May is Mental health Awareness Month. Since 2009, Bridgeway has provided mental health first aid training to local organizations and individuals, which was created with the goal that one in four people on the streets would be trained as professional observers. Locally, Bridgeway has expanded their training to teens, beginning at the sophomore level in high school, explains System of Care Director Jessie Boock:
“We realized that teens were going to their peers for support, not that older adult. So, we train those sophomores on how to talk with peers who are struggling and how to appropriately get them to that positive adult. Often times diagnoses are used as definitions for maybe the way we are feeling. We take the time to explain that feeling depressed is much different than having depression. That anxiousness and nervousness is a normal feeling, it is normal to feel anxious before a big test, but anxiety is very different. We know that there is an extended challenge when it affects our four “L’s.” That is the way you live, laugh, love, and learn. When the duration of your symptoms and your feelings are really starting to impact the way that you live, laugh, love, and learn, you really need to reach out and we really need to talk to somebody.”
This Mental Health Awareness Month, Boock says remembering to intentionally make time for yourself is important. Self-care does not have to cost anything, just something that brings you joy.
