May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental health affects ALL of us. If someone you love is going through a hard time, you don’t need to have all the answers. Just being there is #MoreThanEnough.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we are joining with National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and organizations around the country to spread the word. 

Millions of people experience mental illness each year. According to NAMI, 

  • 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experience mental health each year, and less than half of them receive treatment.

  • 17% of youth ages 6-17 experience a mental health disorder.

  • 55% of U.S. counties do not have a single practicing psychiatrist.

Do you want to help to build a better crisis response system in your community? Consider becoming trained in Mental Health First Aid.

NAMI Maine will offer a free Mental Health First Aid course on Thursday, June 22, 2023, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mental Health First Aid is a course that teaches you how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. Course participants learn to identify, understand, and respond to signs of addiction and mental illness. This national best-practice, evidence-based certification course is 8 hours in length and leads to a 3-year certification issued by the National Council on Mental Wellbeing. 

This in-person training will be held at Machias Savings Bank, 4 Center Street Machias, ME. There will be small breaks and time for lunch, but lunch will not be provided. Click here to register.

For more information on Adult Mental Health First Aid programs or help with registrations, please get in touch with Tori at tori@namimaine.org or 1 (800) 464-5767 ext. 2301.

If you believe that you or someone you know could be in crisis, please do not hesitate to connect with these local and national resources:

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
Maine's Statewide Crisis Line: (888) 568-1112 (call or text)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 (or online chat here)
National Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
Trevor Project LGBTQ Crisis Line: 1-866-488-7386 (online chat here or text TREVOR to 1-202-304-1200)

Additional Resources

  • Teen Text Support Line 207-515-TEXT (8398) Every day from 2pm - 10pm EST. This peer support text line is for Maine youth 13 - 24 years old and is staffed by individuals ages 18 - 24. Please note, the Teen Text Support Line is not a crisis line. In addition, the Teen Text Support Line cannot support users with international phone numbers.

  • To access NAMI Maine’s Mental Health Resource Database, click here.

For more information about how an individual’s environment impacts their mental health, suggestions for making changes to improve and maintain mental well-being, how to seek help for mental health challenges, self-assessment tools, and more, visit Mental Health America at https://mhanational.org/mental-health-month. Resources are available in English and in Spanish.

POSTTracey CarlsonHA, SB, HPM, SPR, mental health, mental health services, mental health awareness, mental health first aid