Mental Health Wealth
19
Mental health
Wealth
Abigail,Corey,Khali,Kennedy and Shaniya
Mental health is often overlooked in youth, however mental health illnesses largely develop between the ages of 14 and 24. As students, we understand how much schooling, extra-curricular activities, sports and home-life can take a toll on one’s mental health and stress level. It is important for youth to identify with their mental illness at an early age so it can be well managed from the time they begin to feel affected. The most important factor in normalizing this concept is educating those who may suffer from these illnesses in the future.
Mental health in georgia
- Over 2.3 million individuals live with mental illness, yet Georgia ranks 47 out of 50 states for access to mental health care, resources and insurance.
- Georgia ranks among the top 11 states with the most prescription opioid deaths.
- In Georgia, an individual with serious mental illness has a one in five chance of ending up in prison instead of a hospital.
Source: Mental Health America of Georgia
Teens in Georgia
- 12.2% made a plan to attempt suicide
- 8.8% attempted suicide
- 28% felt sad or hopeless almost everyday for 2 weeks or more in a row
Source: High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey
*We are mindful that these statistics do not mean someone has a mental illness.
Mental Health in Georgia
our target audience
Target
audience
Our target audience as briefly mentioned in our introduction is youth and young adults in the age range of 14-24. We wanted our projected audience to be people we could relate to, easily speak with and understand.
taking action
WHAT
In order to address our issue, we have decided to hold a virtual workshop about various mental health illnesses such as: depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Workshop
specifics
Inside our workshops
Each individual in our group will have a specific illness to talk about:
- Kennedy (Anxiety)
- Khali ( Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Corey (Depression)
- Abigail ( Bipolar Disorder)
- Shaniya ( Schizophrenia)
Each of us will speak about the illness, what it is, symptoms, treatments, as well as other information people can use when in need of help or treatment pertaining to a mental illness.
Guests at our event
Guests
In addition to the information each individual member of our group will be providing to our target audience, we are also planning on inviting guest speakers, as well as having a panel to give our attendees the ability to ask questions they may have. In our panel we plan to have therapists, parents and possibly persons who are living with a mental illness.
timeline
timeline
August 2020- Begin organizing workshop materials, and reaching out to guest speakers.
September 2020- Begin marketing and sending flyers out for workshop(s).
October 2020- 1st Workshop
Holiday Break*
*(November and December 2020)*
January 2021- 2nd Workshop
February 2021-3rd Workshop
March 2021- 4th Workshop
April 2021-Last Workshop
Budget
Budget
Flyers: $50
Stickers: $100
Ring Lights (5): $125
T-shirts: $200
Zoom Webinar Account: $14.99
Budget Total: $489.99
Our Mission
We realize that mental health is an issue that has been ignored, caused people to be misinterpreted, to be imprisoned, etc. It was important that our group voiced our concerns about this issue and its prominence in our population: youth and young adults. We feel that this subject matter can be handled more effectively if people prioritize these three key things in order to better the ways in which we view and deal with mental health.
Advocacy
First, advocacy, like we are doing with this presentation, people who face mental health issues need people who are going to advocate for them and prioritize their treatment as human beings as well.
Second, educating others on mental health and what they can do to ensure they are not contributing to the issues those with mental health concerns currently face.
Educating Others
Self awareness
Lastly, self-awareness, as human beings it is our responsibility to treat others with decency and help one another succeed and reach their fullest potential.
Measuring our success
Measuring our success
We will measure the success of our program through surveys completed by the participants following each workshop.