With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, one local organization is using it as a launching point to get people talking.

By sharing issues faced in regards to mental health, Brandi Christiansen, director of Mental Health America of Howard County, hopes to remove some of the stigma surrounding the topic.

“The goal is to open the discussion about mental health and remove the stigma,” she said. “We want to make the conversation year-round, and we feel like people don’t feel compelled to share their stories.””

One of the reasons, she said, is because the subject is still a tough one to talk about. However, Christiansen said statistics show that three-fourths of the population experiences a mental health issue at least once in their life, whether it’s depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, or grief, to name a few.

Christiansen herself hasn’t been exempt from experiencing mental health issues.

“It’s always difficult because there’s such a social stigma to it. I myself have avoided talking about it my whole life. That is why I’m here. I battled PTSD. I was in therapy for a few years, and it really revolutionized my life and allowed me to take the driver’s seat of my life,” she said. “I personally have experienced the empowerment of taking a holistic approach to my life, and I feel like if we can talk about it and remove that stigma and come together as a community we can absolutely redefine what it means.”

Christiansen is directing people to MHA’s Facebook page, “Mental Health America of Howard County,” to participate in the conversation.

In addition to working to remove the stigma, starting the conversation also presents another benefit. Christiansen will get a better understanding of where exactly the needs are in the community in order to determine what direction to take the nonprofit’s services.

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“We’re looking at who we are as an agency and how to best serve this population, and so if people don’t start talking and sharing, we can’t know. This agency is Mental Health America of Howard County. All of the affiliates really specialize with what their community needs. And we know there is plenty of need. But we have to get people to talk about it,” she said.

Currently, the nonprofit offers several support groups, including ones for veterans, widows, and people suffering from panic and anxiety. MHA also hosts a social club for adults with either developmental disabilities or mental illness, and the nonprofit hopes to ramp that group up in the near future.

“We want to help empower them because these individuals oftentimes only have been on the receiving side of charity. My personal experience is that it’s very empowering to be a volunteer and be able to give back. They’re economic participants in this community, and I don’t think they have a lot of visibility. We’re going to try to get them involved and out there. We want them to decide what they want it to be. It’s going to be consumer-driven, and we’ll just gently guide them,” she said.

MHA will be in downtown Kokomo for First Friday on May 5 to start the conversation. Representatives will have bracelets, pins, and coin purses for sale. To help raise additional funds, MHA is hosting a WineDown event at the community room at the train depot on May 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. For $40 a ticket, attendees can enjoy wine tastings and hors d’oeuvres. Giveback days also will be held on May 4 at Hacienda, May 17 at Buffalo Wild Wings, and May 31 at Dos Molinos. Flyers can be found on MHA’s Facebook page.

On Monday, Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight proclaimed May as Mental Health Awareness Month, and the MHA staff rang the bell for mental health—a longstanding tradition that got its start decades ago.

In the early ‘50s, MHA made calls to asylums across the U.S., asking them to send in their discarded chains and shackles. At the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, Md., MHA melted down the bindings and had them recast into a bell, which became a symbol of hope.

MHA of Howard County is seeking sponsors for its Ring the Bell campaign where, for $1,000, a business will get to keep it for a week. For more information on MHA, call 765-459-0309.