Helping Someone Else With Their Mental Health Concern

Mental Health Concerns are a common issue in the world today. It’s been estimated that 1 in 5 adults will suffer from some form of mental concern during their lifetime. Unfortunately, not all adults with mental health concerns get the help they need and deserve.

In this blog, we’ll outline the strategies and practices for supporting adults with mental health concerns as well as tips on how you can become better educated about mental health concerns for yourself and others you work with.

How to Understand Mental Health Concerns and Why We Need to Talk About it More

Mental Health Concerns is a broad term that covers a range of mental health conditions. It includes conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and so on.

Mental Health Concerns can be a result of trauma or abuse. It can also be the result of a chemical imbalance or genetics. The World Health Organization estimates that 300 million people globally suffer from mental health concerns annually and out of those 200 million cases go untreated because of stigma, lack of access to treatment and other reasons.

As per the WHO estimates, 1 in 4 people will experience mental health concerns at some point in their lives and 1 in 10 will have to live with it for life.

Understanding the Stigma of Mental Health Concerns

Feeling fear of the unknown is simply human nature. You are more likely to find out about heart disease from a colleague than about their mental health concerns. Despite the fact that each year we understand and learn more about anxiety, there are still more people who see it as a personal problem than as legitimate experience. This mindset is not productive in a work environment.

Mental health concerns can often be seen as a sign of weakness, and this stigma is not new, it has been around for centuries.

The problem comes from the fact that these beliefs about a person’s mental health concern are often simplified or generalized representations about groups of people that understand the full picture of a person’s experience with a mental health concern. This reductive view can cause a person to get a wrong idea of ​​what it means to live with a mental health concern.

Unfortunately, mental health is not discussed enough because of the taboo and stigma around the subject. People often find themselves either afraid to disclose their own experiences with a mental health concern or are uncertain about the right language to use when talking about the subject. 

3 Ways You Can Help An Individual Living With A Mental Health Concern

1. Get informed

Many people are living with a mental health concern, but don’t have the support they need. You can help them by knowing the warning signs of mental health concerns and supporting them when they are struggling.

Helping an individual living with a mental health concern can sometimes be difficult because it is hard to know what is wrong or how to offer support. One of the most important things you can do to help an individual is to learn about their mental health conditions. It’s also important for you to know the warning signs of these conditions so that you can offer support when needed.

2. Watch your choice of words

Everything we say has an impact on other people. This aspect is especially important in someone who is struggling with their mental health. Phrases that are negative, aimed at worth or strength,  can cause damage to self-esteem.

It is also important that we balance the importance of what happens: it is neither easy nor the end of the world.

1. Don’t take their behavior personally

A person’s struggles with mental health is complex. Maybe your friend will be talkative one day and not the next and maybe you have a sibling that keeps canceling get togethers. While you may feel hurt or offended by their actions, it’s important that you don’t automatically assume that they are a reflection of how your loved one feels about you.

Instead, use these cues as moments to check in, ask what you can do to support them, and remind them that you are available to them when they need you.

Conclusion

We bring our mission alive each day through our manufacturing social enterprise and an array of programs; connecting adults living with a mental health concern to life-changing opportunities through employment, housing supports, and engagement with mental health and other supportive services.