Minding Your Mind’s primary objective is to end the stigma and destructive behaviors often associated with mental health issues by providing evidence-based mental health education to children, adolescents, teens and young adults, their parents and caregivers, teachers, school administrators, and interested professionals and community organizations. Our suicide prevention training program meets the requirements for listing in the National Registry of Evidence-based Practices and Policies (NREPP), which is required training for educators and health and social service professionals in many states. 

By increasing help-seeking behavior, Minding Your Mind moves away from crisis-based response to prevention through education.

Even before the pandemic, there was a mental health crisis among adolescents in this country.  The uncertainty, isolation, and trauma brought about by the pandemic as exacerbated and increased incidence of mental health issues among children, youth, and adults. Recent research indicates that one in five teens will experience a mental health challenge this year, but less than 20% of them will actually seek treatment. 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, and 75% by age 24.  Stigma and shame are sometimes the greatest barriers to treatment for a situational or chronic mental health issue.

When mental health challenges are left unaddressed, there can be a lasting impact on youth, families, and communities:

• Undiagnosed mental health issues are statistically significant among adolescents and teens that experience drug use or dependency.

• Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10-24.

• Every 12 minutes someone in the U.S. dies by suicide.

• Over 90% of those who die from suicide have a mental health condition.

• 37% of students with a mental health issue, age 14 and older, drop out of school—the highest dropout rate of any disability group.

• 70% of youth in state and local juvenile justice systems have a mental health issue.

Diverse and underserved communities face the additional trauma that exists due to racism, poverty, and a high stigma surrounding mental health in some ethnic communities. Providing education and normalizing conversations starting at a young age, and coupling that with clinical presentations to parents and educators, can help to break these stigmas and reverse troubling statistics.

The majority of Minding Your Mind’s programs are provided on a donate-as-able basis to the schools or organizations requesting them. Each individual program costs Minding Your Mind approximately $500 plus overhead. While hosting groups are invited to make a donation to Minding Your Mind, we do not decline presentations due to an inability to pay. Because of this policy, most of Minding Your Mind’s financing is derived from fundraising events, personal donations, and charitable grants.

Your donation can change — and save — lives. Thank you.