A clip called “May is Mental Health Awareness Month” recently used awareness month as an excuse to talk about grief how families cope with grief at home and how communities can support members. The clip includes several experts discussing the different types grief take, everything from losing a family member to the death of health, employment, or a relationship, and stressing the importance of recognizing grief as an essential component of mental health.
Through the article, specialists describe that grief is not linear and can be experienced physically, emotionally and socially. Typical signs include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritation and fluctuations between feelings of despair and hope. During the Mental Health Awareness Month, viewers are called to understand this emotional response as normal reaction to a loss and not a defect of character; while at the same time, they point out that when such grief persist or results in the impulse to harm oneself, professional help is recommended.
This section provides some helpful advice on how to deal with grief at home. Ideas include maintaining routines when feasible, providing room to discuss the person or event that was lost, and creating modest memorial events such as burning a candle or physically visiting a location. Professionals caution and counsel families to be understanding of each family member‘s individual grieving processes; one person may wish to talk frequently, while another may prefer isolation.
Another level mentioned is Community supports: Contact from neighbors, school, work, houses of worship, and friends can help. Callings and visits, bringing meals, and offering to care for children or the elderly in the family all can provide help. During Mental Health Awareness Month, see if you can think of someone who may be grieving and reach out even if you’re not sure what to say.
For viewers, it will help put Mental Health Awareness Month into a global frame. Everyone will experience loss; how we grapple individually and collectively with grief has enormous mental health consequences. Through open discussion of grief, acknowledgment of its effects, and the normalization of support-seeking, this segment will try to make the month a emphasis on compassion, not just diagnoses and medication.
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