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JOIN US AS WE CELEBRATE MENTAL HEALTH MONTH
While 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, everyone faces challenges in life that can impact their mental health. The good news is there are practical tools that everyone can use to improve their mental health and increase resiliency - and there are ways that everyone can be supportive of friends, family, and co-workers who are struggling with life’s challenges or their mental health.​
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THE B4STAGE4 PHILOSOPHY

Much of Mental Health America's (MHA) work is guided by its Before Stage 4 (B4Stage4) philosophy – that mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points in the disease process. When we think about diseases like cancer or heart disease, we don’t wait years to treat them. We start before Stage 4—we begin with prevention, identify symptoms, and develop a plan of action to stop and hopefully reverse the progression of the disease. Like other diseases, it is critical to address symptoms early and plan an appropriate course of action on a path towards overall health.

WHAT IS STIGMA? WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?

Stigma is when someone, or even you yourself, views a person in a negative way just because they have a mental health condition. Some people describe stigma as a feeling of shame or judgement from someone else. Stigma can even come from an internal place, confusing feeling bad with being bad.
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Navigating life with a mental health condition can be tough, and the isolation, blame and secrecy that is often encouraged by stigma can create huge challenges to reaching out, getting needed support and living well. Learning how to avoid and address stigma are important for all of us, especially when you realize stigma’s effects:
  • People experiencing mental health conditions often face rejection, bullying and discrimination. This can make their journey to recovery longer and more difficult.
  • Mental health conditions are the leading cause of disability across the United States.
  • Even though most people can be successfully treated, less than half of the adults in the U.S. who need services and treatment get the help they need.
  • The average delay between the onset of symptoms and intervention is 8-10 years.
  • Suicide is the second leading cause of death of youth ages 15-24 and the tenth leading cause of death for all Americans.

NATIONAL CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS DAY

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day (Awareness Day) shines a national spotlight on the importance of caring for every child’s mental health and reinforces that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development.

Awareness Day was created more than a decade ago to shine a national spotlight on the importance of caring for every child’s mental health and to reinforce the message that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development.

The purpose of Awareness Day is to increase public awareness about the needs of children with serious mental illness (SMI) and severe emotional disturbance (SED) and their families, provide information on evidence-based practices, and encourage those who need help to seek treatment.

This year, Awareness Day falls on May 7th. Check out this fact sheet about children's mental health from the Children's Defense Fund to learn more about children's mental and behavioral health.
KNOXVILLE AND KNOX COUNTY'S HEALTH BRIEF
According to Better Tennessee's 2018 Knox County Health briefing: 

Mental health and behavioral health
1 in 5 people (20%) in Knox County experiences mental illness. 
7% have experienced a major depressive episode in the past year.
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Suicide
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in Knox County, with 13 deaths from suicide for every 100,000 people.
  • This is lower than Tennessee’s rate of 15, however
  • Suicide is on the rise across the state, particularly among youth ages 10-24.
  • In Knox County:
    • 21% of high school students and
    • 19% of middle school students report seriously considering suicide.
    • Approximately 11% attempted suicide.
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