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Ardmore, PA (October 18, 2016) — Minding Your Mind, an organization whose mission it is to provide mental health education that can break the silence and end the stigma and destructive behaviors associated with mental health issues, is bringing its highly-recognized set of programs to Massachusetts.
Through the generosity of the Jack Satter Foundation, and modeled after its highly-successful and established programs in the greater Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey regions, Minding Your Mind plans to develop a significant presence and collaborative relationships in Massachusetts to improve the lives of adolescents, teens, and young adults.
“As part of ongoing national outreach, our young-adult speakers have been invited by individual schools and communities throughout New England to speak on mental health and suicide prevention,” shares Trish Larsen, executive director of Minding Your Mind. “We are thrilled to have a permanent presence, providing us the opportunity to develop long-term relationships with schools and communities, and work closely with other like-minded organizations in Massachusetts.”
One such organization is Keep Sound Minds. In 2008, Danielle and Ken Lambert lost their two children and Danielle’s twin sister in an unimaginable incident on a Massachusetts highway. That same year, Danielle and Ken founded Keep Sound Minds to honor their young children and Danielle’s sister, Marci, and to increase awareness about the importance of education and improved treatment of mental health disorders. “Marci and our young children, along with our entire family, have suffered the consequences of misunderstood, unrecognized serious mental illness,” says Ken Lambert, co-founder and president of Keep Sound Minds. “We believe flawed policies and lack of information and education regarding mental health contributed to this tragedy. The goal of Keep Sound Minds has been to change that, and we are impressed with the programs and the young adult speakers of Minding Your Mind.”
Of all its offerings, Minding Your Mind’s Speaker Program is the most popular and requested from schools and communities. The speakers – dynamic young adults who have struggled with mental health issues – visit schools and community groups to share their personal experiences and recovery. The presentations, which are free of charge to the host organization, occur during school assemblies, health classes, workshops, and evening sessions with parents. Issues that are addressed in these presentations include: mood disorders, suicide ideation, eating disorders, addictive behavior, self-harm, and bullying.
Presented to hundreds of thousands of college, high school, and middle school students, the Speaker Program is an evidence-based contact strategy to reduce stigmatized attitudes about mental health issues. Through research conducted by the Scattergood Foundation, statistical analysis of the Speaker Program shows that the program is improving students’ attitudes about seeking mental health services.
Minding Your Mind welcomes the public to an open community forum on Wednesday, November 16, at 7PM in the Newton Free Public Library in Newton, MA. Here, you will have the opportunity to hear from three of Minding Your Mind’s young adult speakers, as well as Ken Lambert of Keep Sound Minds, and meet staff members to discuss how your school or organization can benefit from Minding Your Mind programs. To register for this free event visit: mindingyourmind.org/events.