World Mental Health Day 2020
The UN organized World Mental Health Day is celebrated every year on October 10th. The day holds immense importance to raise awareness about a critical topic of public discussion – mental health. When we look into the number of suicide cases around the globe, it is increasing at an alarming rate. Many people suffer from various kinds of mental ailments, yet find it very difficult to discuss openly or seek timely help from friends or relatives.
This leads to common mental disorders in children and adults of various age groups, for instance, depression and other similar trauma. This ultimately leads them towards suicidal thoughts and timely help can avert significant disasters.
In this article, we offer an extensive reading about World Mental Health Day 2020 and discuss various parameters attached to it. Lets chalk through the history of the significant day, its importance, themes, celebrations and FAQs.
World Mental Health Day History
An international NGO by the name World Federation for Mental Health [WFMH] took up initiative steps in the year 1992 to spread global awareness and campaigns on mental health. The multi-disciplinary organization under the aegis of General Richard Hunter, who was the Deputy Secretary at that time took baby steps to advocate mental health understanding among people.
The celebrations did not take off on a very grand scale at the beginning. For the initial three years, they set a standard scheme of the program to carry out the day’s celebrations. The federation co-worked with Florida satellite systems to present a two-hour-long TV program entirely dedicated to the mental health of people.
Telephone conversations and telecaller’s were encouraged to participate and get their queries answered. This program helped people from far off points across the globe. People reached out to WFMH personnel with their mental issues from places as far as Geneva, Mexico and Atlanta.
In 1994, this program was improvised with a theme-in place. The first and foremost theme concerned about the qualitative aspects of mental health services across the world. This program had an extensive outreach and popularity grew amongst parents of special needs children and mentally disabled children.
The federation, in the coming years, took to enormous popularity with its next set of measures. It took steps to translate its published material in other widely spoken world languages like Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, French etc. This longstanding project is one-of-its-kind, service-oriented and is very popular amongst the masses.
Significance of World Mental Health Day 2020
We live in a society that is full of presumptions and premonitions. People who have the slightest hint of any mental disability are treated differently in comparison with rational human beings. Also, they are neglected by most people and are not actively encouraged to participate in social events.
Often, we try to identify who the victim is, or in other words, the victim goes unnoticed for most of his life. It is also equally hard to accept any mental ailment that a person may be suffering from. It’s a lot of pain to deal with mental disorders, mainly because society looks down upon such people and categories them as outcasts.
Mental ailments usually do not get any support for positive healing. This makes the victim and his situation become even worse than before. Slowly, the victim slips into depression and embroils himself in a pool of self-pity and away from society. Most often, such people avoid speaking to their own families and well-wishers and shun social gatherings.
At such a stage, if the person is identified with his suffering and rehabilitated suitably, his condition may show improvement. If at all he is reprimanded for his peculiar behaviour and isolated out of negligence, he further deteriorates and sinks into suicidal thoughts.
Such victims are at the verge of extreme danger, and without timely action, the person’s life could be destroyed forever. Mental education should be made compulsory along with primary school to help produce healthy individuals and emotionally stable population.
World Mental Health Day 2020 Themes
Let us go through some popular themes adopted as part of World Mental Health day over the years:
- The year 2016 focussed on emergency mental conditions and therefore, the theme related to Psychological first aid.
- 2017 put stress on mental trauma existing commonly at workplaces. The theme related to mental health disturbances in the workplace by seniors and co-workers and how they could be resolved.
- 2018 belonged to the younger generation and their psychological problems if any. So the theme of that year related to young people and their mental health changes in a rapidly transforming world.
- 2019 gave specific focus to suicide prevention. It also stressed on the need to lend a helping hand to those in need so that many lives could be saved.
- 2020 is up with a fresh and impactful theme. It says “ Mental health for all, greater investment – greater access”.
World Mental Health Day Celebration
World mental health day is observed and celebrated in several ways across the globe; some of the everyday activities are highlighted below:
- The day could be spent in offering relaxation to employees at the workplace. Also, they could be provided simple therapies that could rejuvenate their senses and help them take off the stress built on their mental systems.
- Active campaigning about mental health, ways to boost mental health in terms of adequate breaks in between work, practising Yoga and exercise regularly and cultivating good hobbies to strengthen the spiritual system offers solace and help.
- Volunteering and spreading awareness on depression, ways to tackle it, keeping away from negativity and providing support to victims can be a meaningful way to celebrate the day.
- Groups can be formed by NGOs to initiate awareness activities in each area and help identify victims who need some help to overcome their mental suffering.
- Institutes offering medical care for people living with a mental disease can be provided monetary funds to provide more support for the noble cause they are involved in.
Conclusion
Identifying the core issue of any suffering person can help sort out his problems from possible solutions. Once the problem is recognized, the victim should be maintained and supported to share their deepest thoughts with persons they trust the most.
Speaking out hidden thoughts helps solve half of the underlying problems. The right kind of treatment and therapies, under the proper medical guidance, goes a long way in treating mental illness patients find a cure.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the purpose of World Mental Health Day?
World Mental health Day is celebrated to spread awareness about mental health and gather efforts to prevent possible mental conditions like depression and loneliness, leading to suicidal thoughts.
2. How can I improve my mental health?
We can achieve sound mental health by thinking positive, practising Yoga, doing meditation, taking deep breaths in between work, exercising regularly etc.
3. How do we celebrate World Mental Health Day 2020?
We can celebrate World Mental Health Day by organizing campaigns, Therapies, volunteering, increasing awareness with the help of NGOs.
4. When is World Mental Health Day?
Every year October 10th is celebrated as World Mental Health Day.
5. What is the theme of World Mental Health Day 2020?
The theme for the current year 2020 says “Mental health for all, greater investment – greater access”.
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