mental health awareness

Next time you’re out at a public event, look around and remember that 70 new people visit Genesee County’s Mental Health Department for services each year.

Given that about one in every five people has experienced some type of mental health issue in New York State, that number may seem small, though admitting a struggle with one’s mental health can still make it difficult to seek help, Mental Health Director Lynda Battaglia says.

With a range of problems to choose from nowadays — from rising prices and making a paycheck last longer to physical ailments, raising a family and a divisive political landscape — why is it important for people to stop and think about their mental health?

“It's a good question, and I think it's important for people to pay attention to and think about their mental health because it is a significant part of their overall health, right?” Battaglia said during an interview with The Batavian. “Your overall health is physical as much as it is mental; they kind of work off each other. So people need to be aware of how they feel. 

"If you physically don't feel good, and you have some symptoms, and those symptoms are kind of lingering for quite some time, you would probably go to a doctor to say, ‘I’m not feeling good physically,'" she said.  "With mental health, if you're having some feelings or thoughts that are depressive, or you're just kind of in a negative headspace, or you're just anxious, and you can't put your finger on why, why not go to a therapist to try to figure out why?”

May happens to be Mental Health Awareness Month, and there is an “ending the stigma event” to provide information, community resources, wellness activities, stories to inspire hope and change from people with lived experiences to show what self-care is, pizza, beverages, and a drawing for a self-care basket.

Sponsored by Genesee ACE Employment and Genesee Orleans Wyoming CARES Alliance, this event is free and includes one ticket for the basket drawing. There is a bonus ticket for those who wear green to support mental health awareness.

The event will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., with Battaglia's opening remarks at noon on May 28 at First Presbyterian Church, 300 E. Main St., Batavia.

What’s the harm in shrugging off one’s feelings of sadness or anxiety, with hope that it will someday go away?
"I think people do that one because they don't know what it is. They don't recognize it, maybe as like, maybe I might need to go talk to somebody or process something," she said. "I think sometimes when people push it off, it's because they don't have time or don't want to deal with it, or they think I should be able to handle this. I feel like, if I go ask for help, I'm going to be viewed as weak when I'm a strong person, and I don't need help."

And for the person who has pretty dire thoughts and is afraid of getting locked up somewhere for speaking up about he really feels, what do you advise?
"That's a real fear, and that's what people think sometimes, the mental health system is and how it operates. But really, our goal is to keep people in the community, to keep them healthy, to wrap services around them. Sometimes people might need to have an admission for stabilization, if it's acute. But if somebody's having dire thoughts of, let's say, they're thinking about suicide, as therapists, as clinicians, we have to have those conversations," she said. "It's okay for us to have those conversations. We have to address them. We have to get to the root of why we are having these thoughts. What do you think is going on? And we can have those conversations, and it might not automatically end in admission. It might just need to be a conversation in a safe place with a person who was going to help you process the thoughts and get to the root of the thought ... millions and millions of people have those thoughts, and we have to be able to talk about it."

What's the best thing people can do if they have a loved one or a friend they're concerned about? How can they help, and can they get advice during this event?
Battaglia suggested the following things to consider and/or ask the person to try:

• They can certainly talk to their friend or their loved one, saying, ‘I’m expressing concerns, I'm worried about you. Can I take you to the mental health clinic where they have open access, where you can just walk in and see somebody?”
• Call 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline, and maybe talk it out a little bit.
• Go to an event like the one that the CARES Alliance is hosting and learn more about mental health and how we can support ourselves and our loved ones.
• “So people can go to this event, learn about it and see with their own eyes that they are not alone. That one in five New Yorkers has experienced some type of mental illness,” she said. “So you are not alone, that anxiety that you're feeling, that depression that you're going through, other people go through that, right, but that stigma kind of forbids us to reaching out and saying, I think I might need some help.”
• If those same people were experiencing a physical issue, there would likely be no doubt about suggesting a visit to the doctor or hospital for treatment, for help. But for some reason, it doesn’t come as easily when it’s the mental aspects of a person, she said, and “we have a long way to go. We're making progress.”

The CARES Alliance planning committee wants to introduce service providers—including Genesee ACE Employment, which works with job seekers and employers dealing with mental health challenges—and potentially connect them with future clients seeking assistance, member Sue Gagne said. She said the stigma still in place about mental health may serve as a stumbling block for actually pursuing answers.

“I think there are a lot of resources, people just don’t know about them,” she said. “And then the second part to that stigma is they don’t want to talk about them. So I think that’s maybe the goal. We all have physical health, but when we say mental health, it’s a negative.”

Members agreed that the main focus of this event is to provide an opportunity for people to be around others with similar stories so they don’t feel quite so alone. That’s how the stigma can begin to end: “by coming together as a whole.”

If it’s a nice day, the plan is to hang outside in the sunshine. And remember, there’s nothing weak about reaching out for help, committee members and Battaglia said.

“We all need help, in all parts of our lives, we all need help. So why not get some help for that, when down the road that continues to build, right? You just push it, you stuff it down, and it surfaces maybe a little stronger. You push it down more, and it's going to resurface until it is right at the top there,” Battaglia said. “And now you really need some help. So if you work through it at those moments when it's ‘I’m not feeling in a great head space, or I am just anxious or nervous, I don't even know what's going on, maybe I need to go talk to somebody,’ well, you might be a little ahead of the curve.”

To donate a basket for the drawing, drop it off at Genesee ACE Employment, 220 E. Main St., Batavia, by May 23.

Press Release:

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the Batavia Police Department is committed to raising awareness about the importance of mental health and the resources available in our community. Mental health affects us all, either directly or indirectly, and it's essential to prioritize our well-being and seek help when needed. 

Did you know that one in five adults in the United States experiences mental illness each year? Mental health conditions can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, or background. However, with the right support and resources, individuals can recover and lead fulfilling lives. 

In Genesee County, we are fortunate to have a range of resources available to support mental health. The Genesee County Mental Health Department provides a comprehensive range of services, including: 

• Crisis intervention and stabilization
• Outpatient counseling and therapy
• Case management and support
• Peer support and advocacy 

In addition to these services, our community offers a variety of support groups, hotlines, and online resources. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, there is help available. 

Remember, mental health is just as important as physical health. Let's work together to break the stigma surrounding mental illness and encourage those who need support to seek it out. 

For more information on mental health resources in Genesee County, visit the Genesee County Mental Health Department website or call 585-344-2550. Let's prioritize our mental health and well-being this May and throughout the year. Together, we can make a difference in our community. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health issues, please call 988.

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles for May’s Mental Health Awareness focus. Despite it being the last day of the month, no topic as important as mental health can be hemmed into such a short time span anyway, as Genesee County Mental Health Director Lynda Battaglia says. Besides, this kicks off June’s “Rebuild Your Life Month,” which will continue with additional articles.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

That’s how it felt for Sue Gagne when dealing with a family member struggling with mental illness, she said.

“I would say early in my career as a family member, I didn't know anything about mental illness. And when my loved one first started exhibiting symptoms, the rest of the family didn't really know what to do. So we would wait for a crisis; we would call 911. (Law enforcement) would come and either take them away or settle things down,” Gagne said during an interview with The Batavian. "And I always, when I do the (Crisis Intervention Team) training, I say, you know, it's like, wet, lather, rinse, repeat. It was just this continual cycle of, 'we don't know what to do.'"

Gagne made up for that lack of knowledge and ended up diving head first into the mental health field, formerly as the executive director at the Mental Health Association of Genesee and Orleans Counties, dual recovery coordinator for the GLOW region, a recovery center coordinator at GCASA, and a Suicide Prevention Coalition leader before her most recent professional endeavor of becoming a registered nurse.

Until the formal lessons, however, there were plenty of hands-on observations of that family members’ struggle: yelling, hearing and seeing things that the remaining family didn’t hear or see, the ensuing turmoil that resulted, regularly charged manic behavior that became part of a bipolar existence of low and highs, Gagne said.

“Like hearing people outside the window. You know what mental illness is, and that it's in your family, you go check, like, okay, that's possible, somebody could be out there, you know … things that aren't really happening, but you don't know they're not real, because you're still believing this person. So a lot of confusion, I would say chaos and confusion,” she said. “And then, meanwhile, you're trying to live your own life.”

There were police arrests, substance use, being locked in a psychiatric ward and put on medications until the family member began to feel better and then would stop taking the meds. As Gagne said, wash, rinse, repeat.

Does it ever end? What happened in your case?
“It just keeps going. And then, one day, NAMI came into my life, which is National Alliance for Mental Illness in Rochester. And I recognized that I'm not the only one who deals with this … it's a lot of stigma and shame that keeps you not wanting to reach out. And I really didn't know where to reach out," she said. "But once I met with NAMI, it shifted my whole way of thinking. My thought early on was like, take them to the hospital, medicate them, send them back the way they used to be. And that was just ignorance on my part. This has been lifelong for my situation. And I think once I could get in my head that I am this person's support, that I'm on their team, that I'm part of their recovery team. That shifted the whole dynamic.

"NAMI taught me to be able to talk about mental illness as it's part of who that person is and what makes up that person. So, I think that was one thing. Navigating the mental health system for family members is not easy, I found, but if you can get educated about the person's diagnosis, you can have releases signed with therapists to be on that team.

"I'm part of my family member’s team, and they do this, and I'll come around this way and be like, you know, how can we support that? But also having good boundaries because you can burn out from caregiving. I think that's a huge thing."

So do you still have your family members in your life?
“I do, loving them every minute of the day. But it's ongoing, I think that's why you have to take care of yourself. In a crisis it's like it's all hands on deck. Let's do it. But, you know, I think that was something else I learned -- I didn't want to deal with it. So I waited until it was a crisis," she said. "And then it's like, it would go away, and then I’d just push it off and then it would come back. And it's like, if you can have that ongoing, stable kind of relationship, keeping your eye out, kind of thing, it makes life a lot better for everybody.”

Gagne appreciated having a team atmosphere at Genesee County Mental Health because case management meant "we'll do this like a whole team is assembled to support that person," she said.

 "Which is, I think, wonderful, because I think sometimes people think, Oh, if I go to therapy once a week, that's the end all be all," she said. "My experience here is they will help you build a support team around the person. And it didn't used to be that way. It was kind of siloed time."

Any other advice?  
Get yourself a support system, and don’t take life too seriously.

“You have to laugh,” Gagne said. “One thing they teach you at NAMI is you have to embrace humor as healthy. And that is my favorite thing ever.”