Mental Health Awareness Month 2023: LOOK AROUND, LOOK WITHIN

As humans, our overall health is significantly affected by our natural and built environment: where we are born, live, learn, work, play, and congregate all influence our health. While we often think of these environmental factors (sometimes called the “social determinants of health,” or the “vital conditions for well-being”) as relating largely to our physical health, it’s important to consider the effect of our environment on our mental health and well-being as well. This opens the door to consider education, economic stability, social connections, neighborhood, community infrastructure, and access to care. What we know for sure is that there are many factors that contribute to mental well-being, and we all benefit from stable environments, strong communities, and ready access to needed services.

During this year’s Mental Health Month, which Mental Health America proudly started in 1949, you are invited to Look Around, Look Within as we consider every part of our environment and its effect on our mental health and well-being. This year’s Mental Health Month toolkit provides free, practical resources on how to support your mental health, and the health of those in your community, within every part of our natural and built environment. Some aspects of our environments may be outside of our immediate control while in other areas we have the potential to make change. To that end, this toolkit provides useful suggestions for ways to adapt your surroundings to improve overall health and well-being, as well as suggestions for ways to cope when change seems out of reach.

We all have mental health, and we all have unique environments. Making our environments as healthy as possible goes a long way in improving our mental well-being. 

Taking a screen at mhascreening.org can help you to better understand what you are experiencing and get helpful resources. After that, consider talking to someone you trust about your results, and seek out a professional to find the support you need.

While you may not need this information today, knowing the basics about mental health will mean you’re prepared if you ever need it. Go to mhanational.org/may to learn more and bookmark Fairfield CARES' Mental Health Resources. Find our newsletter dedicated to Mental Health Month here.

Keep these simple fact sheets handy:

• 2023 Key Messages
  
• Healthy Home Environments
  
• Neighborhoods and Towns
  
• Safe and Stable Housing
  
• The Outdoors and Nature
  
• Fact Sheet Sources
  
• More Mental Health Month Files