Recent News
May Is Mental Health Month!
May 1, 2016 — Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year.1 Mental Health Awareness Month has been observed in the U.S. since 1949 – millions of veterans had recently returned from war, the baby boom had just begun, and the Mental Health America (MHA) organization was seeing the enormous toll mental illnesses took on individuals and the people who loved them. Mental Health Month made an impact. Today thousands of organizations throughout our nation and the world, including Functional Industries, Inc. (FII), embrace and support it to raise awareness about mental health conditions, the importance of good mental health for everyone and the crises that occur when we fail to address mental health concerns early and effectively.
When mental illnesses or disorders are talked about, the language typically used to describe them tends to be clinical and impersonal. These words, while useful for doctors or clinicians, often don’t do justice to what life with a mental illness feels like. Two people with the same diagnosis can experience the same symptom and describe it in very different ways. Understanding the signs of a mental illness and identifying how it can feel can be confusing—and sometimes can contribute to ongoing silence or hesitation to get help. That is why this year’s theme for May is Mental Health Month — Life With a Mental Illness — is a call to action to share what life with a mental illness feels like to someone going through it2.
“Mental illnesses are common and treatable, and help is available. FII wants to help break down the stigma surrounding mental illnesses by sharing stories of our clients’ successes,” said Jaime Baker, Executive Vice President at Functional Industries, Inc. Speaking out about what mental illness feels like and each person’s experiences can encourage others to recognize symptoms early on in the disease process, and empower individuals—like Patty Navratil in this month’s featured success story—to be agents in their own recovery. “Integrated services are working – the Individual Placement and Support model (IPS) is Working!” concluded J. Baker. Learn more about Patty’s success by clicking here.
1 https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers#sthash.UKpK5bvK.dpuf2 MHA has developed a series of fact sheets on realizing the critical importance of addressing mental health early, recognizing the risk factors and signs of mental illness, understanding what mental illness is and isn’t, and how and where to get help when needed. These are available on its website (http://mentalhealthamerica.net/may).