HELENA - A new mental health campaign is aiming to bring the same emergency preparedness that businesses and schools have for natural disasters and other life-altering events to the mental health sphere.
Whitefish-based non-profit ReVision Youth which focuses on helping vulnerable groups kicked off its Mental Health Emergency Preparedness and First Aid campaign on Monday.
The campaign is trying to address mental health preparedness and care in the same way that we address natural disasters or other traumatic events.
“People can get this information, start to think about it, start to engage in good discussions about what this means to them, and what feels like a good mental health first aid kit, what's a good mental health emergency plan,” said ReVision Youth founder and CEO Samantha Kinkaid.
Flyers available online, point to resources for dealing with mental health crises, as well as personal ways to deal with mental health. ReVision Youth hopes to spread awareness and start a conversation about the importance of being ready for events that may impact the mental health of us all.
According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), a 2021 report showed 163,000 adults have a mental health condition in Montana. That is close to the number of people in Montana's most populous county, Yellowstone County.
NAMI also says 10,000 Montanan children between the ages of 12 and 17 have depression. Additionally, 7,000 adults in Montana went without needed mental health care. Nearly half of those people didn’t do so because of cost.
“Our goal is really to just get this information out. And hopefully, it will spark dialogue and some great preventative empowered action,” says Dr. Kinkaid.
Flyers for the campaign can be found on ReVision Youth’s website at https://revisionyouth.org/.
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, you can contact the Suicide and Crisis Hotline by dialing 988.
