Welcome to Mental Health Access!

Functioning as a nonprofit organization, Mental Health Access strives to achieve one main goal: educating the public on the causes and influences of various mental health illnesses.

Today, it is all too common an occurrence that an individual does not receive the treatment that they deserve due to a lack of awareness, or a sense of shame.  This can most directly be correlated to the stigma surrounding mental health.  A stigma is defined as “a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.”  This has prevailed in our society for generations, leading to intolerable levels of unawareness, and misconception.  For example, people often disregard their mental health illness symptoms as “quirks,” preventing them from seeking the treatment that they need.  This prevents an individual from reaching their full potential and causes a decline in their mental health that could have been prevented with treatment.  Addressing the stigma, and its negative effects in various cultures is the first step in rectifying the damage the stigma surrounding mental health has caused.

Second, to effectively reduce the stigma, we strive to educate the public on various mental health illnesses. True understanding of concepts such as risk factors, triggers, and symptoms, as well as specific applications of these terms across a variety of mental health illnesses is vital to understanding our minds, and those of those around us.  This increases our ability to help ourselves, and others to truly thrive, rather than suffer in silence.

Research is another vital component in the goal of promoting mental health.  Research is necessary to further understand everything: from how mental health illnesses vary between people, to how to most effectively treat specific symptoms.  Therefore, we prioritize the support of mental health research through donations.

We strive to create the accessibility society needs.

Sincerely,

The Mental Health Access Team :)