According to Mental Health America, nearly 60% of adults with a mental illness in the United States do not receive treatment, showing how widespread the gap in care is for our communities (Mental Health America, State of Mental Health in America). As students at UNT, we created this GoFundMe campaign to raise awareness through advocacy and donations directed toward Mental Health America and their mission to support and promote mental health and wellness nationwide.

This topic hits home to us as young adults in a tumultuous world. We each have a personal story of someone we love who has struggled with mental health or access to mental healthcare. But this is not just an individual issue, it affects families, communities, and access to care. This matters to us as a group because we have learned, through social engagement, that we can make a difference in one person’s life by talking about it. We chose to raise money for Mental Health America because it can save a life.

Jennifer was 24 years young when she felt the world was too heavy to continue. As one of our teammates’ sibling, she was loved and cherished but still struggled internally with her mental health. She lived in a small town that was underfunded and access to care required driving 45 minutes to the nearest urban area. That was a situation that someone young did not know how to navigate without financial resources and access to transportation. These obstacles seemed too much to overcome. If there were more resources, Jennifer may have lived another day to enjoy her community. -Team Member

"DB was an outgoing, lovable, and loving guy. He was my cousin. We were close in age. Our last two encounters, unfortunately, were at family funerals. Two significant losses for him, within a couple of years, the last one being a person who held high rank for most of us in the family. She was the last sibling of a generation. For my cousin, she was everything. I don’t know all that brought him to his breaking point, what the defining event was, or the smallest weight that caused the point of no return. I do know that I was stunned by the news that he’d taken his life. And at the same time I understood how you could come to that crossroad. I’ve struggled with the weight of depression longer than I care to remember. There have been times where grief and depression have made a pretty horrible tag team, and I felt like there was no one I could tap in to help me. The stigma, the cliche’s, the buzzwords, and the ridiculous notion that you can just “get over it” is exhausting. The battle is hard. The work is equally as hard. What’s needed are trustworthy, skilled, licensed, professionals, who are representative of multiple demographics to help the people within those communities. There is not a one pill or conversation type cure-all, BUT there is help. There are people who can be tapped in to join the fight. I know my cousin tried hard to fight. I wish that the outcome had been different. I wish so many things. I hope for myself, in the fear and courage to share pieces of our story, that we shine a brighter light on the great need for help to support the resources available."

-Shawni, Team Member

Sharing stories, increasing awareness, and improving access to resources may encourage someone to get help before it is too late. This is what Mental Health America can do with your donation. You may save a life!

There is a stigma around mental health that shows up in our communities in multiple ways: self-stigma, social stigma, and structural stigma. Low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and feelings of shame can keep someone from seeking help. Society also make people believe that it is a weakness to seek mental healthcare. People who desperately need the healing of community are then excluded or ostracized for their vulnerability.

The way our current policies and system undermine those who start to seek help include discrimination and underfunding communities most at risk towards needed care. According to Mental Health America, fear of judgment and discrimination can prevent people from seeking mental health care, causing their condition to worsen over time. If we want to heal ourselves, we need to be honest about the harm we cause by not providing equal access where it is due.

ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA (MHA)

Mental Health America (MHA) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on prevention, early identification, and access to mental health care. They provide:

-screenings

-education

-advocacy

-policy work

WHERE THE MONEY WILL BE USED

According to Mental Health America, improving access to integrated treatment is a key priority, meaning individuals receive coordinated mental health and physical health care together (Mental Health America, Integrated Treatment for Those in Need).

IMPACT

Without knowledge of treatment options, people are highly likely to experience the worsening of their mental health conditions. This can impact their ability to work, their ability to maintain healthy relationships, and their ability to function in their daily lives and contribute to a healthy community.

Mental Health America could have helped in Jennifer's community by providing access and information so she could journal daily, read self-help books, and go to a counselor located at her local Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC). These appointments were hard to schedule when the community they serve is widespread and funding is limited. Jennifer was able to attend 4 sessions and each time she booked another she would be on a waiting list for months at a time. When time is crucial, communities don’t have the resources they need to fully dedicate themselves at the level citizens require.

CALL TO ACTION

-Donate: Please give whatever you can. We have a starting goal of $50.

Share: Here is the link to Mental Health America and their social media accounts. Please share it!

https://mhanational.org/

WORKS CITED

Mental Health America. Integrated Treatment for Those in Need. https://mhanational.org/position-statements/integrated-treatment-for-those-in-need/

Mental Health America. State of Mental Health in America. https://mhanational.org/data-in-your-community/mha-state-county-data/