This year’s theme is Be A Mental Health Hero: Sharing Our Superpowers.
Children’s Mental Health Acceptance Week will be held May 1 – 7th and is an opportunity to shine a light on the importance of caring for every child’s mental health. Never has this been more urgent, as pointed out by the U.S. Surgeon General. He notes that “Mental health challenges in children, adolescents, and young adults are real, and they are widespread. But most importantly, they are treatable, and often preventable.” It is not too early to begin planning how your community will take part in this year’s campaign.
Here is your call to action:
- Plan an event: Plan and host an event within your community to raise awareness of the need to support the mental health of young people and highlight all the heroes in your community sharing their talents and strengths to support youth. The toolkit provides you with resources to support planning.
- Pass a proclamation: Ask your local county or city official to pass a proclamation in recognition of Children’s Mental Health Acceptance/Awareness Day. The toolkit shares the steps to requesting a proclamation and a template.
- Host the link: The Texas Children’s Mental Health Acceptance virtual event will launch May 2nd. Host the link www.cmhtexas.org on your organization’s website during the month of May.
- Nominate a Mental Health Hero: We want to celebrate the heroes for mental health throughout Texas during May. Nominate a mental health hero in your community through the toolkit website. They will be asked to share a short video message about why they share their strengths in support of children’s mental health.
- Encourage young people to share their superpower: We are calling on young people to share their superpowers – the things that make them special – through a video or picture using the social media hashtag #LivingMySuperpower. An alternative submission process (non-social media) will be announced soon.
- Spread the word: Use your voice to share messages that inform others about the importance of supporting children’s mental health using the hashtags #TexasMHHero and #mentalhealthmatters. The toolkit houses sample social media messaging, graphics that can be shared, and even Zoom/Teams backgrounds.
Check out the toolkit at https://cmhaustin.weebly.com/ and start planning!
