In the 1900’s, Mental Health was established by a person named Clifford W. Beers. He was a graduate of Yale College and had started his first job on Wall Street. Being in his early twenties, he began to experience his first episode of bipolar disorder which was triggered by his brother passing away. Beers ended up in public and private hospitals over the course of three years where he experienced and was even subjected to abuse. Ultimately, these experiences provided Beers the motivation to reform the movement that took shape as Mental Health in America.
Since this movement launched, there has been an uphill battle to provide resources, conduct research, train counselors, and much more. There has always been a goal to minimize the barriers to treatments and services for those that are suffering and to help individuals have productive lives within their communities. Over the past four years, our country has seen an uptick in mental health amongst all groups within the communities. The pandemic has created a crisis for mental health. The World Health Organization has noted that anxiety and depressive disorders have increased by 25% globally just in 2020 alone.
That said, the National Alliance on Mental Health and Reimagine Crisis Response has teamed up to offer a 24/7 hotline for callers experiencing a range of mental health emergencies.
Each caller will be connected with trained counselors that will help the callers cope with their emergency and direct them to additional resources for mental health or substance use treatment.
Learn more at the crisis hotline website: www.ReimagineCrisis.org or read more on the flyer: 988 Infographic