Mental Health Month: Pathways to Wellness

For more than 60 years, Mental Health America and our affiliates across the country have led the observance of May is Mental Health Month by reaching millions of people through the media, local events and screenings. This year's theme is Pathways to Wellness.

Key Messages

1. Wellness - it's essential to living a full and productive life. It's about keeping healthy as well as getting healthy.
2. Wellness involves a set of skills and strategies that prevent the onset or shorten the duration of illness and promote recovery and well-being. Wellness is more than just the absence of disease.
3. Wellness is more than an absence of disease. It involves complete general, mental and social well-being. And mental health is an essential component of overall health and well-being. The fact is our overall well-being is tied to the balance that exists between our emotional, physical, spiritual and mental health.
4. Whatever our situation, we are all at risk of stress given the demands of daily life and the challenges it brings-at home, at work and in life. Steps that build and maintain well-being and help us all achieve wellness involve a balanced diet, regular exercise, enough sleep, a sense of self-worth, development of coping skills that promote resiliency, emotional awareness, and connections to family, friends and community.
5. These steps should be complemented by taking stock of one's well-being through regular mental health checkups and screenings. Just as we check our blood pressure and get cancer screenings, it's a good idea to take periodic reading of our emotional well-being.
6. Fully embracing the concept of wellness not only improves health in the mind, body and spirit, but also maximizes one's potential to lead a full and productive life. Using strategies that promote resiliency and strengthen mental health and prevent mental health and substance use conditions lead to improved general health and a healthier society: greater academic achievement by our children, a more productive economy, and families that stay together.

May is Mental Health Month 2013 Toolkit

Download the Media Materials, including:

• Sample Press Release
• Drop-In Article
• Sample Mayoral Proclamation

Download the Fact Sheets, including:

• What is Wellness?
• Four Simple Steps
• Understanding the Social Determinants of Health
• Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

Download our poster, check out the electronic calendar, or get our graphics at http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/may/marketing.

Please use all materials as you see fit to supplement your May is Mental Health Month activities or other programs during 2013.

We hope you find this information helpful in your outreach efforts. If you have questions or concerns about the items in this toolkit, please contact Erica Ahmed at eahmed@mentalhealthamerica.net.

Happy May is Mental Health Month!