The Healthy Outcomes Partnership, an initiative of the Somerset Hills YMCA and coalition of agencies, organizations and concerned individuals, is joining with the Mental Health Association in New Jersey to present the second annual Mental Health Week, May 9 – 13. Five days full of talks and workshops on a broad range of topics related to achieving mental and emotional health and well-being. It’s free and open to the entire community. More than 20 national and local experts in behavioral health, family/couple dynamics, child and teen development and elder care will provide current information and resources on timely topics at various times throughout the week at the Somerset Hills Y, 140 Mt. Airy Road, Basking Ridge.

Here is the schedule for the year’s Mental Health awareness week:

Mental Health Week Schedule at a Glance!.

I’d like to highlight Bryan Gibb’s talk on Mental Health First Aid, Wednesday, May 11, 2pm.

If you’ve been following my blog posts, you will know that I’m very personally and passionately committed to the topic. We want to make MHFA as common as CPR first aid. We have 2 of the 10 certified instructors in New Jersey who can provide 12 hour training to members of the general public. I want members of the general public, people like you and I, to know how and when to pick the phone and make that first phone call for help. It is only people very close to the distressed person (a family member, a close friend, a colleague / supervisor at the office) that is in a position to notice the change over time and conclude something like—“my husband/girl friend/employee is not the same person that they were six months ago.”