If you’re reading this, I’m confident you care about mental health and about improving mental health care and services.
So I’d like to invite you to connect with a group of dynamic mental health advocates who also care deeply about these same issues.
A few years ago, I started a new group on Facebook for mental health advocates. This idea had been percolating for some time, and I’d met many terrific advocates over the past several years through this blog, social media, and in person at advocacy events I had attended.
Through these encounters, I was pleased to find advocates not only in my state and across the US, but also in many different countries around the world.
While there are several great Facebook groups that focus on mental health and advocacy, I hadn’t seen one that specifically reached out to advocates on an international basis.
With just a few clicks, the ‘Mental Health Advocates International’ Facebook group was created. The response to this group was fast and very positive. Group members starting inviting their advocate friends. As of now, there are well over 3,000 members in the group!
What has also been incredible is that this group really is international. While the two largest groups of members are from the US and Canada, there are representatives from Germany, Argentina, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Lebanon, South Africa, and I’m sure this isn’t a complete list.
I’ve also been amazed by the great work these advocates are doing in the areas of mental health education, research, public policy, suicide prevention, treatment, outreach and so much more.
There seems to be a common thread of dedication, compassion, openness and a focus on building solutions instead of focusing only on the problems in our mental health system.
An invitation
Although I’m no longer personally involved in the day-to-day administration of the group, I do invite you to please join the ‘Mental Health Advocates International’ Facebook group.
Whether you are active in advocacy currently or just interested to learn more about advocacy, this may be just the community for you.
The group’s goal is to have a safe and supportive place for advocates to share ideas, information, and resources, and to collaborate, brainstorm, network, or just hang out to learn and grow. The ultimate outcome from all of this is to in some small way improve mental health care and services around the world.
As I’ve said before, advocacy requires collaboration, innovation, education, awareness, and action. I think you’ll find all of these in abundance in this group.
Here’s the link to the group. Hope to see you there soon! And invite your friends, too!
Here’s a question: What are your ideas about mental health advocacy? Please leave a comment. Also, please subscribe to my blog and feel free to follow me on X (formerly Twitter), “like” my Facebook page, or connect on LinkedIn. Finally, if you enjoyed this article, please share it with a friend!