Mental Health Awareness Month is around the corner, and at Flawless we always look forward to the hope it brings. This year, having just returned from the National Council for Behavioral Health’s annual conference, we are so energized and inspired, it feels like May has come early. With a roster of speakers that included the Surgeon General of the United States, Patrick Kennedy, Tom Insel, and countless other individuals united by their passion for behavioral health, #NatCon17 was bound to be inspirational. But more than anything else, the most powerful part of this conference was the spirit of community that pervaded the entire three days. Speakers echoed one another in their call for a collaborative approach to solving the most pressing issues in our field, and all over social media, groups and individuals were sharing and supporting one another.
Here are some of our favorite flawless moments from the week….
1. United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: “We are responsible for each other.”
The behavioral health community has gained an incredible ally in the Surgeon General. Not only is he the first Surgeon General to report on addiction, he also has extremely progressive views on addressing our mental health crisis. He supports prevention, saying it’s “cost-effective and under-utilized.” He recognizes the complex and layered causes and triggers of brain health challenges, including factors that are commonly overlooked like isolation and loneliness, discrimination, and chronic stress. And he looks at health as much more than curing diseases, saying “We don't want to just eradicate illness. We want people to achieve their full potential.” Finally, he understands the importance of changing the culture and getting everyone involved. “We live in a pill for every problem society. We forget some of the oldest medicines we have are love and compassion and they can be deployed by everyone.”
2. Collaboration everywhere we looked
This tweet is just one of countless examples that show how collaboration was both practiced and preached at NatCon17. Honored for her work as a “Change Champion,” the First Lady of New York emphasized the importance of working together in her acceptance speech. And our fellow advocacy organization, Stamp Out Stigma, played a key social media collaborator role all week, constantly retweeting and sharing others’ content and getting our common message out to an even broader audience.
3. The promise of technology….twice!
Tom Insel, the Director of Clinical Neuroscience at Verily, the life sciences company of Alphabet, spoke about the promise of technology to help us begin to “bend the curve” in helping individuals living with brain health challenges. Not only did he inspire the Flawless team with his revolutionary ideas in Seattle at NatCon, we also had the opportunity to hear him in an interview discussion with New York Times journalist, Ben Carey the following evening in New York. This revolutionary thought leader is passionately bringing his important message to people across the country -- two coasts in two days! -- and we were filled with hope as we learned more about how to truly transform the system with new technologies and ideas.
Tom Insel
4. Honoring the creativity and activism of our community.
We were thrilled to attend the Awards of Excellence ceremony, where so many were honored for their exemplary work in the field. From the First Lady of New York City, to community-based organizations, the honorees demonstrated that with persistence and dedication, no challenge is too great, and no team too small to make a difference. One of our Flawless favorites of the night was our dear friend and colleague Logan Lynn. A well known musician and true collaborator, in his work with Keep Oregon Well, he connects like-minded individuals and groups to his organization’s mission, building bridges between the mental health community and industries like music and media in order to end discrimination. Not only that, his creativity shines through his music, and he stole the show with his performance of his new song “Big City Now.”
5. A focus on education.
From talks on breaking the school-to-prison pipeline, supporting mindful educators, and building comprehensive school-based mental health systems, there was a clear emphasis on supporting the next generation by integrating prevention into our education system. The leaders who discussed this topic acknowledged the need for partnerships and cooperation between every sector involved with serving our children -- school administrators, government, teachers, parents, and community organizations -- and they shared evidence-based and creative methods for doing so.
There were so many others who sparked hope at this convening of change-makers: leaders, advocates, clinicians, teachers, people with lived experience, and others who are working everyday at creating the culture change we need in the behavioral health community.Stay tuned as we will be featuring many more of them over the next few weeks and as we finish out the month of April and launch into Mental Health Awareness Month, let’s use this positive momentum to make a bigger impact than ever before.