Building Your Mental Health One Support At A Time
It's Mental Health week across Canada and the theme this year is "Building Your Mental Health One Support at a Time!"
DID YOU KNOW:
Mental illness indirectly affects all Canadians at some time through a family member, friend or colleague.
20% of Canadians will personally experience a mental illness in their lifetime.
Mental illness affects people of all ages, educational and income levels, and cultures.
Approximately 8% of adults will experience major depression at some time in their lives.
About 1% of Canadians will experience bipolar disorder (or "manic depression").
Suicide accounts for 24% of all deaths among 15-24 year olds and 16% among 25-44 year olds.
Additional facts can be found online on the CMHA website !
Workplace Mental Health is challenging since a culture of caring is required from the employer. Work, home and life stresses combine to affect one's mental health. Proper support and treatment is required when people need the assistance. Stigmatization and discrimination are still evident at the workplace, leading to more and more stress on the worker, his family life, and his overall health. Stress and depression often result in additional problems such as alcohol abuse, substance abuse, health propblems, family breakdown, marriage problems, etc.
Children and families are also affected by the depression or mental health issues of a loved one. Take a look at the next video written by a little girl about her daddy crying.
Money problems, work problems, family problems all combine to affect people. Some people can handle everything, some people cannot. This doesn't make the second type of people weaker...they just need a little more support. It's time for us to invest in ourselves, to say "no", to determine what makes us happy.
Good mental health is essential to everyone's well-being. It is a sign of a healthy society. The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) believes that to achieve good mental health, we must strive for balance in our lives. Making connections - reaching out to those who can help us find that balance - will guide us on the journey to well-being. Let's make sure your work/life are in balance with this simple quiz available on the CMHA website.
The topic of MENTAL HEALTH has been kept in the dark far too long. Once people start talking, more support will be available to people and the stigmas associated with MENTAL HEALTH will decrease.
Posted by Paulette Upshall
on May 5, 2010