Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental Health Awareness Month brings communities together to raise awareness about mental health, fight stigma, and provide support for individuals and their families. Throughout the month, we take the opportunity to celebrate recovery, promote resilience, and share ways we can come together across communities to help each other.


Let's Talk About It

Community Care's theme this year is "Let's Talk About It." It can be hard to talk about mental health due to stigma or past experiences. But it's important to talk about it and share our experiences and concerns. We can work together to break down stigma and move toward recovery.


Resources


Mental Health Month Events

Events in Pennsylvania - by county

Member Stories

Donna: “Today, I Have Hope”

Donna has lived with mental illness, but it doesn’t define who she is as a person. She was diagnosed with depression shortly after graduating from high school. Over the years, depression and suicidal thoughts became familiar companions to her and she often turned to self-harm to cope with these feelings. She was hospitalized many times and worried she would never feel better.

Several years ago, things began to change. Donna had lived on her own since graduating from high school, but when symptoms once again began to disrupt her life, she was given the opportunity to participate in a support program called Community Housing and Support (CHAS). She moved into an apartment with a roommate and met some extremely supportive staff. Donna says these amazing people were so encouraging and helped build her confidence. Slowly, she was able to stop hurting herself and when she felt like she was losing control she would remind herself how far she had come. “I would go three days without self-harm, then a week, then two weeks and so forth, I did not want to relapse, it’s now been four years with no hospital stays and no self-harm. I never dreamed I would get this far.”

What’s even more exciting is that while staying at CHAS, a friend encouraged her to take the class to become a Certified Peer Specialist. She now works for CMSU (Columbia, Montour, Snyder, Union Counties Behavioral Health Services) in a Peer Run Crisis Residential Program and she enjoys it very much. She gets to encourage and guide others who are struggling and gives them hope that recovery is possible. Donna credits her best friend Lisa, her family, her faith and going to therapy as important parts of her recovery. She has found healthy ways to cope like: listening to music, couponing, calling friends and prayer. Donna says, “Today I have hope and while mental illness is a part of my life it does not define me. I am a sister, daughter, aunt, friend, Peer Specialist, Christian, a person in recovery.”