Mental Health Awareness Week

Regular readers know that mental health issues, especially as they affect young people and families, are near and dear to my heart.

October 2-8 is Mental Health Awareness Week, and the following is just a bit of information from the National Association of Mental Illness: 

Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) takes place October 2-8 and is an opportunity to learn more about serious mental illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Mental illnesses are medical illnesses. One in four adults experiences a mental health problem in any given year. One in 17 lives with serious, chronic illness.  

On average, people living with serious mental illness live 25 years less than the rest of the population. One reason is that less than one-third of adults and less than one-half of children with a diagnosed illness receive treatment.

When mental health care isn’t available in a community, the results often are lost jobs and careers, broken families, more homelessness, more welfare and much more expensive costs for hospital emergency rooms, nursing homes, schools, police and even courts, jails and prisons. 

 I'll be sharing some information specific to bi-polar disorder tomorrow.