Minding Your Mind’s (MYM) primary objective is to provide mental health education to adolescents, teens and young adults, their parents, teachers and school administrators. Our goal is to end the stigma and destructive behaviors often associated with mental health issues. Minding Your Mind programs move away from crisis based response to prevention through education.
Did you know that...?
- one in four teens will experience a mental health issue this year, but less than 20% of them will actually seek treatment.
- 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
- suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10-24.
- over 90% of those who die from suicide have an underlying mental health disorder.
- undiagnosed mental health issues are statistically significant among adolescents and teens that experience drug dependency or addiction.
- 37% of students with a mental health condition age 14 and older drop out of school- the highest dropout rate of any disability group.
- 70% of youth in state and local juvenile justice systems have a mental illness.
- stigma coupled with shame is cited as the number one reason individuals don’t seek treatment for a situational or chronic mental health issue.
Minding Your Mind’s mission is to change these statistics through education.
Programs are presented to schools and communities primarily along the Eastern Seaboard (Maine to Virginia), and our speakers travel to many other states throughout the U.S. Each year, Minding Your Mind reaches over 100,000 students, with that number increasing annually. Our programs are statistically proven to increase help-seeking behavior and stigma reduction, and our suicide prevention training programs for teachers meet the requirements for many state mandates.
Thank you for your support, which will allow us to reach more young people and change the conversation around mental health. Learn more about us at www.mindingyourmind.org.
