Recovery Innovations Peer Leadership Council (PLC) newsletter recently stated that, “One in five people will experience a mental health condition in any given year, and everyone faces challenges in life that can impact their mental health.”
Recently, a friend shared a story with me. He was doing some yardwork and he noticed that one of his neighbors was hanging around the fence. He could’ve kept doing his yardwork, but he had a feeling the neighbor wanted to talk, so he took a moment and approached him. It turned out that his neighbor had recently been involved in a traumatic event and began opening up about it.
Why do I share the story with you? Because mental health is a we issue. My friend is not a mental health practitioner in any official capacity. However, based on a gut instinct, he stopped what he was doing, approached his neighbor and then listened with empathy when his neighbor began telling the story. In RI’s Peer Support training it instructs, “people can experience healing just by having someone listen with kindness to their story and their pain.”
Mental health issues impact all of us in one way or another—and some excruciatingly so. It’s not up to only mental health practitioners, the government, or insurance companies, clinics etc. We need more open, honest talks across all venues, easily accessible trauma informed mental health education, stigma elimination, more holistic collaboration, creative ideas and more. Most importantly, we need people like my friend who took a few minutes, and listened with care to his neighbor-because it’s truly a we issue. We all are needed, and it’s imperative that (in our own way) we each favorably impact the mental health crisis that we, as a society, currently find ourselves in.
Cheri Thomas
Cheri works as a Peer Support Specialist for RI in Arizona. She has experienced loss and grief which has led her to write for the masses to bring voice to those in similar situations. Cheri possesses a deep passion to share with, encourage, and inspire others on what she calls the Journey of the Heart.