May is Mental Health Awareness Month, an annual occasion to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and its impact on the well-being of all individuals, including children, adults, families, and communities across the country. We caught up with Kim Schneiderman, Executive Director at the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) Southwest Washington to discuss the importance of mental health and how to reach out for support.
What does NAMI Southwest Washington work to achieve and what support do you provide?
NAMI SW WA’s mission is Educate, Support, Advocate, and raise awareness for people affected by mental health challenges and the people that love them. We provide support groups and educational and social classes. We work with the public to help people better understand mental health, how to achieve it for themselves, how to respond when they are around people that might be displaying symptoms, and how to be supportive.
We have compiled resources that we make available to people calling or using our website, we make it a practice to add to and verify the accuracy of these resources every 6 months.
Why is Mental Health Awareness Month important?
It’s always been important because mental health is every bit as necessary as physical health for a happy, fulfilled life. It’s even more so now. Covid added to the mental health difficulties of many members of our society. It produced a mass trauma, worldwide and is being felt by all ages. Recognizing that lends acknowledgment and support to the people affected. Mental health challenges are very isolating, people need to know that they are not alone in what they are feeling.
How do you advise individuals to reach out for support?
There is no wrong way to reach out for support. There are a multitude of resources to be accessed in many areas and since the pandemic, more and more are accessible via the web. Just don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for help.
How is NAMI SW WA providing a diverse and inclusive experience for all?
Recite Me is one of the tools we use for an inclusive experience. We provide a huge amount of information about everything around mental health and mental illnesses on our website. We recognize that not everyone feels comfortable talking about this kind of information. Making it available to people that are not comfortable with English is a powerful tool.
In our area, we have many new arrivals from Ukraine, Russia, and Afghanistan among other countries. Not only can it be difficult to find help for those who speak those languages, but there are also sometimes cultural challenges that might make looking up information easier for them. We try to make the information as widely known as possible that we have Recite Me tools available.
What do you hope for the future of mental health services?
I hope that the need is recognized that we need to start talking about resilience and mental health as soon as kids start school, to make it as natural and normal as learning to read, write, and do math. This can be continued with age-appropriate lessons throughout their education.
I hope that society becomes educated enough that people thinking differently is accepted, respected, and valued. I would like to see getting help for mental health challenges normalized as much as going to the dentist and that people don’t suffer in silence for the 11 years that is usual for our society today.
