May is Mental Health Awareness Month
By Crystal Hubbell, LPCC-S
Remember Those Who Suffer: You are Not Alone
As we try to raise awareness for Mental Health Issues, we are fighting the stigma, support to educate the public and advocate for good supportive policies for people with mental health illness. Each year millions of Americans are faced with the reality that they or someone they know are living with a mental illness. During the month of May, NAMI along with other organization join to help raise awareness about Mental Health needs.
https://www.nami.org/Get-Involved/Awareness-Events/Mental-Health-Month
At Integrative Counseling, we also want to support and raise awareness for Mental Health Issues. This Month, we are collecting your stories and talking about your needs.
We are living in unprecedented times to say the least. With a pandemic in 2020 that has put almost the whole world on lockdown, who could have guessed something like this would happen, but it has. Every day, there are more “breaking news” stories of the new numbers, the forecast of future plans and the devastating results of some who have succumbed to the virus.
As a clinical mental health practice in Ohio, we see over 500 patients a month. While being in the midst of trying to switch most of our clients to an online platform to help with social distancing, we want to ensure quality care is given to all mental health needs.
Here at ICS, we are committed to addressing every individual and their unique circumstances. Fear regarding the virus is very real, however, so are other mental health concerns. My goal is to help those who are getting lost in the world of pandemic chaos. My heart reaches out to this who have lost loved ones to various causes.
We want to give a voice to those who are also dealing with heartbreaking circumstances beyond COVID-19. Did you know that in 2019 that around 800,000 people complete suicide? (World Health Organization, 2019). As clinicians, we want so support this who are suffering and give them a voice.
Are you feeling alone? What is going on in your life? How has Covid 19 robbed your voice of being heard? Have you seen a therapist and have they offered help?
I want to preface this by saying that Covid-19 deaths are not unimportant, only that the news has taken away from those just trying to live with their own tragedies in the midst of Covid 19.
As a mental health counselor, I want to help you, I want to hear your story. Please send me your story to chubbell.ics@gmail.com so the world may hear you and offer you prayers. Your stories will remain anonymous unless you say otherwise. Requirements are as follows: ; The story topic can be about hardship, grief, loss of life, sadness, difficulty coping with current times, sickness or loneliness. Please limit length to one page or three paragraphs.
Thank you.
Suicide. [Geneva]: World Health Organization; September, 2019. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.