More About Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental Health Awareness Month began in 1949 in the United States as Mental Health Week, founded by Mental Health America (then called the National Association for Mental Health) in cooperation with the Jaycees youth leadership organization, as a way to raise awareness about mental health issues in America during the month of May. It was based in part on the life and work of Clifford peters, a man who was abused and witnessed terrible abuse, while institutionalized, who wrote a 1908 autobiography (A Mind That Found Itself), and who subsequently launched a reform movement, co-creating the National Committee for Mental Hygiene along with philosopher William James and psychiatrist Adolph Meyer – a Committee that later became Mental Health America. May was first formally proclaimed as Mental Health Awareness Month in 2016 by President Obama, receiving federal recognition for the first time 10 years ago.

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