Mental Health Awareness Day

I don't usually get interested in "special days" and even in this case I can't say that I know lots about it, but I do know that mental health (and mental illness) is something that most of us know very little about, perhaps because mental illness provokes fear, and when we are afraid we don't really want to learn.  I've written about this subject before and get very little feedback on it, but because this is an "official day" of sorts, I thought it would be good to at least share a bit more on the subject.

Partly I'm thinking of this because we were recently victims of a theft and many people who are desperate enough to steal are also sufferers of mental illness.  This doesn't excuse the crime, it just helps us know, perhaps, that there is more to their story than what first meets the eye.

Let's be compassionate and smart as we care for ourselves and our neighbors in Jesus' name.

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The following was prepared by someone I don't know, a "30 something" mother from Britain.

Did you know:

• 1 in 4 people will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year

• Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain

• Women are more likely to have been treated for a mental health problem than men

• About 10% of children have a mental health problem at any one time

• Depression affects 1 in 5 older people

• Suicides rates show that British men are three times as likely to die by suicide than British women

• Self-harm statistics for the UK show one of the highest rates in Europe: 400 per 100,000 population

• Only 1 in 10 prisoners has no mental disorder

To read the rest of Sharon Howard's information, including videos on the subject of mental illness, go to http://showard76.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/world-mental-health-awareness-day-2011/

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