May has been Mental Health Awareness Month. I’m glad—in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place and anxiety-inducing news coverage—that we are provided the opportunity to stop and think about mental health. Ours and others’. Continue reading
Tag Archives: COVID-19
Mental Health Awareness: Our Own Stories
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. We can’t think of a better way to help you better understand mental illness than to hear from two of our members as they share a bit about their own journeys. Continue reading
A Firsthand Understanding: Lessons About Mental Health During COVID-19
May is Mental Health Awareness month. We want to help you become more informed, not only about severe mental illnesses faced by our members, but also about how the stresses of COVID-19 can impact your mental health and what you can do about it.
While the mental health ramifications of COVID-19 make this pandemic a crisis in and of themselves, there is a benefit hidden within this monumental challenge: Our society as a whole is becoming more aware of mental health on a personal level and more open to talking about it. As a growing number of people wrestle with their mental health—some for the first time—our culture is gaining understanding of what those living with mental illnesses face day after day, year after year. Below are key lessons that will help shape the future of the conversation around mental health for the better. Continue reading
When Mental Illness and Poverty Intertwine
As if navigating life with a severe mental illness doesn’t create enough challenges, mental health difficulties often result in an array of additional debilitating hurdles. Because many living with mental illnesses do not have the ability to hold a job, poverty is often a constant companion. With poverty comes homelessness, poor health and insufficient nutrition, not to mention the less visible struggles with stigma and shame.
Members of The Well Community deal every day with serious mental health disorders such as bipolar, schizophrenia and major depression. And they live each hour with the despair of poverty. Continue reading
And You Can Help!
We are all scrambling to serve each other during the COVID-19 health crisis. At The Well Community we have had to suspend our Community Life Center group gatherings and our Thursday Night Life worship service. But we have not stopped serving our members who already have insurmountable challenges as they manage daily life through the lens of mental illness. One of the greatest needs they have at this time is to be as healthy as possible. To that end, we are providing nutritious lunches four days a week (carryout and delivery) and offering hygiene items with every meal. And you can help! Continue reading