Mental Health Awareness Month takes place every May, and it’s one of those monthly observances that means a lot to Saint Francis Ministries. Just a couple weeks ago, our clinical services director, Pam Cornwell, discussed the relationship between trauma and mental health and how it affects those in our care.
As she said, “In child welfare, we encounter children that have been exposed to traumatic events and caregivers that were ill prepared to adequately respond and support the child to minimize traumatization.”
So, we work a lot with children, teens, and even parents who have experienced trauma of some sort in their lives. In fact, intergenerational trauma often lies at the root of abuse or neglect of children. Of course, not all children who experience child maltreatment become adults who abuse or neglect their own children, but as with stress, substance use, poverty, and others, it can be a contributing factor (Source: ChildWelfare.gov).
That’s why helping families heal and regain wholeness is foundational to our mission of providing healing and hope to children and families. We must take mental health seriously and provide therapeutic assistance where possible.
Mental Health Awareness Month is important, if only to fight the stigma and other obstacles that prevent people from seeking the help they need. One in five American adults experience mental illness each year, but less than have of them receive treatment (Source: National Alliance on Mental Illness).
Yet, we know that treatment works.
Saint Francis Ministries provides a full slate of evidence-based interventions, therapies, and programs that include in-home prevention, residential, outpatient, and behavioral health services.
We see healing every day. We see families restored and made whole all the time.
People and families struggling with mental illness deserve love and support, not ridicule and dismissal.
They deserve a community that cares about them.
Is there room in your heart to provide that care? Is there room in your day to provide that love and support?
You can partner with Saint Francis in providing these services through your financial support and by spreading the word that mental illness is just that – an illness. And like any other illness, no life deserves to be defined by a diagnosis.
Learn more by visiting our Behavioral Health page.
