In 1990, Congress officially established the first full week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW). Each year, NAMI educates the public, fights stigma and provides support. This year's theme is, “What People with Mental Illness Want You to Know.” Throughout the week, they will be raising the voices of those with lived experience to talk about some of the conditions and symptoms that are most misunderstood.

October was first declared as National Substance Abuse Prevention Month in 2011. Since then, October has been a time to highlight the vital role of substance abuse prevention in both individual and community health, to remember those who have lost their lives to substance abuse, to acknowledge those in recovery, as well as the children, parents, family, and friends supporting them.

Effective prevention starts with an honest conversation. Talk with your loved ones about substance use today.

Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorization. Watch this recording from our Populations Focused Learning Series: Unconscious Bias training to learn about the different variations of unconscious bias, how to raise our awareness of them, and most importantly how we can address them.

We collaborated with The Center for Cartoon Studies to create a mental health comic book! Let’s Talk About It: A Graphic Guide To Mental Health is designed to destigmatize the conversation around mental health addressing everything from stress to anxiety to addiction. The book also looks at how the brain affects behavior, shares ways to stay mentally healthy, and directs readers towards resources for those who need help. It will soon be distributed to every middle school student in Stark County.

All year, we work to ensure that suicide is not an option for people who are struggling. Suicide is a current concern in Ohio’s law enforcement community. If you or someone you know works in the line of duty, please see that these numbers are saved:

Learn more about upcoming trainings from the StarkMHAR Training Center!

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