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Health & Wellness 2017: Battling the stigma surrounding mental health is important

The Oskaloosa Herald - 7/4/2017

July 01--OSKALOOSA -- Across the globe, mental heath illness has a stigma causing those who suffer from the conditions to often hide their illness. Slang terms such as 'crazy', and 'psycho' are often heard around the community and in the media, continues to negatively affect the way society approaches mental illness, health officials said.

According to the Mental Health Association of Maryland, Missouri Department of Mental Health, and National Council for Behavorial Health, a mental disorder is defined as "A diagnosable illness that affects a person's thinking, emotional state, and behavior and disrupts the person's ability to work or carry out other daily activities and engage in satisfying personal relationships."

Mental disorders are extremely common in the United States with statistics showing that one in four or five people can be diagnosed at any point in their lives with a mental health concern, said Jan LeBahn, director of Behavioral Health Services and licensed independent social worker at Mahaska Health Partnership.

Statistics published in the first edition of Mental Health First Aid state that 19 percent of adults in the United States have experienced a mental disorder, which is equivalent to 45.6 million people.

LeBahn said the media has portrayed mental health in a negative way.

"Media has glamorized it [mental health] in a negative way. The words, such as 'psycho', that were used to describe mental health all had a negative connotation." LeBahn said. "I think its based on how we have over the years perpetuated it. When we go back in history, people with mental health concerns were shunned, crazy, put away, or killed even because no one wanted to deal with them."

Although LeBahn mentioned that history has not been kind to those suffering with mental illnesses, she is hopeful for the future.

"I do think it is getting better. When I first started this work, it has changed significantly. Our approach is totally different so lets talk about it, lets normalize it, lets let people have a comfort level to talk about what is going on with them," LeBahn said. "I think we have a come a long way in just those 30 years and how we talk about mental health. Do we have a long way to go? Absolutely."

LeBahn also mentioned that she has noticed mental illness more often in the news in a positive way with more resources behind it.

"People are recognizing it as a health condition rather than a character flaw," LeBahn said.

There are many ways an individual can help support someone with a mental health concern. It starts will creating caring connections, LeBahn added.

"Just being there and being a good listener. Believing it is real for that individual, supporting all the positive lifestyle changes and choices, and supporting the idea to talk to a medical provider or therapist. Many ways you support someone in a medical crises" LeBahn said. "The first piece is just believing that it is real for someone -- not minimizing it, not discounting it."

LeBahn believes that the reason that is such a stigma on mental health is that many people are uniformed and uneducated on the topic.

"Often times coworkers that are uninformed about mental health probably see it as lazy, so they aren't thinking that mental health is the cause," LeBahn said. "In the workforce we have to start educating each other. It [mental health] is not an excuse for poor performance, but it might be what is going on with someone. It's starting a dialogue about it--whatever we can do to educate people that is going to create a different future for people who struggle with mental health concerns."

LeBahn mentioned that physicians and health professionals have started preventative care, asking mental health questions during physicals, although it is not widely practiced.

"Our world needs to start doing more preventable care for mental health. We do physicals, why don't we do a checkup for mental health? Why don't we check up on those things before it becomes a huge issue? The earlier you identify the symptoms and seek treatment, the better outcome you will have," LeBahn said.

Although society has come a long way in how mental health is approached, LeBahn said there is still a long journey ahead and it all starts with education.

-- Megan Showers is a staff writer for the Oskaloosa Herald, she can be reached in the newsroom at 641-672-2581, ext. 422.

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