By Karen Tang, General Member
Every year, World Mental Health Day is held on October 10th. This year’s theme is an annual event hosted by the World Health Organization, “Mental health is a universal human right.” This year’s event aims to “improve knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal human right.”
In recent years, and with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, mental health has been at the forefront of people’s minds. This is especially true for youth and adolescents, with many attending classes virtually at home, leading to a loss of social support and structure and increasing isolation and loneliness. The World Health Organization has acknowledged that this has created a global mental health crisis, with a rise of 25% in anxiety and depressive disorder during the first year of the pandemic alone. However, we most likely won’t know about the long-term ramifications of this crisis for years to come. This highlights the importance of mental health, but how might we go about talking about mental health to start taking action?
Talking about and having a conversation about mental health is not always easy! Especially if you’ve never initiated the topic conversation before. Here are some tips for talking about mental health:
Talking about your mental health
1. Determine who you want to talk to: Choose someone you trust, like a family member/loved one or colleague. Or perhaps you are more comfortable speaking to someone you don’t know, such as a support hotline or professional counsellor.
2. Think about the best place to talk: With the rise of telehealth, you can speak to someone in person or through virtual means like Phone or text messaging. You will want to find a place where you will have privacy to talk honestly; ideally, you will be less likely to be disrupted.
3. Prepare yourself for other’s reactions: Hopefully, when you reach out to someone, you get an excellent and validating response from them. However, there is still a stigma around mental health. So, if you don’t get the answer you were looking for, that may be due to various reasons, such as they may be worried about you or not fully understanding your challenges. If that is the case, try and give them time to process and ask you questions to help their understanding. Don’t forget to be kind to yourself and engage in self-care!
Talking to someone about their mental health
1. Find the best place to talk: It is essential to find a space where you will not be disturbed or distracted to ensure you give the person your full, undivided attention. This is a great time to turn off or silence your Phone so you won’t be interrupted.
2. Actively listen and ask questions: Active listening is a vital skill to master. Demonstrate you actively listen by facing the speaker, making eye contact, and being careful not to interrupt. Asking questions to clarify what they mean also helps show you actively listen and follow their train of thought. Ensure the questions you ask are relevant to what they are saying and not changing the subject.
3. Ask how you can support them: Ask how you can help support this person, rather than jumping to making suggestions or trying to solve their problems. They might want support in making a mental health appointment, helping access mental health support and services, or simply having someone to talk to.
I hope World Mental Health Day will shed light on the increasing importance of mental health and bridge the gap between awareness and taking action while decreasing the stigma about mental health. We should prioritize valuing mental health and well-being daily, 365 days a year.
Useful resources:
World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Day: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day
CMHA main website- https://cmha.ca/
Suicide prevention- https://talksuicide.ca/
CMHA in your area- https://cmha.ca/find-help/find-cmha-in-your-area/
Kids Help Phone- https://kidshelpphone.ca/get-info/kids-help-phones-wheel-of-well-being/
