Today we celebrate World Mental Health Day, first recognized globally in 1992 as an opportunity to celebrate the often overlooked intense labor of mental health workers, promote mental health advocacy and validate the existence of mental health disorders to decrease stigma and bring further awareness. If we are honest, we recognize that 32 years later, we still have a lot of work to do to promote the work and to reduce the stigma that impacts more than an individual’s ability to ask for help.  We continue to see mental health underfunded and overlooked in schools, government, by healthcare insurers, workplaces and in media we consume. We have a lot of work left to do AND as a mental health provider of 20 years I can say that there is so much encouragement in how far we have come.

One of the most important shifts in mental health work has been an increasing acceptance of substance use treatment as part of mental health. Historically the two were parsed out into two separate categories as if one was not directly related to the other. With decades of research and personal accounts of devastation from the opioid epidemic, the linkages between mental health disorders, substance use, social drivers of health and overall physical well-being cannot be denied.  These realities mean that if we are providers of patient-centered healthcare we are providers for all the pieces that determine whole-person health.

The good news is that no organization will not address all of these person-centered needs on our own. The increased focus of mental health in Indiana’s legislature has led to significant investment into the transformation of Community Mental Health Centers into Certified Community Behavior Health Clinic model which has the potential to enhance internal collaboration, seamless access to crisis services and enhanced substance treatment in underserved areas. IHC is dedicated to the strengthening of our relationship with CCBHCs and recovery providers to provide an experience for our patients that offers the highest quality of care, seamless and dignified hand offs to services and a closed loop of support.