Here are ways MHA is addressing the brokenness of the mental health system:
Number one: removing the barrier of cost for those who can’t afford to pay for counseling. In 2023, we opened the MHA Counseling Center: Where Mental Health Matters. The goals of this center are twofold: provide access to mental health to historically marginalized communities, and help increase the pipeline of clinicians of color by providing meaningful internship opportunities to students from Johnson C. Smith University and UNC-Charlotte.
MHA also continues to offer short-term counseling through a growing network of clinicians in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties and has already provided thousands of hours of free counseling to those in need.
Number two: working to eliminate stigma. In addition to opening the counseling center, we launched a major marketing campaign with the goal of tackling stigma in communities of color and guiding individuals who need MHA services to us.
Our Education Team continues to work to provide evidence-based training that helps improve understanding, reduce discrimination, and save lives, as individual learn more about how to prevent suicide, what it means to live with a mental health diagnosis, and how we can normalize the conversation and normalize seeking support for mental health concerns.
Number three: creating connections to reduce loneliness and isolation. We do this through our longest running program, Compeer, connecting those living with chronic mental illnesses with a caring friend. We continually develop new ways to collaborate with community partners to provide meaningful gatherings and supportive networks.
Number four: advocating for families and children. Through our ParentVOICE program, our caring Family Partners help parents who are raising a child with a mental health diagnosis to navigate the fractured systems surrounding children. We also advocate for improvements in the system on the local, state and national level, meeting with legislators and encouraging positive change. Through Medicaid expansion, we know that hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians will have better access to both physical and mental health care.
It is imperative that MHA take the lead in addressing the youth mental health crisis, and we plan to create a youth mental health advisory council in the coming months. Throughout Mecklenburg and Cabarrus there are amazing young mental health advocates, and we need to tap into the passion and innovative ideas of our young people.
Number five: supporting communities of color to reduce disparities in access and quality of care. Again, we are doing this through our free counseling center and our Caring for Communities of Color marketing campaign. We have also added capacity to better serve the Latino community, with our bilingual mental health educator Tatiana Leon, plan to hire a bilingual Family Partner in the near future. We are also grateful to be a major partner with Hola, Neighbor, an initiative focused on connecting families from the Hidden Valley area to critical services and resources.
And, we are beyond proud and humbled to have been selected by MHA National as this year’s Betty Humphrey Equity Champion Award, for demonstrating an ongoing commitment to the fight for diversity, equity, and inclusion. It recognizes those who advance the intersectionality of mental health as it relates to discrimination, poverty, stigma, racism, and overall social and economic determinants of health.
We know there is much work to be done and we are ready to do that work! Desmond Tutu said, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
At MHA, we believe the most valuable thing we can bring to our community is HOPE.
HOPE for an unbroken mental health system. . .
HOPE for access to care for all. . .
HOPE for a caring community free of stigma and discrimination. . .
HOPE that all who are living in darkness are still able to find the light.
To keep impacting lives in the communities we serve and providing hope, we need your support. Today, as you think about how you can support our work, know that an investment in MHA is an investment in a more perfect mental health system, as we continue to build on our past and celebrate our future!
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