Mental Health Resources

by Russ Becker

What a week for mental health! Over the past couple of days I found myself scouring various opportunities in search of more information and organizations teamed with improving our students mental health. I was lucky enough to attend two separate conferences this past week both with very different themes, that shared the same goal of improving and providing mental health services. One of these days I spent with the Riverside Trauma Center going through a suicide assessment and intervention training. Riverside has long served our community in regards to mental health and it was a fantastic presentation focused on the awareness and prevention of a problem that unfortunately affects all populations. The second event I had the chance to attend was the MIAA wellness Summit that enables both students and school staff the opportunity to see a series of speakers and connect with Massachusetts based resources that target anything from traumatic brain injury support to addiction training and rehabilitation. While planning out this blog post I had initially intended to go into detail with a number of the important messages I have received over the past week but I felt as if the information is far too vast and all encompassing to be broken down in a single post. Instead, one of the most remarkable pieces that I came away with was the incredible amount of support, interest, and emphasis that has been places on these issues that for far too long have been considered taboo for many communities. As a mental health professional, I have found that one of the biggest barriers to care is the Stigma tied to these struggles and the massive leap of faith affiliated with seeking out help. Events like the two I attended are doing a remarkable job at breaking down that stigma and opening up access to proper care and training for Massachusetts at large. With displays like these, students and staff alike are able to not just witness and experience the struggle that many people endure, but they are provided with proper resources and training to combat these issues. I certainly left these events with a renewed sense of progress and optimism, and it is easy to see how experiences like this can help much more people that maybe we had initially thought possible.

For additional information on mental health resources in our area, please go to our website:
http://medfieldguidance.weebly.com/mental-health-resources.html