Mental health advocacy involves starting and maintaining discussions to increase awareness and understanding of mental health and the challenges that mental health symptoms can create in life. There are many ways to go about support and promoting mental health advocacy. To reference someone who has recently passed who was passionate about mental health advocacy,, to read more about Rosalynn Carter.
Decrease Mental Health Stigma
Advocacy in general means spreading a message. Mental health advocacy specifically relates to educating people about statistics on mental health and how symptoms create challenges for people with these diagnoses. By educating the population we can decrease the negativity that surrounds such topics like, trauma, bipolar disorder, and/or suicidal thoughts (other mental health symptoms and diagnoses as well).
Education and Awareness
Education leads to an increase in awareness. This is done by engaging in grass roots events or holding educational seminars to promote mental health related topics. This can be a challenge due to not everyone being open to learning new topics and/or information.
Address Local, State, and Federal Policy Limitations
One of the biggest barriers to mental health treatment and accessibility relates to the local, state, and federal policies that create gaps in services. People often fall through these gaps that in turn can inadvertently increase mental health issues in the community due to the lack of care being provided.
System Fragmentation
System Fragmentation is a real thing and occurs when community providers are so siloed that they do not communicate to coordinate care for mutual patients. This then also creates gaps in service delivery which causes people to fall through when they are trying to access care.
Engagement in Community Activities
Community engagement and involvement in activities is a great way to reduce mental health stigma and spread mental health awareness. In today’s day and age, we have access to large networks especially when social media platforms are taking into consideration.
Peer Support
A new trend in in mental health therapy and treatment is the incorporation of peer support. Peer support individuals bring an aspect of lived experience with mental health diagnoses and illness into the treatment team. Peer support workers bring an authentic perspective of what ‘mental health recovery’ is and how others can live out recovery.
Breaking Down System Fragmentation and Increasing Education
At Revitalize Mental Health PLLC, we are working to break down system fragmentation by working collaboratively with other community providers. Additionally, we are providing blog content, Instagram, and Facebook posts to help education our followers.
