Mental Health Stigma Prevention Campaign 2023

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1. Context and Description of the Program

The Be It! Foundation is a nonprofit organization which serves residents of South Texas.  Our mission is to: promote higher education to low-income students, sponsor service learning opportunities for those who want to lend a hand, sponsor emergency assistance to those in need, and foster well-being through mental health stigma prevention.

The main goal of this program is reducing the stigma around people with mental health conditions, disabilities, treatments, and other concerns. And promote activities and materials to inform those who are unaware of the stigma around mental health and empower those who are negatively affected by it. 

The program holds a 12 months campaign around Mental Health Stigma Prevention. The area of implementation is South Texas, Laredo and San Antonio. 

Here some data around Mental Health in Texas

• 34.2% of adults in Texas reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder, compared to 31.6% of adults in the U.S.
• 14.6% of adolescents and 6.4% of adults in Texas reported having a major depressive episode in the past year, which was similar to the U.S. shares (15.1% and 7.5%, respectively)
• 1.4% of adolescents and 4.9% of adults in Texas reported having alcohol use disorder in the past year. Additionally, 2.5% of adolescents and 2.2% of adults in Texas reported having an illicit drug use disorder in the past year.
• In 2020, there were 2,116 opioid overdose deaths in Texas, which accounted for 50.5% of all drug overdose deaths in the state.
• In 2018-2019, 3.9% of adults in Texas had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year, which was lower than the U.S. share (4.6%). In the U.S., the share of high school students who seriously considered attempting suicide was 18.8% in 2019.
• Leading up to the pandemic, large shares of adults with mental illness did not receive care. As shown in the figure below, in Texas, 69.8% (1,268,000) of adults with mild mental illness, 57.4% (504,000) of adults with moderate mental illness, and 44.7% (375,000) of adults with serious mental illness in the past year did not receive mental health treatment.
• In 2019, there were 70,642 providers in Texas’ mental health workforce, yielding a statewide ratio of 242.0 mental health providers per 100,000 people.1,2 The map below shows the ratio of mental health providers in Texas per 100,000 people by county in 2019. (DSHS Texas gov).

The general perception of mental illness has improved over the past decades, studies show that stigma against mental illness is still powerful, largely due to media stereotypes and lack of education, and that people tend to attach negative stigmas to mental health conditions at a far higher rate than to other diseases and disabilities, such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease.

Stigma affects not only the number seeking treatment, but also the number of resources available for proper treatment. Stigma and misinformation can feel like overwhelming obstacles for someone who is struggling with a mental health condition.

Stigma is something that can cause a negative effect, emotionally, mentally, and physically for those who experience it. We want to build up the people in our communities who struggle with mental illness. We believe we can do that through our mental health stigma prevention campaign. 

Be It Foundation is committed to work on education to break the stigma around mental health, training for mental health providers to increase the access to mental health for the community, Scholarships for low income students to eliminate the financial stress of them and their families, mental health resources to improve the wellbeing in different spaces where people is moving daily. 

1. Goals 
2. Prevent/reduce the stigma around mental health in South Texas by producing a program that informs those who are unaware of the stigma and empowers those who are affected by it. 
3. Collaborate with partners in South Texas to promote the campaign widely, especially in education institutions

Promote the campaign materials in all the local media around Laredo and San Antonio