April is here, and that means Spring has arrived! I hope this message finds you and your family happy and well. Every April, we come together to recognize Child Abuse Awareness Month. Put your pinwheels out and wear your blue! Child Abuse is not an easy topic to think about or discuss, but it is a vital conversation to have in the community as it is such a prevalent issue.
Sleep day is on March 15th and serves as a reminder that sleep is an important part of health and overall well-being. We do a lot of promoting mental health but often overlook the importance of basic health habits and how they can impact our moods or functioning. I would guess that many of you reading this have struggled with falling asleep, staying asleep, or just not feeling rested. Sleep is a basic need, much like eating, drinking, and breathing. However, 1 in 3 adults report not getting adequate rest or sleep. When this occurs, we start to see a decline in productivity and an increase in health-related issues and illness.
Happy International Play Therapy Week from Embark Counseling Services! This year, the Association for Play Therapy’s (APT) International Play Therapy Week is from February 4 to 10, 2024. I am super excited to see how play therapists from around the country and even the world celebrate the therapeutic powers of play.
Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities! Each year, on December 3rd, the United Nations and the World Health Organization come together to celebrate and discuss how far we have come in supporting and advocating for individuals with all kinds of disabilities. This topic is a conversation that needs to happen all year round.
October can mean many things: football, Halloween, fall weather, or a time change. For those of us in the mental health field, we know things get tough when seasons change. Although fall may be my favorite time of year, I know that daylight hours are getting shorter, and others may start to feel a little darker, too. You may not know this, but 1 in 5 U.S. adults and 1 in 6 U.S. youths experience mental illness each year (NAMI). According to SAMHSA, only 47.2% of U.S. adults with mental illness received treatment in 2021.