question for Northern Arizona Healthcare, we will choose one question per month and one of our experts at NAH will answer the question in this column.