2024 has provided me with a crash course in all different types of mental health resources. I admit, I didn’t know I was signing up for this education. And often, I’ve felt like a blindfolded trail hiker.
It turns out, the services and resources I’ve been steered toward – either for myself, my children, or my family as a whole - form a complex web of often-disjointed mental health support. There’s a landscape full of acronyms, providers who don’t always talk to one another, and confusing trail markers.
This blog post is my attempt to save you some of the groping around in the dark I’ve done over the past few years. It’s also a stake in the ground of destigmatizing mental and behavioral health challenges as HEALTH challenges. I suspect you wouldn’t tell someone with diabetes or high blood pressure, for example, to “tough it out” rather than taking their life-saving medications. You’d probably not tell a kid who’s hard-of-hearing or who has vision problems to simply “pay more attention” in class. And I suspect you know one or more people who would benefit from a higher level of mental health support but who are afraid of what people will think if they ask for it.
Let’s change that narrative. Just because our – or our kids’ – challenges are more invisible and less quantifiable than some other physical ailments doesn’t make them any less real. And let’s intervene early when we or our kids are struggling, so we don’t have to ignore problems or try to be cycle-breakers who are doing this all alone.
A Few Caveats: I’m not a mental health professional. All of the thoughts below are what I’ve learned from navigating the mental health system as an individual and as a parent. Also, for each option, the quality and experience of providers varies widely. It’s always a good idea to ask around and get the advice of people you trust about which providers to use.
?? A Mental Health Resource Map??
I’m going to walk you through the mental health resources I’ve become aware of, in a rough order from less-intensive needs to more-intensive needs. This path need not be linear, though. You may wind up skipping around from one option to another. Or, as our family has done, you might put together a beautiful mosaic of support in different categories.
In this week's Mindful Return blog post, "A Map of 14 Mental Health Options – For You and Your Kids", I name a scenario, provide a bit of information about the type of resource, and then share a personal anecdote.
https://lnkd.in/d-yJudWP #mentalhealth #parenting #therapy #neurodiversity #health
