By JIM MERRITT
Guest Columnist
In May we celebrated Mental Health Awareness Month. It was a perfect time to reflect on one of the major lessons many of us seem to have taken away from the pandemic: how crucial mental health is to our overall well-being.
We created momentum. Let us go forward and make our mental health a prime focus of our lives every day. Like many of my generation, in the past I did not dare to talk about my mental health. It was simply a taboo topic to even think about seeking help or showing – what many incorrectly called – weakness and shameful.
When I needed to utilize mental health services while I was a State Senator, I initially kept it to myself. I bought into the harmful stereotypes of needing mental health care, especially for men. However, once I experienced the benefits of my treatment and better understood how it was impacting the rest of my life, I realized how important sharing my experience with others would be.
Through my work with Crosswinds Counseling and my own experience as a business owner, I have seen how pivotal employer-provided coverage is in making mental health services affordable and accessible to working Hoosiers and their families.
We are in difficult times. Between COVID-19, inflation, and trying to maintain or get back to normal, the last few years have affected us in ways that we might be ignoring. Nearly one in four Americans – 41 million people – received mental health support in 2020 through their employer-provided coverage. That includes 6 million children who received mental health support as a dependent through an employer-provided plan.
As leaders, both in business and in our larger communities, it is our responsibility to make sure we take care of ourselves and each other. We must acknowledge that our overall health includes our mental health.
I encourage all Hoosiers, community leaders, and the Indiana Congressional Delegation to prioritize mental health and support efforts and initiatives that strengthen systems already making mental health care accessible, like employer-provided coverage.