Organizations Destigmatizing Mental Health

With mental health awareness month coming to a close, it’s important that mental health awareness stays present in everyone’s mind. As more and more research shows just how much the last couple of years has impacted a large majority of people’s mental health long term, it’s important to be aware of our own self care, as well as that of our friends, family, and employees. Unfortunately, resources for mental health are expensive and unaccessible for many, but there are a number of organizations and companies working to remedy this little by little by offering mental wellness programming to the public and their employers. Hopefully these types of initiatives will continue to become more and more common as it becomes more normalized to discuss mental health at home and the work place.

Okay Humans

Okay Humans is a space for both in person (in Brentwood) and virtual therapy. The therapists are all young and very in tune. You can book each session individually on their website, and an even sometimes book one day in advance. Before booking, you can read a written bio about each therapist’s interests and specialties, plus each one has a video introduction, so you can catch their vibe (SOOO cool). If your session isn’t completely covered by your insurance, they’ll do the work for you and submit everything to your insurance company to help you get as much reimbursement as possible.

JanSport

The backpack company: JanSport, started an incredibly cool #LightenTheLoad campaign with a variety of initiatives to combat the stigma against mental health. First off, they conducted a series of IGTV talks with therapists to discuss topics such as Isolation, Compassion Fatigue, Uncertainty, and Family Relationships. They partnered with a popular teen podcast to facilitate difficult conversations surrounding mental health. And, they encouraged teens around the country to share their stories and mental health journeys to show that you are not alone in your struggles.

Modern Health

Modern Health works with employers to give mental health access to all employees. The service offers a comprehensive assessment of each individual employee and creates a personalized mental health plan including “digital programs, group learning, and 1:1 coaching & therapy” for what each person needs for where they are at now.

WHY WE RISE

WHY WE RISE is an initiative based in LA aiming to increase youth and BIPOC access to mental health resources and create inclusive art based community events to support mental wellbeing. Their events include fairs highlighting queer and BIPOC vendors, wellness circles for marginalized communities, open mics, food festivals, writing forums, film festivals, art shows, workshops, sound baths, and more. This incredible organization centers community and healing.

Papier

The British stationary company, Papier, has created a series of journals dedicated to tracking self care and wellness. Journaling can be a huge part of mental wellness in order to track your progress, figure out your triggers and patterns, set intentions, or just a nice calming activity to add to your morning or nighttime routine. Each Wellness Journal gives 12 weeks of space for you to highlight gratitude, goals, and your thoughts and feelings from each day. Also, it comes with a variety of cute covers!!

Feel

This company has developed a wristband that tracks and monitors your emotional state throughout the day. This helps you track your patterns and identify your triggers. Upon an emotional shift, the application will give you resources and tools for how to deal with this change. They have a couple different programs - one that teaches you to deal with daily struggles and one that helps in the face of particular on-going hardships.

Inclusive Therapists

Inclusive Therapists is a network designed for marginalized communities to find therapists that understand their daily struggles. The in house providers span a wide variety of specialties and help support people in the process of finding a therapist who are neurodivergent, disabled, or BIPOC. Intersectionality is pulled to the forefront. This company is both breaking down white supremacy and destigmatizing mental health in a beautiful way.

The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project has long been on the mission of creating a safe space for LGBT youth. Between a number of online guides and resources to deal with specific issues that may arise or conversations one might have to have, their crisis line, and their online community - they are helping queer youth across the globe find community. Their hotline is open 24/7, confidential, and reachable by text, chat, or phone. TrevorSpace is an online community with over 400,000 members that connects queer youth with each other for support and friendship.