Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @wctcoalition
|
|
Mental Health is All Around...
From your neighborhood to genetics, many factors come into play when it comes to mental health conditions. We encourage everyone to consider how the world around them effects their mental health. Your surroundings can impact if, how, and when your needs are met, which in turn affects your mental health. However, you can take steps to change your space and protect your well-being. If you constantly feel worried or sad about where you live, one of the quickest and easiest ways to determine whether you are experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition is to take a mental health screening at mhascreening.org.
The campaign's key messages for 2023 include:
- Having safe, stable, and healthy home conditions set the foundation for achieving and maintaining good mental health.
- For many people, not having a true “home base” to consistently return to can leave them feeling distressed, disconnected, or isolated. Stable housing allows individuals to develop routines and connections to their local community, which are beneficial for mental health.
- Wherever you call “home,” it should give you feelings of comfort, support, and calmness. If not, there are things you can do to your space to help you be more productive, reach your goals, and improve your mental health.
- The area, or ZIP code, that you live in plays a significant role in how healthy you are.
- A strong sense of community within neighborhoods protects mental health through shared support, resources, and joy.
- Challenges like gentrification, community violence, and lack of access to resources can negatively impact mental health. While many of these can be out of your control, being an advocate for change and making healthy community connections can bring hope
- Spending time in nature is linked to many positive mental health outcomes, including improved focus, lower stress, better mood, reduced risk of developing mental health conditions, and a sense of connection to yourself, community, and purpose.
- Being around nature doesn’t have to mean hiking in a forest. It can be walking in a park, bringing a plant inside, or sitting in your backyard.
Click here to request a download of the 2023 MHM Toolkit.
|
|
Facts About Mental Health |
|
According to the CDC, mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.
For more information click here
|
|
Downloadable Fact Sheets on Common Mental Health Conditions |
|
Visit our website's mental health page for more fact sheets here
|
|
|
Data from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by SAMHSA
(AMI is Any Mental Illness, SMI is Serious Mental Illness)
- Among adults aged 18 or older in 2021, 22.8% (or 57.8 million people) had any mental illness (AMI) in the past year. The percentage of adults aged 18 or older with AMI in the past year was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (33.7% or 11.3 million people), followed by adults aged 26 to 49 (28.1% or 28.8 million people), then by adults aged 50 or older (15.0% or 17.7 million people).
- In 2021, 5.5% of adults aged 18 or older (or 14.1 million people) had serious mental illness (SMI) in the past year. The percentage of adults aged 18 or older with SMI was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (11.4% or 3.8 million people), followed by adults aged 26 to 49 (7.1% or 7.3 million people), then by adults aged 50 or older (2.5% or 3.0 million people).
For more information click here
|
|
Any Mental Illness and Serious Mental Illness
Among Adults Aged 18 or Older (2021):
|
|
Mental Health Among Specific Populations
Youth
- Among adolescents aged 12 to 17 in 2021, 20.1% (or 5.0 million people) had a past year major depressive episode (MDE), and 14.7% (or 3.7 million people) had a past year MDE with severe impairment.
- Adolescents aged 12 to 17 in 2021 with a past year MDE were more likely than those without a past year MDE to have used most illicit drugs in the past year. For example, 27.7% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 with a past year MDE used illicit drugs in the past year compared with 10.7% of those without a past year MDE.
For more information click here
|
|
Mental Health and Suicide
Suicide is a major public health problem that has far-reaching personal, social, and economic implications.
While the presence of a mental health condition may contribute to increased suicide risk, it is important to note that the majority of people who live with mental health conditions will not die by suicide.
|
|
The Connection Between Mental Health
and Substance Misuse
- Many individuals who develop substance use disorders (SUD) are also diagnosed with mental disorders, and vice versa. Although there are fewer studies on comorbidity among youth, research suggests that adolescents with substance use disorders also have high rates of co-occurring mental illness; over 60 percent of adolescents in community-based substance use disorder treatment programs also meet diagnostic criteria for another mental illness
- Substance use can lead to changes in some of the same brain areas that are disrupted in other mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, anxiety, mood, or impulse-control disorders.
- Drug use that precedes the first symptoms of a mental illness may produce changes in brain structure and function that kindle an underlying predisposition to develop that mental illness.
For more information click here
|
|
How Can Gambling Affect My Mental Health?
- If gambling becomes a problem, it can cause low self-esteem, stress, anxiety, and depression.
-
Gambling activates the brain’s reward system in a similar way that a drug does. Even when a gambler is losing, their body is still producing adrenaline and endorphins, which encourages them to continue gambling. Over time, the gambler develops a tolerance to gambling, it becomes less rewarding, and they may find that they need to take bigger gambling risks in order to feel the same excitement as they did when they first started. In other words, the brain becomes conditioned and yearns for more dopamine to trigger its reward system.
For more information click here
|
|
Resources
You aren't alone - help is available, and recovery is possible!
|
|
Recognizing When You Need Help with Your Mental Health
Learn common signs of mental health concerns and how to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings and behavior.
|
|
Screening Tool
Online screening is one of the quickest and easiest ways to determine whether you are experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition.
|
|
Where to Go
If you have decided you need help, use the decision map below to help figure out your options.
|
|
Finding the Right Treatment Provider
From the CT Clearinghouse
|
|
For 24/7 access to substance use treatment, including detox and transportation in CT, call the Access Line at
1-800-563-4086.
|
|
|
Additional Support Resources |
|
"As a peer-run organization, we use our direct lived experience as recipients of mental health and addiction services to approach our work. Coupled with our education and training, AU informs policy and practice to ensure that all people achieve a self-defined purpose." Visit advocacyunlimited.org
|
|
TurningPointCT.org was developed by young people in Connecticut who are in recovery from mental health and substance use issues. We know what it’s like to feel alone, stressed, worried, sad, and angry.
|
|
"Toivo is a community, a safe place to find support and understanding. We believe that human connection is essential to healing and it is at the heart of everything we do." Visit toivocenter.org
|
|
The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning) young people.
|
|
Call to Action During Mental Health Month
Things we can all do starting today!
|
|
- Prevention Partners can share this newsletter and download the resources
-
Have conversations about mental health. Seize the Awkward provides conversation guides and tips.
- Maintain good mental health by enjoying the outdoors and nature. See fact sheet from MHA and use this worksheet.
- Connect with yourself and with others. Social connections can lead to increased happiness and better health.
- If you are worried about a loved one, friend, or even yourself, seek treatment. It's ok to ask for help and help is available.
- Support youth with kindness and care, and be a trusted adult. Check out Gizmo's Pawesome Guide to Mental Health.
- Become an advocate for insurance parity for mental heath and substance misuse coverage. Click here to learn more.
For links to more information on mental health and to connect to additional resources visit the
of our website.
|
|
|
Upcoming Trainings and Events |
|
Western CT Coalition continues to offer monthly QPR suicide prevention and Narcan administration webinars. |
|
Saturday, May 20, 9:00AM at Bushnell Park
To register and learn more, click here.
|
|
Are you a CT Provider?
CONNECTICUT PROVIDER NEEDS ASSESSMENT - VOICE HEARING & PARANOIA
If you are not interested in taking the survey, or you don't identify as a provider, click here to join the network.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
