There was a time when someone with a mental illness would be shut away in an institution as far away from society as possible. Luckily, those days are mostly behind us. Now, there’s a conscious effort to try to find community-based solutions to mental health problems, and the overall outcomes seem to be better for everyone involved.
Community-based solutions mean that people get to stay in their own homes and with their own families. They can maintain the relationships that are so important to mental health. They may seek out jobs or education or just get to enjoy the normal aspects of daily living. This can work as long as they have an adequate amount of support.
This means that family and friends need to understand what they can do to help and when they need to ask for professional assistance. It means the person with the mental illness needs to be willing to put the work in to try to manage their own condition. It means everyone involved needs to understand the condition and treatment and their own role in the collective wellbeing of the community.
Community can also mean connecting with other people with similar conditions. There are the people who have been managing the same illnesses for longer than you who can offer hope that things really will get better. There are more recent diagnoses who might be looking for someone like you to tell them they’re going to be okay.
Connecting with other people with the same condition means you can share advice on what works and what doesn’t. It means you can recommend the things that help, and warn them about the things to avoid. It’s a collection of people who understand what you’re going through and don’t need you to explain the basics that others might struggle to understand.
Most people will experience some problems with their mental health at some point, even if only at the mildest levels. Acknowledging that we all have difficulties sometimes is the first step to accepting mental illness rather than stigmatizing it. It’s a way we can all try to help each other, to the benefit of all of us.
The world is no longer just divided into the mentally ill and the mentally healthy. We’re all part of the community finding new ways to take care of our minds.
