As I write this, today (October 10th) is World Mental Health Day. According to Wikipedia, the purpose of the day is to educate the world about mental health, spread awareness, and advocate against the social stigma of mental illness. This day was first celebrated in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health, which is a global mental health organization with members and connections in over 150 countries. Each year typically also has a theme, and for 2018 the theme is “Young people and mental health in a changing world”.
For some countries, including the United States of America, this day falls during an awareness week. In the U.S., we have Mental Illness Awareness Week, which is the first full week in October. According to the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) website, Congress officially established Mental Illness Awareness Week in 1990. For 2018, Mental Illness Awareness Week is October 7-13 and NAMI is promoting a theme of “CureStigma”.
To me, it is great to see this additional day and week devoted to promoting mental health, education, support, and advocacy. Even though I have been interested in mental health for several years now, I don’t think I was aware of this day or week until this year, which seems amazing. But, that goes to show how much work we need to do to spread the message about mental health. And, spreading the message is not a “one and done” task. Promoting mental health is a continuous journey with a lot of reminders along the way. Like many things in life, we have to tell people again and again why mental health is so important. I applaud having this day and week as yet more reminders of the work we need to do to educate, advocate, and support mental health for all.