Nearly twice as many women as men have a depressive disorder

Mental Health Public Awareness Campaigns

Good mental health is for everyone. Everyone deserves to feel their best and to have support when they are experiencing difficulties. Thanks to a generous grant from the Moses Cone Wesley Long Community Health Foundation, we focused on the following higher risk populations:

Hispanic/Latino Americans 2007
African Americans 2006
Older Adults 2005

Our goal is to improve community’s health by educating higher-risk populations on mental health issues, treatments and services, with a focus on health improvement through support and action.

Our actions will focus on delivering a project, message and information that:

	Are culturally respective, effective and sensitive;
	Use language and symbols that are meaningful and attractive;
	Connect with multiple, diverse leaders and communities;
	Clearly state the dangers of untreated depression, anxiety and other negative mental conditions, for both the individual and the family;
	Highlight the warning signs of major mental health problems;
	Equip the listener, viewer, and/or participant to be able to respond to a mental health crisis experienced by either themselves or someone else; and
	Leave the listener, viewer, and/or participant receptive to resources, treatment and other help for their own mental health concerns.

Older Adults 2005
In May 2005, we launched our Mental Health Awareness for Older Adults Campaign. The campaign featured community wide media coverage, public service announcements, public education events. The kick-off for the campaign took place at the Memorial Stadium on Yanceyville Street, as part of Senior Health and Fitness Day.

The campaign was conducted in partnership with many other community providers, consumers and agencies, and the Mental Health and Aging Coalition, targeting high-risk populations.

Important messages of the campaign, to care givers, to seniors, and to the medical community were:

	Depression is not a normal part of growing older, AND
	Getting older does NOT EQUAL getting dementia, AND
	Seniors with physical illnesses are at risk of developing a mental illness, AND
	How to recognize the warning signs of depression and that responding by seeking help is the best step to preventing chronic illness.

African Americans 2006

Why Focus on African American Mental Health?

Click the image above to view our current bus advertisement.

African Americans have been found to seek and obtain mental health services at a much lower rate than non Hispanic whites, although are at much greater risk for poor health, loss, post-traumatic stress and incarceration. Data show that African Americans compose 30% of the population in Guilford County and 39% of Greensboro, yet represent only 4% of social workers, 2% of psychologist and 2% of psychiatrist. When social issues and barriers to service delivery are considered African Americans in Guilford County comprise 40% of juveniles in the justice system, 49% of homeless, 40% of incarcerated and 21% of African American war veterans suffer from PSTD. There are many additional barriers for this population when seeking service access and delivery. Those barriers include treatment taboos, cultural stigmas, lack of health insurance, unfamiliar with available resources, few ethnically similar providers and vague connection between community resources.

African American Mental Health Awareness Campaign
MHAG, along with funding via grant from Moses Cone – Wesley Long Community Health Foundation, initiated an African American Campaign to offer comprehensive mental health awareness. Campaign Opportunities include formulation of an on-going Mental Health Advisory Committee to provide stronger collaboration among community, faith based, professional, and academic and social services fostering better understanding between and for cultures. The advisory committee is comprised of representatives from 15 different community organizations.

To gain a greater clarity of mental health care needs, MHAG surveyed over 700 residents and learned that many do not believe that mental health is as important as physical health, and they often seek the counsel of friends and family before their family physician. Of those seeking counsel, many are unsure about where to go for additional help.

Thorough this campaign, MHAG has:

	provided Mental Health awareness to over 4,000 through local presentations and more than 45,000 using media sources
	distributed over 5,000 leaflets listing community resources
	conducted 10 focus groups and
	established links to 30 local minority churches.
	provided Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, May 2006 to embrace Faith Community and address an area of unmet/undermet needs (30 participants).

The African American Mental Health Awareness Campaign year was officially scheduled to occur from July 2005 through June 2006. Services remain available in support of community programs via awareness presentations, vendor displays, culturally inclusive educational materials, referrals and collaboration. To learn more about the on-going efforts of this campaign, including peer-led support groups, call (336) 373-1402.

Additional Campaign Accomplishments include:

	developed 15 member Advisory Committee, reflecting the diversity of the community.
	provided community education/awareness promoted via use of public service announcements, direct mailings, electronic mailings, radio broadcast, television promotion, newspaper, health fairs, Greensboro Transit Authority advertisement, printed brochures, focus groups, community education, surveys, Church presentations, school presentations, and trainings.
	created Brochure and Display to promote Campaign.
	developed community Poster disseminated to community resources.
	developed advertisement for Transit Ad to promote the Campaign and Mental Health Association.
	expanded MHA resource library with materials that speak specifically to the needs of the African American Community (x 15 resources).
	created 4 presentations that can generally be used to promote mental health (What is Mental Health, Depression, Mental Health Impact on Family, Undoing Barriers).
	provided training: Eliminating Barriers conducted at the 10th Annual Mental Health Association Conference – April, 2006.
	partnered with Bennett College to start a peer led student support group held on campus of Bennett College.
	developed resource manual for use at North Carolina A&T State University for referrals into Greensboro Community.
	provided outreach to 30 Community Churches, North Carolina A&T State University and Bennett College, and 4 low-income communities.
	partnered with Guilford County Department of Social Services to address mental health needs of Work First Program participants.