Each person’s attitude to mental health could change someone’s life.
October 10th marks World Mental Health Day; a day meant to raise awareness and mobilize efforts to support those experiencing mental health issues.
One in eight people around the globe live with mental health conditions, and around 1 in 5 U.S adults experience mental illness each year. It is also estimated that 970 million people worldwide have a mental or substance use disorder. Recent studies have also shown that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a 25% increase in anxiety and depression worldwide, yet shame and silence can be as bad as the mental health problem itself.
Untreated behavioral and mental health disorders can cause tremendous personal economic effects, costing the country up to $300 billion yearly due to productivity losses. As many as 90 percent of cases of suicide are attributed to mental illness.
Many experts and authors advocate for better inclusion of Neurodiversity, the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways, and those differences should not be viewed as deficits but instead strengths that should be socially accepted. Each person’s attitude towards mental health could change someone’s life, and even though we are more open to discussing mental health post-pandemic, more can still be done.
However, first, we must understand that this must be addressed from the top of the hierarchy. For example, in 2018, London appointed its first Minister for Loneliness, Tracey Crouch, who stated, „Nobody should feel alone or be left with no one to turn to. Loneliness is a serious issue that affects people of all ages and backgrounds, and it is right that we tackle it head-on.“ Soon after, London appointed Jackie Doyle-Price, as Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. In Canada, they have a Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, and in New Zealand, they have a minister for mental health. The point is there is an urgent need to recognize mental health globally.
In the U.S, the Administration has already invested nearly $3 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to expand access to mental health and substance use services -with billions more in funding to be used to address mental health challenges affecting children, including through hiring school social workers and counselors. With the help of American Rescue Plan K-12 funding, schools have already seen a 65% increase in social workers and a 17% increase in counselors.
For World Mental Health Day, it’s time to highlight a handful of leaders addressing mental health globally, nationally and locally.
Dr. Corinna Lathans, Ph.D., Co-Founder of AnthroTronix, and Author of Inventing the Future Stories From Techno-Optimist
From developing robots to help kids learn social skills to the first mobile assessment of mental health changes in Afghanistan, Dr. Corinna Lathan’s new book Inventing the Future Stories From Techno-Optimist details these inventions and more.
Primarily in Chapter 6 of Lathan’s book, Brains for Games, she talks about the difficulty distinguishing acute brain health issues due to medication or a concussion from chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s or depression because they all affect brain function. At the peak of the military’s mental health, concussion, and suicide crisis, it was clear that a new approach to brain health was needed. Dr. Lathans also co-founded, AnthroTronix, innovative engineering research and development company that recently developed a tool to measure the impact of deployment on cognition; DANA™ is an FDA-cleared cognitive testing platform. Using scientists, researchers, and physicians worldwide to capture real-time cognitive data, DANA measures cognitive function, speed, and accuracy. Whether a physician tracking medication management or a scientist researching how long-covid affects cognitive health – and everything in between- DANA™ can help capture a Brain Vital on patients.
„My vision for DANA has always been that every time you go to the doctor, in addition to taking your height, weight, blood pressure, and temperature, they will take your DANA brain vital.
