Outreach Ideas for Mental Health Month
Explore ideas for individuals, organizations, and businesses to help raise awareness and increase understanding about mental health. Whatever your outreach approach, remember that Mental Health Month is an opportunity to make a positive impact on those around you and remind people that there is no health without mental health.
What you can do as an individual
Share information locally
- Ask wellness-oriented businesses to put up one of the posters from the Mental Health Month toolkit
- Reach out to your contacts and encourage them to download the toolkit and share its resources
Fundraise to support Mental Health America
- Create a personal fundraiser
- Share why mental health matters to you or share your screening story
- Incorporate mental health fast facts into your fundraiser
- If gaming is your thing, try starting a fundraiser on Twitch
Call or email your elected officials and let them know why you think mental health should be a priority
- Ask your governor or mayor to declare May as Mental Health Month
- Get in touch with your senators
- Contact your representative. Find yours using the ZIP code search feature at www.house.gov
- Find out where your state ranks in MHA's most recent State of Mental Health in America report and share with your elected officials
- Share detailed data about mental health conditions across your state and county
Get your employer involved
- Ask company leadership to recognize and celebrate Mental Health Month in May
- Share why mental health should be a priority in the workplace
- Request support to host a mental health campaign during May
- Suggest they share information in company-wide communications and put up posters from the Mental Health Month toolkit in common spaces
- Help bring a wellness or mental health speaker to your workplace by contacting your local MHA affiliate
Share your story and post on social
- Post on social media about your own mental health journey
- Share social media posts from the Mental Health Month toolkit to your followers
- Put MHA's screening site in the bio of your Instagram profile
- Write something for listservs you are a part of or blogs
- Contact your local TV station or student TV station and share your mental health story
Show your support
- Shop MHA's online store to stock up on your mental health awareness swag
- Donate to MHA or one of its affiliates during May
What organizations can do
- Organize a community run or walk for mental health
- Host a mental health screening or other educational event at a local venue
- Plan an advocacy event at your state capitol or an email campaign
- Team up with local mental health and wellness organizations to host a community meet-and-greet
Additional Resources for Organizations
What businesses can do
- Hang the posters from the Mental Health Month toolkit in your office or business
- Use the drop-in article from the Mental Health Month toolkit to send an email to your staff to raise awareness for mental health
- Link to mental health resources, like an employee assistance program or telehealth services, in your company newsletter
- Encourage workers to take an anonymous and confidential online mental health screening
- Publish a blog describing how the company supports its workers' mental health
- Encourage employees to share personal wellness or self-care tips in newsletters or messaging channels
- Ask workers to wear green on a predetermined date in May or light up your office building green
- Plan a wellness event
- Host an in-person mental health training, "lunch and learn," or webinar
- Connect with one of MHA's affiliates and bring a speaker to your workplace
- Shop MHA's store for gifts that can be used to reward workers and spread awareness about mental health
- Donate a portion of your proceeds to MHA or one of its affiliates during May
- Invite a wellness professional, like a clinician, to do a social media takeover
- Develop or improve workplace policies that uplift workers, ensure they are valued and heard, and improve an organization's overall culture of well-being
- Download MHA's Workplace Mental Health Toolkit for more ideas on improving mental health in the workplace
- Use the sample posts from the Mental Health Month toolkit or share posts from MHA's social media accounts to your followers, and make sure to tag MHA so we can see it!
Additional Resources for Businesses
2023 Mental Health Month Toolkit
Check out our Mental Health Month toolkit for media and social media resources, printable informational handouts, posters, and DIY tools.
This campaign is supported by contributions from Janssen: Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
