Becoming a Mental Health Advocate

Introduction

Increased cases of mental illness and trauma have created a need for leaders to take part in creating awareness of the disorder. Leaders in the mental health movement take part in advocacy change to make a difference in the lives of people living with mental illness. National Alliance on Mental Illnesses (NAMI) is an essential organization that advocates for issues for the needs and rights of persons with mental disorder and their families (“Get Involved," 2020 ) . The organization advocate for equal access to treatment and services, attaining mental health parity, and securing better funding for research. Advocacy is essential to countering stigma and supporting people with mental health challenges (Varghese, 2015). Many people diagnosed with mental disorders, together with their family, lacks adequate information on the causes, treatment, and management of the diseases due to misconceptions surrounding the illness. The report will focus on my advocacy leadership project in countering stigma and supporting people with mental disorders. The report will also include the response from the audience, lessons learned from Advocacy, and suggest ways of improving Advocacy in the future.

Advocacy Project

I began my project in mental health advocacy four years ago, targeting African Americans students who were the most affected and vulnerable population. As a leader in the mental health movement, my focus was to help African American patients with psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, and depression deal with trauma. My first successful mission was back in 2013 when I was still training to become an Undergraduate Peer Counselor. During the training, we worked as a group of three, where we participated in training experience, coordinated and engaged in campus outreach, and community education. During the training, the focus was to promote awareness of mental health by identifying and helping students with mental health stigma and educating the neighboring community on the same. Also, we learned facts about mental disorders and recognized the need for creating more mental health awareness among the students and the nearby community (DaLuca, 2017). Been the leaders of the group, we managed to form the National Alliance on Mental Illness ( NAMI)  in college with the help of other peer counselors. Since I joined college. I was interested in joining a career that could give me access to patients with mental disabilities and help them overcome the trauma. Majoring in psychology gave me that opportunity to take part in Advocacy. 

Following the first successful mission, I gained connections to NAMIs local, state, and national levels, which strengthened me to connect with other advocates and move to the community to help these people. My current advocacy project is pushing for public policy that will make a difference in the lives of people living with mental illness. According to Corbiere et al. (2012), stigma is characterized by inadequate information about mental health, prejudice, discrimination, and fear. If not solved early, mental stigma can result in social isolation as one feels shame, guilty, and inferior. The Advocacy seeks to bring changes by securing adequate funding for research, protecting access to treatment and services, and ensuring equal treatment of patients by covering them in the insurance plans (Varghese, 2015). Through this, it will be easy to counter stigma and support people with mental health challenges. I have been following and gaining strength from the great work of advocates like Hakeem and his advocacy work. During the field, I worked with passionate leaders who provided me with knowledge and materials to understand the leadership role in Advocacy.

Response from the Audience

The success of the advocacy project was contributed by assistant and response from the various audience who participated in the project, among them community leaders, community members like peers and faith community, local businesses, and local NAMI affiliates (“Get Involved," 2020 ) . Community leaders responded by connecting me to the community and helping in improving my project to be per the community norms and culture. The community leaders responded positively by officially recognizing the national mental health awareness events. Gaining the support of the community leaders paved the way for successful Advocacy since the community members participated in events like National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in July and Mental illness Awareness Week in October. Through the help of community leaders and fellow advocates, we managed to ask the community to "Go Green" to raise awareness and support mental health ("Get Involved," 2020). Community leaders helped in reaching out to the larger community. Cultural barrier is the leading cause of trauma in mental disorder due to underlying stereotypes. The first action was to address cultural barriers surrounding mental illness and medication. According to NAMI, inadequate information and misconception surrounding mental illness, especially among the minority groups like African Americans, is the leading cause of trauma and in access to better treatment and services. Through the program of “Sharing Hope”, I reached out to Africa Americans to increases awareness on mental disorders by addressing vital topics (“Sharing Hope”, 2020 ) . The presentation covered essential issues like signs and symptoms of mental disorders like schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar, how to communicate with patients and families to reduce stigma and general overview of recovery and best management to ensure a quick recovery. Also, the community got introduced to NAMI and other mental health services to gain more knowledge and seek support when necessary. I gave several handbooks of "Sharing Hope: An African American Guide to Mental Health" to the community members as a guide to gain a better understanding of mental disorders.  

Another group that responded positively was the teens who are vulnerable to mental disorders like depression. Teenagers who have a mental disorder or who have a relative with this condition reveal high stigma, fear, and inadequate information on the treatment and management. Through the use “Say it Out Loud” program, I engaged the adults in the community to understand the needs of youths battling mental disorders and involve them in conversation. The program incorporated a short film featuring the experience of teens, discussion guide for teens, narration from the facilitator, and a factsheet containing information that relates to local NAMI. Raising awareness by sharing information and holding a conversation is a crucial step towards reducing stigma among teens and increasing their chances of seeking mental health care ("Get Involved," 2020 ). Through holding a one-on-one conversation, the teens felt more comfortable to speak out their needs and feelings. Also, they learned ways of helping friends struggling with mental illness. Faith community groups responded by assisting in the recovery of people with mental disorders. Also, they motivated victims to share their stories and experience as a way of creating awareness and reducing stigma to the affected people.

Another critical audience that responded in favor of advocacy project was local businesses and local NAMI affiliates who assisted during the entire campaign periods. The local businesses supported the project by selling green ribbons to people and also hanging ribbons in their shops and public spaces. The local book stores agreed to feature books about mental health and encourage customers to purchase and read. I printed several brochures and factsheets, which were issued to different businesses like coffee shops and hospitals to issue to customers. The last and most successful event for my project was hoisting a public speaking event where all community members participated, shared their ideas, and listened to information from mental health experts from NAMI.

Lessons learned from Advocacy 

The advocacy project gave adequate experience as a mental health advocate and the current political climate, which requires dedicated people to push for funding cuts and keeping mental health on the agenda. The project taught the importance of connecting Advocacy in mental health values. Been an African American, I have experienced the trauma of mental disorder while growing up as a teen with my sick grandmother. Since then, I gained interest in advocating for better health care for mental disorders, a passion that helped me connect with youths and other advocates. The success of any advocacy is contributed by readiness and willingness to volunteer and connect with other advocates, community leaders, and politicians (Varghese, 2015). Volunteering can be in the form of a monetary donation or visiting these people and listening to their experiences (Varghese, 2015). The success of my project resulted from a good connection that I had from NAMI, politicians, and community leaders. Through connection, advocates learn more about mental health and get support from policymakers like politicians who push the agendas (DaLuca, 2017).

The project taught the importance of educating oneself and others about mental health. Education is the key to reducing stigma and improve the environment, especially among teenagers. Literacy and language conscious are a powerful tool for countering shame mental health feeling. Advocacy proved the importance of collaboration and integration to meet the agenda successfully. Mental health advocacy requires one to integrate and get involved in ongoing social movements that are relevant to the project. According to Corbiere et al. (2012), Advocacy to end victimization requires participation and assistance from various community leaders. The advocate needs to support other local and national mental organizations to achieve their advocacy goals successfully. Collaboration with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) contributed to the success of my Advocacy under NAMI.

Ways of Improving Advocacy in the Future.

Although the project was successful, there are still areas that need improvement in the future. First, there is a need to integrate more organizations in the Advocacy, not only two, as it was in the previous project. Collaborating with racial movements has proved to yield more positive results when advocating for the end of trauma for African Americans and Latino Americans with mental illness. Response from the ten shows that most trauma results from racial segregation and discrimination hence requires the involvement of a movement that advocates for the end of racial segregation. Another way of improving Advocacy is making intensive use of the media, both social media and mass media. Social media platforms that can be of use include the organization's twitter with hashtag #SayitOutLoud, Facebook, and Instagram to reach teenagers in the community. Media help in airing essential issues related to mental illness and reach to various stakeholders to change their perception. Lastly, based on the lesson and experience from the project, it is essential to observe self-care in the future (DaLuca, 2017) . Self-care entails staying close to the mental health community and using the support groups for assistance where necessary.

References

Cohen, B. M. (Ed.). (2017).  Routledge international handbook of critical mental health . Routledge.

Corbiere, M., Samson, E., Villotti, P., & Pelletier, J. F. (2012). Strategies to fight stigma toward people with mental disorders: perspectives from different stakeholders.  The Scientific World Journal ,  2012 .

DaLuca, J. (2017).  Becoming a Mental Health Advocate | . Hakeemrahim.com. Retrieved 24 February 2020, from https://hakeemrahim.com/2017/04/becoming-mental-health-advocate/ .

Get Involved | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness . Nami.org. (2020). Retrieved 24 February 2020, from https://www.nami.org/Get-Involved/What-Can-I-Do-/Become-a-Leader-in-the-Mental-Health-Movement .

Sharing Hope: An African American Guide to Mental Health . Nami.org. Retrieved 24 February 2020, from https://www.nami.org/getattachment/Get-Involved/Raise-Awareness/Engage-Your-Community/Sharing-Hope-African-American-Mental-Health/Sharing-Hope-2014_FINAL.pdf .

Varghese, P. J. (2015). Advocacy in mental health: Offering a voice to the voiceless.  Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry ,  31 (1), 4.