Mental Health Resilience Action Team
Mental Health Resilience Team Mission
To have an informed, educated community that provides support around the issues of mental illness and mental health
Realization
The We the People Warwick Mental Health Resilience Team understands mental health conditions are more common than we realize:
One in six youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year.
Fifty percent of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75% by age 24.
Mental illness can affect persons of any age, race, religion, or socioeconomic status.
Mental health disorders account for more disability than any other illness, including cancer and heart disease, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It is everywhere – in our schools, homeless population, in prisons, among veterans and seniors and in the number of people overdosing each year and those who tragically die from suicide.
Prior to Covid, 1 in 5 people struggled with mental illness. Today that number has risen to 2 out of 5.
Recognition
In addition, the Mental Health Resilience Team recognizes:
the impacts of social isolation and uncertainty…
the reduced social engagements and supports…
the grief and loss…
the impacts on physical health…
the unemployment and economic hardship, and…
the community discord…
Goals
Heeding the call of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) (“This is a defining moment rife with change and conflict and multiple fronts, and an opportunity to come together collaboratively to improve mental health for all.”) the Mental Health Resilience Team seeks to support the Warwick Community by:
Increasing mental health awareness and resilience
Reducing mental health stigma
Improving knowledge of local mental health services
Strengthening residents with knowledge of mental health first aid
Creating community events that advance the larger WTPW goals of building/strengthening community.
Initiatives
Share Your Pandemic Story was an invitation and an opportunity for Town of Warwick residents to share their personal experiences of the global coronavirus pandemic. Follow this link to read these personal pandemic stories.
Mental Health Awareness Month is May. Members of the Mental Health Resilience Team support awareness of mental health through various means including the support of Warwick Cares and their initiatives.
On November 10th, 2022, we hosted You Are Not Alone Part 1, Foundations for Healing, on April 29th, 2023, we hosted You Are Not Alone Part 2, Community Conversations for Connection and Caring and on May 18, 2024, we hosted You Are Not Alone Part 3, Mental Health in a Changing World: Where do we start in our community?. All three were great successes. Learn more here and please consider joining our efforts.