By Marcie Timmerman

Mental Health America of Kentucky serves to provide health and wellness education, to promote research-based improvements and to create a better mental health system in Kentucky. Here’s how:

Online Screening: Our most frequently used service is our online mental health screenings. You get screened for cancer. You get screened for high blood pressure. Do you get screened for mental health? Our online mental health screenings are based on clinical tools and provide you with a good gauge of when it’s time to see a professional. They’re free, they have self-help tools, and results can be emailed to you. More information can be found at www.mhaky.org under the Mental Health Screenings tab.

Mental Health First Aid: We recently began offering Mental Health First Aid Adult courses. Just as CPR teaches people to handle a physical crisis or situation, Mental Health First Aid helps to handle mental health crises and situations. This evidence-based program is offered several times in 2020 by us, and through other instructors. Contact mhaky@mhaky.orgto bring a class to your community.

Mental Health Month: May is Mental Health Month. This program has been going strong since the 1940s and has put mental wellness in the spotlight across the United States. More information about our programs, toolkits, and partnerships for Mental Health Month 2020 can be found on our web siteunder May is Mental Health Month. Employers, libraries and communities–we’re available to provide resources and programming for your own observances.

Podcasts: Not able to connect with us in person or online? How about a podcast? Our BellPodcast covers a wide range of mental health topics. We’re re-launching in March 2020 with new ideas and interviews to spice it up. Find information on our web site under Bell Podcast and send us suggestions!

Volunteers Needed: Are you a provider looking to make a difference? We offer free mental health services to patients at the Family Community Clinic in Louisville. We’re looking for social workers, counselors and psychiatrists to help meet the needs of this growing service. Volunteer for as little or as much as you want.

Quilt Project: Being in a psychiatric hospital is often lonely and depressing. Through our quilt project, quilters can create lap quilts which we will distribute to patients at the state psychiatric hospitals in Kentucky. We also accept donations of clean, unused quilting materials to help others create them. Learn more at our web site at the Quilts for Mental Health tab.

Advocacy Training: Have an experience with the mental health system that should have been different? Want to make it easier for people to access mental health services? We provide advocacy training and tips for improving systems at the local, state and even national level. We’d love to teach you to stand up for mental health rights.

-Marcie Timmerman is the executive director of Mental Health America of Kentucky.