We need to talk about mental health — every day, to everyone. The more we talk about it, the more normal it becomes. It is imperative that the conversations about mental health become as normal as recognizing the signs of a heart attack because the ability to recognize and respond to the signs of mental distress are just as life changing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported earlier this year that suicide has risen more than 30 percent between 1999 to 2016, and in Indiana, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death.
We can all make a difference.
Mental well-being has become an important initiative of Women’s Fund of Indiana, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation. Just last month, Women’s Fund hosted a group of donors for an event about mental health, specifically as it relates to suicide and its impact in our community. Speakers from American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Peyton Riekhof Foundation for Hope shared their personal stories of losing members of their family to suicide. The speakers emphasized that asking for help is not a failure and that mental health is, simply, health — not something “other.”
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (afsp.org) outlines several suicide risk factors to be aware of in yourself or others related to health, environment and historical factors, as well as mood and behavior indicators. If you think someone is considering suicide, assume you are the only one who will reach out. Talk to the person in private and listen. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 or text TALK to 741741 to text with a trained crisis counselor for free 24/7.
Women’s Fund has also convened community partners to join the national Campaign to Change Direction on mental health, which encourages everyone to recognize and respond to the five signs of emotional suffering — personality change, agitation, withdrawal, poor self-care and hopelessness.
Additionally, Women’s Fund is supporting the launch of a Give an Hour office in Indianapolis in 2019 that will offer one-on-one mental health counseling for marginalized women and girls. And, as a result of funds raised and donated from “A Moderated Conversation with Former First Lady Michelle Obama” earlier this year, Women’s Fund will announce in 2019 the recipient of a $750,000 grant to create a disruptive and transformational way to provide mental health services to girls.
Women’s Fund is committed to normalizing conversations about mental health because your mental well-being is too important for it to be any other way. For more information about these mental health initiatives, or the work of Women’s Fund, visit womensfund.org.
Julie Koegel is grants officer for Women’s Fund of Central Indiana, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF).
