Culture of Caring

More Good Days, Together

May 11, 2026 / By:

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, observed annually in the United States since 1949 to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and provide support for mental health issues. Founded by Mental Health America, it highlights the importance of mental wellness for everyone.

  • 2026 Theme: "More Good Days, Together," focusing on community support and sharing resources.
  • Goal: To fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and promote access to care.
  • Significance: It serves as a reminder that 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year.
  • Symbol: The green ribbon is the international symbol for mental health awareness.

Organizations like NAMI and SAMHSA offer toolkits, community events, and resources to support education and advocacy throughout the month.

Would You Ask for Help?

What do you do when you’re sick or injured? If you broke your hip because you tripped and fell, would you keep it a secret because you were embarrassed about being clumsy, or get help? You would probably go straight to a hospital.

If you felt depressed and anxious most of the time, would you seek help or keep it to yourself because you were ashamed that you were struggling with mental illness?

Too many people try to hide their mental health conditions because they feel it’s a sign of weakness, they are concerned they could lose their jobs, or they are just embarrassed and think other people will look down on them.

Although there is evidence that today’s youth have become more open about their mental health and are willing to discuss their concerns with friends or a therapist, mental illness remains shrouded by a dark stigma in our society.  

What if you could change that? The good news is that you can help de-stigmatize mental health simply by talking about it out loud. The more people are willing to be open about their symptoms, the better their chances of responding to treatment and recovering, or at least learning how to cope with their situation.

To modify societal norms, we must teach people more about mental health,  how to support and maintain it, and options for treating disorders.

Never too young

In suicide prevention, it is understood that we need to focus on teaching young children how to stay healthy both physically and mentally.  In reality, though, while all schools teach children the importance of physical activity, how many build mental health into their curriculum? Some teach mindfulness and incorporate SEL (social-emotional learning) into their academic programs to teach children to be resilient and learn to cope with challenges, but mental health is rarely part of daily instruction.

Unfortunately, in the current political climate, teaching about mental health has once again become taboo. Schools willing to prioritize their students over politics will find ways to overcome that barrier. One is to teach mental health fitness.  The Child Mind Institute developed a program to do just that.

“Just as we’ve long required physical education in schools, we need to build mental health fitness into every child’s education. These five skills are the starting point.” DR. Harold Koplewicz

The five skills

Click links to download free elementary, middle school, and high school guides.

How to recognize and name emotions

Learn skills such as paced breathing for stressful situations

How thoughts, feelings, and behavior are related

Skills for coping with uncomfortable feelings

How to pay attention to the moment to improve self-awareness

A joyful path to prevention

Learning about this promising new depression therapy strategy was a duh! and bonk my forehead moment. What if therapists flipped their treatment for depression, which can lead to suicidal thoughts, to focus on positive emotions instead of just dealing with negative feelings?

Did you know that the gray neutral feeling of being unable to experience joy or pleasure has a name – “anhedonia”? It is common practice for therapists to try to help patients limit those negative emotions. However, a promising treatment  aims to help people learn how to feel happiness.

Positive Affect Treatment (PAT) incorporates skills and behaviors designed to encourage patients to seek out positive experiences and focus on enjoying them. The concept reminds me of positive discipline strategies used with children. A positive approach is always far more effective than punitive reactions to behavior.

It sounds simplistic, but data from recent studies show it works. However, it is not magic and requires some effort on the patient's part. While it is difficult to ignore negative emotions, people can increase their resilience by training their brains to be more attuned to reasons to feel hopeful. Simple actions, ranging from keeping gratitude journals, spending time with pets and nature, or engaging in social activities, can help people push back against depression by intentionally seeking joy.

Different points of view

Humans are individuals, and we all see the world through different lenses. But we often fail to understand other people’s perspectives in relation to mental health. Awareness of different neurodivergent conditions that can increase suicidal thinking is important.

Research shows that:

  • Autistic individuals have rates of death by suicide that are nearly three times higher than those of the general population
  • Approximately one in three autistic individuals report suicidal ideation, and between 15-25% report attempts or other suicidal behaviors
  • Autistic youth are seven to eight times more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors than non-autistic youth 

These risks do not represent individual weakness. They reflect gaps in understanding and in systems not built with care for neurodivergent minds.

Autism and Suicide

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition. This means it relates to how a person’s brain develops and functions, influencing communication, social interaction, behavior, and sensory processing from early in life and into adulthood.

I’ve heard it said that people with autism do not wish to be identified as disabled, but rather as people who think differently. Awareness of differences among autistic people has increased in recent years, but many continue to struggle with receiving accurate evaluations.

We are beginning to understand that not only is the suicide ideation higher among autistic people, but that suicide prevention strategies that are considered effective for other groups may not be the right approach for neurodivergent people.

To learn about ways to approach autistic people if you are concerned they are struggling, use the links below for detailed strategies based on research from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

Call to action

Like a raindrop hitting the water in a pond, if everyone who reads this post tells two people what they learned about mental health, you will start a conversation that will spread.  If you are willing to talk openly about mental health, disorders, education, prevention, and treatments, you might even save a life.

A Culture of Caring: A Suicide Prevention Guide for Schools (K-12) was created as a resource for educators who want to know how to get started and what steps to take to create a suicide prevention plan that will work for their schools and districts. It is written from my perspective as a school principal and survivor of suicide loss, not an expert in psychology or counseling. I hope that any teacher, school counselor, psychologist, principal, or district administrator can pick up this book, flip to a chapter, and easily find helpful answers to the questions they are likely to have about what schools can do to prevent suicide.

Theodora Schiro