May is Mental Health Month, Healthy Lives CT, My 211 Account, Lyme Disease Prevention

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May

2019

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

May is Mental Health Month

A Message from Richard Porth

President/CEO of United Way of Connecticut

Mental Health America is focusing their 2019 "May is Mental Health Month," campaign on social determinants of health and the impact of lifestyle factors on mental, physical and emotional health. The 2019 Mental Health Month Toolkit includes a series of fact sheets on:

To download the complete toolkit, click HERE.

United Way of Connecticut 2-1-1 helps connect people to mental health resources. 2-1-1 Connecticut is certified in crisis intervention by the American Association on Suicidology. In 2018, 2-1-1 received more than 72,000 service requests for mental health and crisis intervention services.

If you are looking for help, information or access to mental health resources, 2-1-1 Contact Specialists are available 24 hours a day/7 days a week to answer calls and serve as a point of entry for crisis intervention services. For more information about mental health resources in Connecticut visit the Mental Health Page on the 2-1-1 CT website ( www.211ct.org).

Healthy Lives Connecticut

HealthyLivesCT.org provides information and tools for maintaining or regaining wellness.

Visit www.healthylivesct.org for information on:

The site also includes anonymous and confidential self- screening tools for mental health and addiction as well as information and guidance on addiction and recovery.

HealthyLivesCT was created to provide Connecticut residents with resources to support and promote overall wellness and is the product of a statewide public-private collaborative effort.

Have You Created Your My 211 Account?

My 211 Account is a free tool that allows providers, case managers and website users to create custom resource lists and care plans that can be saved, shared, implemented and updated as needed. Visit 211ct.org and click "Sign Up" to create your My 211 Account today.

My 211 Account makes it easier for Connecticut residents to:

Create unlimited customized resource lists
Save important resources to access at a later time
Create subject-specific resource lists
Share resource lists
Print lists to distribute in a user-friendly format
Email or text resource lists
Copy a public link for sharing and embedding on other websites

Get the most out of your My 211 Account! Click HERE to watch a quick instructional video.

Lyme Disease Prevention

As the weather starts to warm, an increased awareness of ticks and the symptoms

associated with Lyme disease is important.

Tips for preventing Lyme disease:

Avoid tall grass and over-grown, bushy areas.
Stay in the middle of trails when hiking in the woods.
Wear light-colored clothing to allow ticks to be more easily seen.
Examine yourself, your children, and pets for ticks when returning indoors.
Bathe within two hours of outdoor activity.
Treat pets with veterinarian-recommended products
Remove found ticks as soon as possible.

It takes approximately 24 hours for a tick to infect a person with Lyme disease. The longer an infected tick stays on your skin the greater the chance it will pass the Lyme bacteria on to you. If you find a tick remove it immediately and be on the lookout for Lyme disease symptoms such as rash (sometimes in the shape of a bulls-eye) fever, muscle aches or fatigue.

Contact your doctor if any of these symptoms occurs and visit the Department of Public Health Lyme Disease Page or download 2-1-1's Lyme Disease eLibrary Paper for more information.

The mission of United Way of Connecticut is to help meet the needs of Connecticut and its residents by providing information, education and connection to services.