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RiverValley working to end stigma; mental health awareness raised during Suicide Prevention Month

Messenger-Inquirer - 9/6/2021

Sep. 6—In honor of Suicide Prevention Month throughout September, RiverValley Behavioral Health CEO Wanda Figueroa-Peralta said it's time to end the stigma surrounding mental health.

Figueroa-Peralta said about 40% of individuals experiencing mental health problems do not seek help.

Those that do seek help, according to Lionel Phelps, RVBH vice president for continuous quality improvement, wait, on average, nine years before doing so.

The number one reason for that, Figueroa-Peralta said, is the stigma associated with mental health problems, which is created by a lack of education and access to mental health information and resources.

"Communities across the United States lack access to good mental health services," she said. "There are not enough providers."

Additionally, according to Phelps, the stigma surrounding mental health is a "centuries old" problem.

"We didn't understand illnesses, let alone physical illnesses, but we really didn't understand mental illnesses, they were superstitious. If you heard voices, you were possessed ... they didn't know it was a medical condition," he said. "Somehow, society has been very slow at understanding and really bringing psychiatric problems into the modern age of understanding."

Additionally, he said, it looks different in different people.

For some, he said, it does not incapacitate them, and they are able to live mostly normal lives. For others, however, it may be debilitating.

Mental health problems, Figueroa-Peralta said, are medical problems and should be viewed as such.

"When a person goes through a traumatic event — it could be a war, it could be a pandemic ... your brain changes," she said. "Those are things that impact the brain, so it's a medical condition, it's an organic condition."

However, she said when trauma occurs in a mental capacity, rather than a physical one that can be seen, and therefore, more easily understood, society seems to lack empathy.

"People still believe that somehow, mental health symptoms are willpower, that you have the ability to turn off or turn on or just kind of ignore that," Phelps said. "They don't recognize that it's a medical problem ... and it could be anything from chemical imbalances to situational factors, and they can be treated, just like any other medical problem."

Phelps said while there is progress being made in ending the stigma surrounding mental health, there is still much more work to do.

He said looking at mental health issues in those around us with a sense of empathy and compassion also goes a long way in helping someone feel comfortable in addressing problems and seeking help.

"Compassion and empathy are two very important qualities, because that's what a person really does need," he said. "They need to be heard, and they need to be shown compassion. We need to put ourselves in their shoes and try to understand what their world is like."

The most important thing, however, is education, according to Figueroa-Peralta.

She said there is a need to get schools for all age demographics involved in the conversation about mental health to address it early on.

The community as a whole, she said, should also seek education about mental health.

"The stigma is a social construct — we build it as a community," she said. "We're responsible for building that sense of shame, so we also have to correct it. All of us have a role in changing the conversation about mental health."

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360

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