Save Lives. Spread Hope. Prevent Suicide.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we at CHL are excited to celebrate this important annual event. As I mentioned in our last newsletter, mental health is crucial to our overall well-being; in fact, we cannot separate our mental health from our physical health. As the popular phrase goes, "Mental Health is Health." To support this message, I would like to share some helpful resources that you can explore further. These resources will provide insights on how you can prioritize your mental health and enhance your overall well-being.

Our partners at the National Mental Health Corps of America have shared some great information about Mental Health Action Day which is coming up on May 15th. This event was founded to shift our mental health culture from awareness to action. This year's call to action encourages us to check in with others using A.S.K., the “stop, drop, and roll” for providing emotional support for the people in our lives.

This is an excellent opportunity to learn how you can help yourself or someone you care about, not just in May, but throughout the year. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has some fantastic resources available for Mental Health Awareness Month, including weekly themes to focus on throughout May. Their team has curated great toolkits to help you learn more about mental health issues and to promote Mental Health Awareness Month within your professional and personal networks.

Another trusted partner in this work, Mental Health America, has some excellent resources to share as well. From May 5th to 11th, we will observe Maternal Mental Health Awareness week drawing attention to an issue that has long needed awareness. For too long, parents and particularly mothers have lived with stigma related to their mental health during pregnancy or after having a child, and we now know that this is an issue that can be effectively addressed when people are comfortable reaching out for and receiving the support they need around this issue.

Additionally, May 7th is Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Our young people are growing up in a rapidly changing world, with social media and screen time competing for their attention, along with pressures from school and peers, and the inherent changes that come with adolescence. It is crucial for adults to provide support to youth and encourage them to find positive outlets for their health and well-being.

CHL’s Umatter® for Youth and Young Adults (YYA) is a fantastic program we plan to implement again in the upcoming 2025-26 school year. This is a great example of the type of support that can make a real difference in the lives of young people.

Here at CHL, we are busy with our work and staying focused on supporting the work of suicide prevention in Vermont and beyond.  As I mentioned in the April newsletter, CHL is now part of the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention effort here in Vermont. We are excited to be part of the ongoing efforts to move things forward with this important work in alignment with Vermont’s first Suicide Prevention Strategic Plan. We are also working in collaboration with the Vermont Department of Health (VDH) to complete work on the Center for Disease Control’s Comprehensive Suicide Prevention grant, which culminates this August. We are hopeful about the possibility of supporting VDH in applying for this grant again if the opportunity arises.

Our work with the SAMHSA AWARE grant continues, and we will engage with our partners in this work at the BEST conference in Killington at the end of June. This will help us coordinate our efforts as we prepare to continue into the third year of this grant, which begins in October. As always, CHL has training offerings for suicide prevention coming up, and you can find out more on our Training webpage. You can now also visit the new FacingSuicideVT trainings and events page, which lists all upcoming suicide prevention-related activities in one centralized site.

We hope you will take time in May to learn more about mental health care for yourself and others. We encourage you to take some time in May to learn more about mental health care for yourself and others. Many of us often neglect our mental and emotional wellbeing, and this can have negative impacts in our lives. By prioritizing your mental health, you will not only improve your own life but also contribute positively to the larger communities in which we live.

Wishing you a Happy Spring!

Happy February!  As 2025 unfolds, our team here at the Center for Health and Learning (CHL) are now fully engaged with our various grant, foundation, and fee-for-service trainings and project management work.  We are excited to partner again with the Vermont Department of Mental Health (DMH) in the work of the Suicide Activities grant, which began in January.  This grant is a continuation of DMH’s commitment to suicide prevention, and CHL is grateful to collaborate in this effort to bring our expertise and commitment to promoting suicide awareness and prevention across our communities.  CHL will continue to facilitate the Vermont Suicide Prevention Coalition meetings throughout the year, and we look forward to engaging with this dedicated group starting again in April.  CHL will also continue to offer our Umatter® suite of trainings in schools, businesses, healthcare organizations, and other community groups in 2025.  Our Umatter® for Schools training is being offered to schools across Vermont to help them increase their suicide prevention awareness, create policies and protocols related to this topic, and create suicide-safe schools for both students and the adults who support them every day.  We will be offering our Umatter® Suicide Prevention Awareness and Skills training bi-monthly through 2025, with our first public offering happening on 2/12 from 10:00 - 12:00.  There is still time to register HERE, but please do this now as this training will close to new participants on 2/10.  We are also very excited to start to rebuild our Umatter® Youth and Young Adults (YYA) training this Spring, intending to again offer this excellent training in the 2025-26 school year as part of SAMHSA's AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education) grant in Vermont.  This is CHL’s most proactive, upstream offering in our Umatter®  suite, and the essence of this training is engaging youth in the creation of their own community action projects (CAP) to promote mental well-being, suicide prevention, and substance use awareness in their respective schools and communities.  By giving our youth the opportunity to use their own voice in the development of these projects, CHL will help empower the youth, with the oversight and guidance of both CHL project staff and trusted school-based adults, to learn to manage their own well-being and be ready to offer support to their peers.

February is Black History Month, and CHL honors this important yearly celebration of Black culture and history in America.  With CHL’s focus on suicide prevention, substance abuse, and mental health promotion, we recognize the importance of acknowledging the challenges the Black community has and continues to face related to these topics.  These Black pioneers in mental health have led the way to create inroads into their communities and help ensure that support and understanding are available to the Black community now and into the future.  February is also National Self-Check Month, #NationalSelfCheckMonth, which reminds and encourages us all to use self-checks to make sure we care for ourselves as well as others.  Stress can be a major challenge in someone’s overall health, which includes our mental health, but if we learn to check on ourselves, monitor our stress levels, and take steps to reduce and regulate this normal experience, we will be on our way to leading a healthier and happier life.

As February starts, we hope that everyone is taking time to find ways to care for themselves and those around them.  We know that we do better when we are connected to others, getting outside if and when we can (despite the cold and snow!) and consciously taking steps to manage our overall health (including our mental health) through the cold, dark winter months.  

Have a great month and take good care,

Kirk and Lorie