Initiative for Mental Health Awareness Corporation
Literally everyone would benefit by improving their mental health, this author and all of his readers included. Therefore, the goal of the Initiative for Mental Health Awareness, Inc. (IMHA) is to reach as many people as humanly possible (yes, worldwide) to:
- make them aware of what mental health is,
- show them how to make changes to improve their mental health and
- alert them as to some obstacles they will encounter in doing so (especially anxiety).
The website you’re reading now explains the organizational structure and vision behind this ambitious project.
IMHA is built on these propositions
- No one has perfect mental health.
- Anyone can improve their mental health.
- Mental health is far more than simply the absence of mental illness. IMHA offers a concept of what constitutes healthy mental health and it how can be achieved.
- Mental health is just as important as physical health. Both require work to achieve and maintain.
- The healthier one is mentally, the better his/her quality-of-life.
IMHA does not address the assessment, diagnosis or treatment of mental and nervous disorders/illnesses. That’s the role of mental health professionals, treatment facilities and many worthwhile organizations. More power to every one of them! IMHA focuses on the quality of mental health apart from mental illness.
Activity areas
- Educate children, adolescents and adults as to the nature of mental health through age- and situation-appropriate educational materials.
- Develop methods of training mental health professionals to include mental health awareness (MHA) in their therapeutic skills.
- Encourage mental health educators to include MHA as an approach to mental wellness in their curriculum.
- Enlist the support and cooperation of institutions, governmental and private agencies, unions and other organizations with compatible interests.
- Qualify individual mental health professionals, life-coaches, mentors and teachers to teach MHA.
- Contract with a social scientist to research and empirically validate the concept of inbornintentions (a Bayesian analysis might be appropriate).
- Advertise/promote MHA through broadcast, print and social media (YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).
- Develop books, pamphlets, webcasts, podcasts, and public speaking promoting MHA.
- Promote the issuance of a “Mental Health Awareness” postage stamp in the US and other countries.
- Research and publish the history of mental health endeavors throughout history.
- Engage volunteers, paid staff and independent contractors to implement the operational objectives.
- Develop an organizational structure that will continue in perpetuity.
Potential funding sources
- Donations through IMHA websites and YouTube.
- Donations by webinar attendees
- Sale of “Pathways to Mental Health and Anxiety Management” (available as a paperback from Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
- Governmental or philanthropic grants
Mental health awareness can be promoted through…
Parents helping their children learn to respect human dignity in themselves and others. Mental health awareness begins within the family.
Teachers who include mental health awareness in their curriculum, from pre-K through graduate school.
Mental health professionals making it a part of their therapeutic practice.
Behavioral Health and Addictions Treatment facilities blending it into their existing protocols.
Corporate Executives who work mental health awareness into their corporate policies and procedures.
Employees, union and nonunion alike, by respecting mental health awareness in the workplace.
Executive, legislative and judicial branches of government when they ensure that legislation and policies are mental health awareness compliant.
Political candidates who keep mental health awareness in mind as they campaign.
Advocacy groups adhering to mental health awareness practices as they promote their cause.
The media by embracing mental health awareness in all broadcast and published content.
IMHA is available to assist in developing applications in any of these areas. You have your area of expertise and IMHA will work with you to blend in mental health awareness. Contact us!
Donations welcome
Since mental health is free, IMHA’s policy is to make all the information and resources it offers available at no cost. Therefore, the major funding source to cover necessary expenses must come from donations. If you find the concepts of mental health awareness important and would like to financially support this program, please make a tax-deductible donation through the “Donate” button on the right.
Donors receive:
1. a receipt for tax purposes,
2. notice of corporate activities: what IMHA is doing to promote awareness of mental health (how your money is being spent),
3. notice when new posts are added to the www.mentalhealthstrenght.com blog, keeping subscribers of that blog informed on practical applications of mental health awareness, and
4. “Generous” donors receive an autographed paperback copy of Pathways to Mental Health and Anxiety Management by Frank Hannah. (“Generous” means anything in excess of the actual production, postage and shipping costs, approximately $10.)
Funding for certain projects, such as research to empirically validate the concepts on which mental health is based and educational videos, will be sought from government and charitable grants and from KickStarter contributors.
About our logo
You were born with four inbornintentions, or intrinsic behavioral goals “ii “
- Human dignity (Every sex, age, race)
- Freedom of choice (Free as a bird)
- Sense of accomplishment (“I did it!”)
- Love (A positive and optimistic worldview)
You would act consistent with them if it were not for contrary basic beliefs learned throughout life.