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Facing Discrimination While Advocating
It’s difficult to advocate for mental health without feeling the degrading or intimidating reach of discrimination. Here are a few tips to help you keep advocating.
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Things I’ve Learned from Advocating for Mental Health
Anyone can be an advocate for mental health. Here are a few tips to get started! -
Everyone Deserves Adequate Mental Health Care
"There are gross inadequacies and structural problems in the mental health system. More and better family education and outreach are essential in order to mitigate the cultural barriers that play a part in impeding Latino families from realizing and accepting they need help." -
The Double Standard of Mental Illness
"If a family member walked into your living room, bent over in pain and screaming for help, what would you do? You would help, of course. But with mental health, the picture is so different." -
Building Bonds Behind Bars with NAMI Peer-to-Peer
"I was inside the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women to co-lead a three-day NAMI Peer-to-Peer training. Knowing that I could leave didn’t help; I still felt trapped when I heard all those doors lock behind me." -
Can Stigma Prevent Employment?
People living with mental illness are typically held responsible and blamed for their behavior and symptoms. Simultaneously, they are perceived as unable to make decisions for themselves. This causes people with mental health conditions to be perceived as “unsuitable” for the workforce. -
Navigating the Mental Health System with Dual Diagnosis
"As mental health advocates, we are passionate about increasing access to resources and services to treat this vulnerable population. People with mental illness, particularly those with dual diagnosis, are in desperate need." -
Suicide Prevention as a Social Justice Issue
If we only view suicide through the mental health lens, society will be very limited in its ability to change the issue. Because change is then reliant only on the mental health system and only on those who can access mental health care. We need to think bigger. -
Work is Recovery
Programs like Individual Placement and Support can help people with mental illness find and keep meaningful jobs, supporting their mental health recovery. Learn more about these valuable programs here. -
Disparities Within Minority Mental Health Care
The mental health system is flawed. We all know that and many of us have experienced it personally. But all mental health advocates should band together in improving the status quo for those who are the least likely to both seek and receive treatment. Those who are most vulnerable to the systemic disparities of getting help. Those who only get the spotlight for one month out of the year.